Pslam 138: I Will Give Thanks

"I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise." Psalm 138:1

There is a fine line between thanks and praise. When we look at the Psalms, there are some who suggest that the category of "Thanksgiving Psalm" doesn't exist. Rather, what we see are "Hymns of Praise." Yet even they see a distinction between two subcategories. Praise is when we praise God for his intrinsic attributes. We praise him for his power, his goodness, his love, his mercy, his eternal wisdom, etc. On the other hand, "Thanksgiving" is when we praise God for his specific actions in our behalf. In the Psalm we are looking at this week, David thanks God that he was heard in the day that he cried for help. He is thanking God for his saving work on his behalf.

He tells God that he is giving thanks with his "whole heart." David holds nothing back. As Jesus told us to love God with all our mind, soul, and strength, David gives God whole hearted thanks.

David then says he will sing God's praise "among the gods." This seems strange to us. Did David believe in more than one god? Certainly not. Yet David lived in a polytheistic culture. David's devotedness to the Lord was such that he could stand in the midst of a foreign people among their idols and unashamedly give praise to Yahweh. He would not cower back and be ashamed, but he would attribute his salvation to the Lord alone.

He then thanks God for his steadfast love and faithfulness. The steadfast love that it is talking about here is God's covenant loyal love. He has made a covenant with Abraham, and with David himself, and he will keep his covenant promises. He will save David from trouble because he will keep his word. David follows this up by stating that God has exalted his name and his word above all things. These two things are connected. His name (or his reputation) and his word (or his promise). Because the lord values his own glory above all things he will be faithful to his covenantal promises. For his own name's sake.

In verses 4-5 David talks about the kings of the earth. He says that they will give Yahweh thanks for they have heard the words of his mouth. While this is not the way most commentaries take this, I'll entertain a suggestion here. I would suggest that when it says they "heard" the words of his mouth, that it may mean hearing in the sense of obeying. I would suggest that this is the concept we see in Proverbs 21:1 and in the book of Daniel. God is the one who establishes kings, and the king's heart is in the hand of God. He will turn it however he wishes. So, who do kings have to be thankful for for their position? God! It doesn't matter if it is a good king or a bad king. All rulers have been put in place by a sovereign God. And ultimately, God is sovereign and he rules over every king. No matter how wicked a king is, he will not thwart the will of this sovereign God. So the kings have no choice but to obey the sovereign decree of God.

In the final verses, David returns to his personal reasons for thanking God. God preserves him in the midst of trouble. God will not forsake the works of his hands. He will fulfill his purposes and his plans. He will keep his word and he will preserve his people.

This is a great thing for us to be thankful for today. If we are in Christ, it doesn't matter what distress may come to us. He will protect us, and if any harm should come to us, we won't ultimately be harmed, because he will raise us again. We have been given indestructible life, and God will honor that for the sake of his own name.

The Blessing of Noah and the Curse on Canaan

And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, 

"I will never again curse the ground because of man, 

for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, 

summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:21-22 ESV)

Following the flood, the next part of the narrative of Genesis contains back to back accounts of blessing and curses. Genesis 8:20-9:17 records blessing. Noah offers a sacrifice to the LORD, and God says to himself that he will not destroy the earth with a flood again. God commands Noah's family with a re-institution of the same instruction that he gave to Adam and Eve--to be fruitful and multiply. God gave humanity the animals for food in the same way that green plants had been from the beginning. God reminds Noah that human beings are created in the image of God and of inestimable value. God makes a "covenant" with Noah--a promise never to destroy the earth by flood again, and he seals the covenant with a sign of the rainbow as an eternal reminder of God's faithfulness. However, Genesis 9:18-29 records a curse. It begins with Noah getting drunk and laying naked in his tent. In some mysterious way that is ambiguous in the text, Noah's son Ham dishonors him while his nakedness was uncovered in the tent. When Noah awoke, he cursed Canaan--Ham's son. The passage ends in an echo of chapter 5. "After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. 

God's word is revealed in a way that we often see patterns. What we see in this passage follows the same pattern of Genesis 1-3. Chapters 1-2 tell us an amazing story of God's blessing in creation. God has been good in providing all things good for Adam and Eve in the Garden, and he gives them a job to do. In the first part of our text, the same thing happens for Noah. God graciously gives Noah animals for food and he pledges his faithful sustaining power over the earth. He also commands Noah's family to be fruitful and multiply. Adam was a man who worked the soil--just like Noah. However, in Genesis 3 Adam partakes of a fruit, his nakedness is revealed, and he plunges the earth into a curse. Similarly, Noah partakes in a fruit, his nakedness is revealed, and a member of his own family is cursed. 

What does this teach us? On the other side of the flood, sin's consequences still hold sway. While Noah saved the human race in his obedience, he was not the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15. The serpent was still at enmity with man, and death still reigned. While we can be thankful that man retains the image of God, we are reminded that we are still frail sinners, and prone to commit the worst of sins--even against our own family members. 

Yet in the same way that the curse of Genesis 3 contains a promise, so does Noah's curse. "He also said, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem: and let Canaan be his servant.'" It was through the line of Shem, as we trace the genealogy, that Abraham was to come--and thus the messianic seed continued on. Canaan in the end was conquered by the generation of Israelites that Moses was writing to when he recorded this story. Moses's intention as the author must have been to show that God's giving them the land of Canaan was in continuation of the promises that he had made concerning the messianic seed.

What's the point here? How does this apply to us? Massively! This is at the core of our faith. Even though mankind is "evil from his youth," and even though the very people who God saved on the ark fell into sin again, God will be faithful to his covenant promises. So when we fall into sin, when we face the darkness of death, and when we find ourselves experiencing the discipline of a Father, we can know that God is faithful to us because he will keep his covenant promises. He will keep his promises to his people and to his Son.