The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Audio Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Charles Drew
Sermon Series: Guest Preacher
Psalm 116 (ESV)
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Sermon Outline
1. Practicing thanksgiving: Treat it as a sacrifice
v. 16: O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
1. Practicing thanksgiving: Talk yourself into it
v 7: Return, O my soul, to your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
v 2: Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
v 13: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
v 14: I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
1. Practicing thanksgiving: Be specific
v 3: The snares of death encompassed me.
v 3: distress and anguish
v 8: wept and stumbled
v 11: All men are liars!
v 7: The Lord has dealt bountifully with me
2. A cloud hovering over Ps 116
It celebrates only temporary reprieve
3. Jesus dispels the cloud: He chose not to be rescued until after death
v 16: Cords bound me at my arrest
v 3: I suffered distress and anguish.
v 8: I stumbled
v 3: The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me.
vv 8-9: You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before [you] in the land of the living
3. Jesus dispels the cloud: He eternalizes Ps 116
v. 15: His death was precious in the eyes of the Lord
Precious To God and us
vv. 17-18: I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving . . . 18 I will pay my vows . . . in the presence of all [your] people
Every reprieve is a promise of the end of all tears and loss.
Prayer of Confession
God our Redeemer, you are very kind to us. You keep us healthy. You provide us with food, shelter, family, and friends. You speak to us through people and your Word and enable us to hear your voice. You pray constantly for us. You console us when life is difficult and sit with us when it is unbearable. We confess that we chose to see and to acknowledge only the smallest part of all this lovingkindness. We tend to give our attention too much to what we are unhappy about. We complain too much about what we don’t have. We worry too much about what we don’t understand and can’t control. Forgive us for our indifference to your kindness. Forgive us above all for our indifference to your grief over the sorrows that we have brought upon ourselves. Forgive us for our cold response to the terrible suffering you chose to endure to deliver us from our sins, our sorrows, and our death. By your Spirit raise within us new songs of joy and new words of hope and kindness. Make us deeply and constantly thankful, even in our dark times. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Psalm 116:16 describes thanksgiving as a sacrifice, calling for costly, habitual, God-ward effort. What makes thanksgiving an effort for you? What practices have made thanksgiving easier for you? What gets in the way of making thanksgiving habitual for you?
Reflect on the following:
Psalm 116 describes only temporary deliverance. The psalmist is able to tell his happy story—but only because he has lived to tell it. Deliverance from shame, fear, stumbling, and death didn’t come for Jesus.
Psalm 116, in other words, didn’t “work” for him. Why should we expect it to “work” for us?Jesus most likely sang Psalm 116 with his disciples at the Last Supper. Imagine him processing its words with his own (soon to come) suffering and deliverance in mind.
Reflect on v 15: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. What made the death of Jesus precious to the Father? What makes the death of Jesus precious to you?