Returning God's word this morning to Psalm 63. Psalm 63, the text this morning will be verses three through five. We'll read the entire song. Oh, God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary. Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me, but those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth They shall fall by the sword, they shall be a portion for foxes, but the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by him shall glory, but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Thus far we read God's word. As I said, the text is verses three through five. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Let's pray and ask God's blessing on the preaching. Our Father, which art in heaven, we are thankful that in our Thanksgiving worship service we may learn about true and right Thanksgiving. But also we pray that through the word today, our hearts would be stirred up to give thanks to Thee, not only in our worship and not only in this one day, but that our hearts would be stirred up to give thanks to Thee, our God, every day and in everything that we do. So we pray that this word may go forth in power, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for only then will it be effectual in our hearts and in our lives. So glorify Thyself through this word concerning Thy lovingkindness which is better than life. All this we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Whenever we gather for a thanksgiving worship service and we look at a portion of God's Word, what we want to see in that portion of God's Word is what it teaches us about true thanksgiving. And so that's the question for us as we look at this passage. this passage teaching us about true thanksgiving. Well, it's teaching us this only when we know that God's loving kindness is better than life. Only when we know that. Will we be able to give thanks to God like we should. That's what the text is saying there in verse 3. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. What the psalmist is saying is that as he has come to know that God's loving kindness is better than anything else, as he's come to know that, he praises God. That's the response. And so what the text teaches us then is we can't have proper thanksgiving in our hearts unless we know and we're convicted in the depths of our hearts that God's loving kindness is better than life. Personally, I love this passage. It's a beautiful passage. It speaks to me and it should speak to us today as well. But I love this passage, not because I live it perfectly in all of my life. I don't. I'm learning this and we're all learning this. If I asked you this morning, do you believe that God's loving kindness is better than life? I believe that every one of us would say this morning, yes, of course, I believe that. But yet, It's evident from our very lives that there are certain moments in our lives where we don't believe that. Where we think that other things are better than the loving kindness of God, and that's why we set our hearts upon them. So the idea that we have here is that the more that we understand that God's loving kindness is better than life, the more we will give thanks to God in our lives. And the more we understand that God's loving kindness is better than life. The better our lives will be. Because that will be the perspective with which we see all of life. That's what this passage is teaching us then about true thanksgiving. What's striking as well about this psalm is where David learned that God's loving kindness is better than life. David learned this in the wilderness. David learned this in the desert. That's what we read in the heading over the psalm. Although that's not inspired, we can understand it. It comes right out of the psalm itself. But the heading says, a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Now, we don't know exactly what the timing of this was. It could have been, as David reflects back upon the time, when he was running from Saul. And then he was in the wilderness. And he was separated from the tabernacle of God. And he couldn't worship God there at that time because he was running for his life in the wilderness. It could have been that time. Or it could have been the time when his rebellious, conniving son Absalom made plans to take the throne away from David and David had to run for his life as well to the wilderness, to the desert. And then also he was separated from the sanctuary of God. But whatever the timing was, We see from the beginning of the psalm that David had a longing for God. He was thirsting for God. He says that early will I seek thee, my soul thirsted for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. He's out in the wilderness and he feels all alone and he longs to see God's power and his glory. So as I've seen in the sanctuary. What especially was hurtful for David was that he couldn't go into the tabernacle and worship God there. God worked in him, in the wilderness, this spiritual thirst. This wasn't a physical thirst. He wasn't thirsty for water. He was thirsty for God. He was thirsty for worship. He wanted to be at the tabernacle to worship God there, and he couldn't wait to return. God had worked in David the spiritual thirst. But while he was in the wilderness, David learned something else. Although he longed to be in the sanctuary, he learned that God was not far away from him. He learned that God was near. He learned that he had everything that he needed in the loving kindness of God. And so he learned out in the wilderness where he was removed from the things that he desired, that he had the best. He had the best already. He had God's loving kindness. He had fellowship with God. David was learning this in the wilderness. Same is true for us. We're learning this in the wilderness. We're learning in the wilderness of this life, the spiritual wilderness of this world. that God's loving kindness is better than life. And as we learn this, we're learning to give thanks to our God for that precious truth. So that's what we consider this morning. Thankful for God's loving kindness. That's our theme. Thankful for God's loving kindness. We look first at the better than life lovingkindness. Secondly, we look at the thankful life that is produced from knowing the lovingkindness of God. And then finally, we notice the satisfied life that is enjoyed in knowing this lovingkindness of God. David is saying here in the psalm that he is learning that God's lovingkindness is better than life. What he is saying here is that he's learning that fellowship with God God's love for him and God's drawing him close in that love. That love of God is better than life. The very first word in the original in the Hebrew is the word better. So the text focuses on this comparison. In David's own mind, he is comparing two things. He's comparing this life and he's comparing that to the loving kindness of God. And as he weighs the two in the balance, it's not that the two are very close, and there's some doubt about which is better. It's not even close in David's own mind, because by God's grace, he sees things clearly. God's loving kindness is better than life. We want this morning to be able to say the same thing in our hearts and with our mouths, because that's quite a statement to make. God's loving kindness is better than life. That's quite a statement to make because we know that life is precious to us. Life is a prized possession whether or not we realize it. It's so precious that we will give up our money rather than be shot by a mugger who wants our wallet. Or we will submit to chemotherapy treatments if we're diagnosed with cancer and go through all the awful side effects of that chemotherapy if there is the hope and promise that we could be restored to life and restored to health in the long run. It's because life is precious to us. And it ought to be. That's not a wrong thing. Life is precious to us. We are those who love life because God is the God who gives life as well. Life is one of the most precious possessions we have here on this earth. But David says, in contrast to that, there's something much better than this life. It's God's loving kindness. It's not just this life and having this life, but there are the many things that are part of this life as well that are precious to us, that we appreciate, that we give thanks to God for as well. The physical things of this life. We're thankful today for good health, if we have good health. We're thankful today for delicious, mouthwatering food that we hope to have later today. Maybe there are certain foods that you have every Thanksgiving and it's a kind of a special treat on Thanksgiving and you're looking forward to having that special thing. And we're thankful for those things that God has provided. We're thankful for the money that we have and the work that God gives by which that money and our needs are provided. We're thankful for all our possessions, for all the good things of this earth that we may have that are above and beyond even the necessities of life. We're thankful also today for family and for friends. Sometimes those relationships can be strained, but there are meaningful relationships that we have in our lives and we are so thankful for that part of our lives as well. All of that is part of this life that we enjoy and that is precious to us. But in contrast, even to all of that, David says, there's something better still. So that if all of those things were taken away, I'm still going to be thankful because he says God's loving kindness is better than life. It's better than life and all that it contains. And so that's the question for us this morning. Do we believe this? Do we believe that? God's lovingkindness is better than life. Let's see what that lovingkindness is. That term lovingkindness is a rich term that really includes God's mercy, His grace, and His love. This lovingkindness is God's zealous love and kindness that draws us to Himself. It's like a first love that never grows cold. You know how our love for people, our love even for our spouse or for our children, it goes up and down. We say that we love them, but there are times we don't feel like loving. It gets hot and cold. God's love is never like that. God's love for us and His love even for Himself is like that first love. It's always a zealous love. It always pursues and draws the object of that love to Himself. God's love is constant and unchanging. And in His love, God pursues us with selfless acts of kindness that effectually draw us to Himself. That's the love and kindness that David knows and that he's talking about here. A picture of that would be the husband who in his love for his wife, pursues his wife, and even romances his wife and shows in what he does and what he says that he loves her. And when he does that, that draws the wife to Himself. Now, that's not an effectual drawing. It's just a picture of that, but that's the idea of His love of God. He pursues us in that love. He shows us acts of kindness, and that love then effectually draws us to Himself as we see the beauty of that love. That's what we see this morning. The beauty of God's love for us. What wondrous love! The Father has shown to us in that He has given His only begotten Son to take away our sin. There is that act of kindness in which God has shown His unchanging love for us. He gave His only begotten Son and through that He has made us beautiful. And in that wondrous love of God, He is working in our hearts and in our lives to sanctify us and to strengthen our faith. We see in that work of God ongoing in our lives His wondrous love. And so we have and enjoy fellowship with our God, friendship with our God. And this love of God and the friendship we have with God is better than life. It's not only because there are bad things that happen to us in this life that we say, well, God's love is better. If even when everything's going well and we're enjoying the bounties of life here on this earth, even then God's loving kindness is better than life. And that's true, though, because we have to remember that the things of this life can be lost. It can be lost. You could return home today and find that your house is burned down to the ground. It can be lost. Life itself can be lost. We die. But the love of God cannot be lost. There's absolutely nothing we read in Romans 8 that can separate us from the love of God. Not height or depth. Not things to come. Not things in the past. Not sin itself, not death itself. There's absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God. And when we take this love, it completely satisfies so that we say there is nothing better than God's love. With our perspective on life is that God's loving kindness is better than life only then. Will we be a truly thankful people no matter what? The psalmist is saying this is why he gives thanks to God. This is why he praises God, because his loving kindness is better than life. That's his perspective on life. It's not just a statement. It's the way he views life. God's loving kindness is better than at all. Question for us this morning, is that our perspective? on life. Now, we might say, yes, of course it is that there must be my perspective on life, but the reality is reality is we're still learning that. Sometimes when I read these words. Pricks my conscience and it pricks me in my soul. Because I know there's so many times in my life where I don't live this. I'm not saying in the way I live my life that God's loving kindness is better than anything else. I'm saying there are other things that are better. We all have that in our lives. We're learning yet that his loving kindness is better than life. And this is how God is teaching us this. He's teaching us this, first of all, in the difficulties of this life. In the difficulties of this life, he's teaching us there is something better than this life. It's God's loving kindness. It's his love and fellowship with him. Some of you today maybe are facing a difficult Thanksgiving Day. It's not going to be an easy day. There's some who have lost a wife, father or mother, Our grandfather, they won't be at the family get-together today. This Thanksgiving Day will be different from Thanksgivings in the past. And that's either because of death or it's because someone in the family has really abandoned the family. They don't want to be part of the family. They've shown that by their walk of sin. And although there's some joy in the other things that can happen, still, there's a great grief and sorrow for some of you today because of that. Others of you have someone in your family who's maybe going through a serious sickness. There are others who have family hardships and difficulties, and there's a strain and relationships there. Maybe for others, this year of business hasn't been so great. Financially, it's been tougher because of some unforeseen circumstances and things have changed drastically. And there have been other hardships and difficulties, too. We may ask, why does God send these things? Well, God's sending them for this, that we learn this, that God's loving kindness, his fellowship, his love, which is unchanging. That is all better than life. And so those sorrows and hardships are real and they hurt. But yet we still understand with this perspective on life that there's still something wonderful that we have. We have the best gifts. We have the love of God himself. We also have to learn this in a world of materialism that seeks satisfaction and happiness in the things of this world. We've noticed that, huh? It's not just Black Friday anymore, but it's Gray Thursday and all the talk is about stores that are opening already on Thanksgiving Day. But let's not forget everything that's going on before it. Probably getting emails with all the sales, what's going on. Getting notices everywhere, things in the mail, when the stores are opening and what you can buy, what great deals are going on. It's not wrong to get deals and it's not wrong, of course, to go shopping. But the materialism, the mentality of our world is on a very day when we're supposed to be giving thanks to God, the attitude of the world is we want more. We don't have enough. What can we get? And so the people spend their Thanksgiving day lined up outside a store. That's the world in which we live. We have to fight against that mentality in our own minds as well, thinking that what we need are more things of this world. We have to learn that today as we have an abundance of food and drink and we enjoy those things, too. We have to remember even when we're hungry for that food, that there's something that we ought to be hungrier for because there's something better than all that food and drink. It's God himself and his loving kindness. We learn this is also when we understand that what we've been given is something that we don't deserve. True thanksgiving arises from that. We don't deserve what God has given to us. We don't deserve that highest gift of fellowship with him and his love in Jesus Christ. Only when we understand that, that God's loving kindness, His fellowship is a gift of grace. Only then do we understand true thanksgiving and what that is. David in the psalm was thirsty. for the living God. But he's saying as well in the text then that he drank from the spring of God's covenant love and he was forever satisfied. And he says now that that loving kindness of God is better than life. And so he will praise God. And so that's what we must do too. We praise God knowing that His loving kindness is better than life. So let's see that thankful life that is produced from knowing this lovingkindness of God. True thanksgiving is praise to God. That's the focus here of this passage. Thanksgiving is praise. Gratitude glorifies our good God. That means that thanksgiving declares the greatness of God's lovingkindness. And that's the focus here of the text. Thanksgiving is looking to God Thanksgiving is pointing to God and Thanksgiving that is praising Him with our mouths and with actions because of what He has done. It's seeing God as the giver of every good and perfect gift, the gift of His love and loving kindness and praising Him for that good gift. There are three words in the text that stand out, that point us to this concept and idea. We want to look at those words a moment. The first is in verse three, the word praise. Then in verse four, the word bless. And then in verse five, the word praise again, but it's a different word that's found there, a different word for praise. The word for praise found in verse three means literally to boast or glory. So that an aspect of thanksgiving is boasting in God. We don't boast, of course, in our own works. We don't boast in our own strength. We don't boast in our own wisdom. We don't boast in our own riches. But instead, we boast in God. We boast in what God has done. We boast in what things God has given to us. We boast in His loving kindness And that's exactly what we do when we say that His loving kindness is better than life. We're boasting in God and what He has done and what He has given to us. That's praise. That's thanksgiving. Boasting in God. The term in verse 4, bless, means literally to kneel down. teaches us that thankfulness is worship. In worship, we bow the knee before God because we are in awe of Him. Because of how great He is. And that's an aspect of thanksgiving. That's from what thanksgiving arises. It's from an awe of God. And that awe of God comes from understanding that He has given to us something we don't deserve. How amazing is that? We know that from our own lives when we're given gifts. My loved ones, we weren't expecting and we know that we don't deserve. They give us some outstanding gift. We're in awe of that. We're so thankful for that. That's the idea here too. We're in awe of God and His majesty. And then in verse 5, the term praise there means to make clear or bright. So that the idea of praise there is that praise places the spotlight on God. It places the spotlight on God. It's not about me. It's not about my glory, my majesty. It's about God and no one else or nothing else, so that where there's true thanksgiving, the focus is entirely and completely on God and seeing our lives through the lens of what God has done and God has given. When we put that all together then, that means that true thanksgiving acknowledges God as the giver of all that I have, all the things of this earth that I have, and salvation itself. Thanksgiving always praises God because He's given what I cannot obtain myself, what I cannot have of myself, and what I don't deserve. See, all of that glorifies God. What great things He has done. That's why it can be so hard for us to actually give thanks. Pride gets in the way. We know that in earthly relationships, we don't like to be dependent upon someone else. And so sometimes when someone else gives us something and they mean that with the best intentions, we can be a little even angry about it. Put off by that. Why is that? Why do our kids sometimes respond that way when they're given something and they don't say thank you, don't want to say thank you? It's because in thanksgiving we're having to acknowledge that we're dependent upon that other. They've given to us something that we couldn't obtain of ourselves. It doesn't sit well with our pride. When there's true thanksgiving, that pride is done away with. And there's the acknowledging, yes, I am dependent on God. And He's given what I cannot deserve and what I cannot obtain of myself. He's given an undeserved gift. That's true thanksgiving. And how is that thanksgiving then shown? Well, the text speaks as well about how thanksgiving is shown. And notice, it speaks of that when it points out our mouths, our hands, while we live, and even if you take verse 6 with it, even while we are on our beds. And when you put all of that together, what the text is saying is that thanksgiving to God is shown primarily in two ways. First of all, with our mouths. And secondly, in the whole of life, thanksgiving is shown. It's first of all shown with our mouths. When we know that God's loving kindness is better than life. And life is precious. We know that God's loving kindness is so much better. The idea is we can't keep our mouths shut. We have to speak, not only to others, but to God Himself and give thanks for what He has given. There's a beautiful example of that found in the Scriptures. Remember what happened in the days of Elisha when he was prophet in Israel. The armies of Ben-Hadad were besieging Samaria. And when they were camped around Samaria, God sent the noise of a great army that was approaching. And when that army of Ben-Hadad heard that noise. It picked up and it left immediately at that moment with great confusion. And what they did as an army is they left everything back. They didn't pick up anything. They left their weapons. They left their food and drink. They left their gold and silver. Everything was left. They just picked up and they ran. Remember, outside of Samaria, there are 40 lepers. And they're outside the city because the lepers But they didn't dare go to the camp of the enemy either. Well, finally, they said, well, we're going to die one way or the other. We're dying of hunger. They won't let us in in the city. Let's just go to the army. If they kill us, well, we're dying anyway. But if they give us food, then we'll live. So they head out to the camp of the enemy. And what they find is that the army was completely gone. So they began eating and drinking. They began putting on those clothes of the enemy. They began as well to take the gold and silver that was left behind. But then they realized we have to go tell those who are back in the city what's happened. The good news is the enemy is gone. They couldn't keep it to themselves. They had to go tell others. Same is true for us. We praise God with our mouths. We can't keep quiet when we know that God's loving kindness is better than life. Is that true of us? That's why we come together to worship today, and that's why we sing as well as thinking about that, especially in regard to singing. Regard to singing in worship or when you kids or young people are in choir at school as well. And you know how it works that when you come for worship or you go into choir class and you maybe had kind of a bad day and maybe everybody's kind of had a bad day and we're kind of crabby. coming in. I don't know if you've noticed it, but I can notice that sometimes even on Sundays when we come together for worship, there's some Sundays where the singing starts pretty low and quiet. Other Sundays, it's not that way. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but sometimes I can sense that. And our moods change, and they're different, aren't they? And kids in choir know that you have that, and your choir teachers know that too. Some days you don't feel like singing. Well, what is it that's going to make us feel like singing? It's knowing God's loving kindness is better than life. Now, part of the beauty of music is, is that God uses it to transform our souls. So we maybe start a certain way, but we don't end the same way. God changes us through that very music to get our focus where it should be, off of ourselves and on the God of our salvation. So we ought to think of that when we come together for worship. What's going to inspire singing that's truly thankful? It's thinking on God. And His loving kindness for us in Jesus Christ. When you go to choir class, it's going to inspire you to sing. It's the loving kindness of God. Same is true for prayer. Prayer is the chief part of thankfulness. But sometimes it can be so hard to go before God in prayer. What inspires us to pray? It's the lovingkindness of our God that is better than life. What's going to inspire us to speak to others about our faith? What it is that we believe? It's knowing that the lovingkindness of God is better than life. And I can't keep my mouth shut about that wonderful lovingkindness of God. And so we praise God with our mouths. We do that in worship. We do that in singing. We do that in prayer. And we do that in the confession we make in this world. Second, we praise God while we live. Verse four says, Thus will I bless thee while I live. True thanksgiving, we said, is a perspective on life. And what that means, too, for us is that true thanksgiving is something that is lived. The perspective that we have on life is that everything is a good gift from God. Food and health and sleep and friends and hardships as well. Good gifts from God for our good. Verse 6 mentions even laying on our beds. Laying on our beds at night. Think of that. We lay in our beds at night sometimes and the events of the day go through our minds. We can't shut it off. What happens throughout the day? Our perspective is we've seen the love and kindness of God in this day. And that produces thanks there on our beds. That produces thanks in the morning when we wake up. And it produces thanks in our lives as we desire to live to serve this God of our salvation. What we're reminded of this morning is that Thanksgiving, of course, is not about a day. It's not about a worship service. Thanksgiving is life. That's why it's so good for us to meet together and to be reminded of that very thing. We are to live thankful lives to the God of our salvation, dedicating our lives to him as thankful living sacrifices to him and doing that by obeying his commands. Obeying His Word, loving Him and loving one another as we experience and know the loving-kindness of God towards us that's better than life. We want to be instruments so that that loving-kindness of God would be seen in our own lives and others would see it in us. So knowing the loving-kindness of God produces this thankful life. But also, when we know the loving kindness of God, there's a life that we enjoy, a satisfied life that we enjoy. That's verse 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips. When the text there speaks of marrow, it's not referring to bone marrow. It's referring instead to the most excellent part of the food that we eat. It's referring maybe to a prime cut of beef, steak, a filet mignon, as it were. But David here is not saying that he's received the best food. That's not his focus here. That his mouth has been satisfied with Maryland fatness. No, he's saying his soul has been satisfied with Maryland fatness. He's saying here, he's received the best from God. He's received the best cut from God. What has he received? He's received the blessings of salvation. He's received life and fellowship with God. He has all the blessings of salvation and God's unconditional, unchanging love. Those are the blessings we received. We received marrow and fatness from God. He's not a God who's skimpy. in what He gives. He's a God who pours out an abundance. And not physical things. Oh, He does. But spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. Now, David says that satisfies. The idea is that when we know that God's love and kindness is better than life, that satisfies. To be satisfied means to be content and happy. It's to know that we have enough. We have everything that we need. Not just because we have enough food in our homes, but we have everything that we need in Jesus Christ. To be satisfied is to be fulfilled Gratified and pleased with what God has given to us in Jesus Christ. Because we're filled to overflowing with the blessings of salvation. And that satisfies. And David says, I'm learning to live a satisfied life. Where? In the wilderness. His satisfied life was in the wilderness. There wasn't a lot there. But he had everything he needed because he had the loving kindness of God, which is better than life. What we're taught here, too, is that we cannot be thankful until we're content. Contentment and thankfulness go together. That's what satisfaction is. It's contentment, the life of contentment. He's content in the loving kindness of God. And this is what produces praise in his heart and life. And that's true for us, too. The satisfied life is a life lived close to God. If you look at v. 8, David says there, My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me. David's living close to God. That's the satisfied life that David is living. He follows after God and His ways. He doesn't trust in himself as he's out in the wilderness. He knows he has everything that he needs in God. And he follows Him. That's a satisfied life for us too. The satisfied life is not found in buying everything we want because there's a good deal tomorrow. The satisfied life is not everything going the way I want it to go. Me getting my way. The satisfied life is this. God's loving kindness is better than life. And so I'm going to live close by His side. I'm going to pray. I'm going to be in the Word. I'm going to worship. Let's understand that today, too. May we worship God in the rest of this day. May we live close to him and not just today, but every day, because that's the thankful life. That's the life that's lived out of knowing that his loving kindness is better than life. And may we be satisfied in that. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we're thankful for this word that points out to us what true Thanksgiving is. And may we be able to confess today and every day, Father, Thy lovingkindness is better than life. Give us grace to live that out each day and to be satisfied in Thee, because when we are satisfied in Thee, then we do truly glorify and praise Thy name. All this we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.