Giving thanks for being heard

Sermon for Thanksgiving

+  Psalm 116  +

I love that the LORD hears
my voice and my supplications,
that He has inclined His ear to me;
I will call upon Him all my days.
The pains of death surrounded me,
and the pangs of hell laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
Please, LORD! Deliver my soul!
The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
For You have rescued my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
I believed; therefore I spoke.
But I am sorely afflicted.
I said in my alarm,
“All men are liars.”
How shall I repay the Lord
for all His benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all His people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of His saints.
O LORD, I am Your servant,
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
To You I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call upon the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all His people,
in the courts of the LORD’S house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!

While it wasn’t exactly what we planned, it’s fitting that this Thanksgiving service should also be our last service for this Church Year. We’ve seen some major upheavals over this past year. Some have lost loved ones. We’ve all had to deal with the fallout of COVID. Our lives have been turned upside down in so many ways, which I won’t bother listing for you—you know them well enough—and next year may not be better. But this evening we have intentionally set aside this time to hear the unchanging Word of the Lord, who both rebukes our thankless hearts for all the time they have spent in discontent and complaining while failing to recognize all the good things the Lord has still been providing for us every single day out of pure, undeserved mercy and grace to us poor sinners, and who comforts the penitent with forgiveness and the reassurance of His constant care and providence in all our needs. Let’s take a few minutes to consider the goodness of Lord as it’s presented to us in Psalm 116.

I love that the LORD hears my voice and my supplications, that He has inclined His ear to me. These opening words summarize the whole Psalm. What is dear to you? What is precious to you? What do you love more than anything? For the Psalmist, it’s that the Lord hears his prayers, that the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator of all and the One who makes sure the galaxies keep spinning, has inclined His ear, not only down to earth, but down “to me,” to hear and to help.

That’s remarkable, if you think about it. To whom does it apply? Whose voice does the Lord hear? Who can say that God has inclined His ear “to me”? Well, God knows all things, sees all things, hears all things. He is omniscient, after all. But like a dear Father, He listens with a ready ear to the prayers of His dear children, every single one of them, none more and none less than another. His children are those who have been made members of His family through Holy Baptism and faith in His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If you have been baptized into Christ, then God has claimed you as His own and has committed Himself to hearing your every prayer. If you haven’t been baptized, God invites you to repent and to call upon His name for salvation, to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Then you, too, can say with all confidence that He has inclined His ear “to me.”

Because of this, because the LORD cares about me and has chosen to listen when I ask Him for His help, I will call upon Him all my days. In every time of trouble, in every time of deliverance, in every time of bounty, prayer is a fitting part of a Christian’s thanksgiving for having a God who is always ready to listen.

The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of hell laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Does that describe you right now? Has it ever? Your troubles and sorrow may not be to the level of “pains of death” or “pangs of hell,” or maybe they are. Whatever they are, whether sorrow over sin and the guilt that you rightly feel for your sins, or sorrow over any number of earthly things that you have suffered or lost; whether trouble with spiritual enemies or with earthly calamities, the answer is the same: Then I called upon the name of the LORD: Please, LORD! Deliver my soul!

The Psalmist could pray that prayer with confidence, and so can we, because of this unchanging truth: The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is merciful. This is who our God is. Always. At all times. Gracious—showing undeserved favor, giving free-of-charge gifts. Righteous—always doing what is just and right and good, even covering us with His own righteousness through faith in Christ. Merciful—taking pity on the wretched, having compassion on the troubled, giving help to the needy. The LORD preserves the simple, that is, the childlike, those who don’t rely on their own wisdom or their own schemes to get out of their problems, but leave everything in the Lord’s hands, trusting in Him to make things right.

I was brought low. Sin is what had brought us all as low as one could go—sin and guilt and the condemnation that hung over us. And for any who still thought highly of themselves, who still thought they were fine, decent people, the Law came in and showed us just how loveless we were, just how self-centered, how ungrateful, how distrustful of our God. And so the Law did its work of bringing us low on the inside, too. But then what? He saved me. He sent someone to preach the Gospel to me, to show me my Savior, Jesus the Christ, crucified for my sins, and to declare the divine promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. He sent His Spirit in that Gospel to bring me to faith, and so He has done for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. As Scripture says, Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Here is where you can find the rest that your soul truly needs, not in things getting better in this world, not in life going back to normal, but in the fact that our souls have been rescued from spiritual death already. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Not only that, but God will literally rescue our bodies and souls from death through Christ, who will raise these mortal bodies to life on the last day, just as Christ was raised from death and lives and reigns forever and ever. He rescues our eyes from tears by assuring us, not only of our own resurrection, but also that of our brothers and sisters (and mothers and fathers) who have fallen asleep in Christ. He rescues our feet from stumbling by keeping us from being led into temptation, from being led astray into doubt and disbelief, by keeping us focused on Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That’s the greatest salvation, the greatest rescue: salvation from sin, death, and the devil.

But so great is the Lord’s salvation that it applies to our earthly needs, too. The Lord has been good to you, O my soul. How many times has the Lord failed to hear your prayer for daily bread? And even when you bear the heavy burden of the effects of sin’s curse on this world, the Lord always provides the rescue you need to face today, with hope for tomorrow, even if His deliverance isn’t always what you expected or exactly what you asked for.

Because of the Lord’s deliverance in this life, because of His faithfulness and His promises of future salvation, the Psalmist is ready to make a bold confession of faith: I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. In other words, I know that I will not die. I will live, no matter what happens. I will either go on living here on this earth because the Lord will deliver me from my present troubles, or I will live, even though I die. I will live after I die, because the Lord of life has made that promise, and He is not a liar.

I believed; therefore I spoke. It’s a matter of faith, to know that you can always call upon God’s name, and that He will always deliver you from your troubles, even from death. It’s a matter of trusting in His promises and in His faithfulness. And that faith in the heart, created and sustained by the Holy Spirit, leads to the confession of our mouth. It’s because we believe in the Lord’s faithfulness that we are bold to keep praying to Him to keep gathering together to worship Him, even when the world keeps telling us we should be staying home. It’s because we believe in the Lord’s deliverance that we don’t have to live in fear of what might happen to us out there in this scary world.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Right after confessing his faith, the Psalmist goes on: But I am sorely afflicted. Yes, we believe, but we still suffer, we still feel the weight of the cross and of the troubles of this life. We still hear the noisy din of the world’s cries, “You’re fooling yourselves! Where is your God? He isn’t in charge. He doesn’t even exist.” But just when it seems like all men are united against you in your faith, I said in my alarm, “All men are liars.” And how true we are finding that out to be! All men—all the sons of the devil—take after their father, the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies.

But our God isn’t a liar. He speaks only the truth. And so we give thanks. How shall I repay the Lord for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people…To You I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the LORD.

The once-for-all sacrifice of atonement, the sacrifice that pays for sins and earns God’s favor, has already been made by Christ for us. So the only sacrifice left to offer is the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, which includes lifting up the cup of salvation, that is, recognizing all the good God has done to us and trusting in the salvation God has promised, including present help and future glory for Christ’s sake. Thanksgiving, which includes calling upon the name of the Lord, giving thanks to Him in prayer and in song, turning to Him in our every trouble, in our every need, and asking for His help. Thanksgiving, which includes paying our vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, that is, gathering together as a church to worship our God openly, celebrating His Sacraments, living a holy life, a Christian life, a life of self-sacrifice and love. Let that be the thanksgiving that you celebrate throughout the year.

There’s one little verse tucked away toward the end of Psalm 116 that almost seems out of place: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. How does that fit into the theme of thanksgiving? Well, remember how the Psalm began: I love that the LORD hears my voice and my supplications Just as it’s precious to us that the Lord hears our voice and delivers us out of trouble, so it’s precious to Him when one of His saints finishes this earthly race, because it’s when He can finally pull back the curtain for that child of His and show them that they were right to trust in the Lord, they were right to look to Him for help amid all the troubles of this life, they were right to live a life of thanksgiving. The short time of trials and troubles is over for that saint of His, and the life of pure joy and perfect thanksgiving in His presence can finally begin.

What can we say in response to all this? O LORD, I am Your servant. I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! And a blessed Thanksgiving to you all! Amen.