REFORMED WITNESS
November 1991
Thanksgiving
Article by Gerrit Vos
From The Standard Bearer, Volume 33, p.97See more articles by this author
Also in this issue:
Gratitude for Earthly Life! - by John Calvin
The Idea of this Third Part - by Herman Hoeksema
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
God's people are blessed: you see in this psalm a preview, and you listen to a pre-audition of the Judgment Day.
God is judging His people; they are those who made a covenant with Him by sacrifice.
And their glorious name is My Saints.
And then: "Hear, O My people!"
And then we hear both the positive and negative speech of God; the one an instruction in the greatness and the riches of God who does not need anything from our hands, house, or fields. He owns everything.
And then: the way to God.
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High.
And then it is well with our soul, for: Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
But unto the wicked there is darkness. We hear a terrible speech of God unto those that came before His face , but with a wicked heart. To them there is nothing but everlasting damnation.
Let us see the way of God, and hear the injunction of the Most High unto thanksgiving worthy of the name.
* * * * *
The setting of the psalm is the dispensation of the Israelitish commonwealth with its service of the visible tokens of religion. We hear of sacrifices, bulls, goats, lambs, doves, etc.
They were commanded by God and were typical of the New Testament service of the love of God.
But oh, so often it deteriorated into empty forms.
God grew weary of it.
God wants the heart and not the outward manifestations of service and religion.
Hence: Offer thanksgiving!
What is it?
It is a heart that is filled with the beauteous grace of God. It is such a heart filled to overflowing. And that which flows over is thanksgiving. It is the love of God expressed by the object of that love of God: the saint. Thoughts, words, deeds, vibrant with the love of God.
And the content of all those thoughts, words, deeds are glorifying to God.
Here is the story: God loves His people for His own name's sake.
Toward that people are the outgoings of His heart of love, and that means that He fills their heart with His love and lovingkindness.
And that people are so completely filled with all these beauties, that they can restrain themselves not for a moment: they flow over with love toward Him.
And that is thanksgiving; that is glorifying God; that is the worship demanded on every page of Holy Writ.
And that is the reasonable service which God requires of every man, but which is elicited only from the mouths and hearts of the chosen saints of God.
It is the answer of redemption. It is the gratitude of the redeemed saints. It is the exaltation of the demand of the law: Love God above all and your neighbor for His name's sake.
Glorify Me!
Pay thy vows!
Offer unto Me thanksgiving!
That, dear reader, is the only purpose of creation and recreation.
There is no other purpose for the whole history of the Universe.
Because out of Him, through Him, and unto Him are all things.
Creation is a mirror to reflect the goodnesses and the loveliness of the Godhead.
And when man, standing at the head of creation, corrupts himself, there glides a black shadow of wrath and the curse over the erstwhile beautiful creation. Even the heavens are now not pure in His sight. Creation does no longer answer to that one solitary purpose, and therefore there is the woe of everlasting curse and death.
But the responsibility remains.
The common responsibility of all men and devils remains: You should love Me and say it!
And if that is the purpose of creation, much more is it the purpose of re-creation.
The first creation was a covenant with God, but it was earthy, temporal, transitory.
The second, or the re-creation is also a covenant, but it is made by sacrifice (vs. 5). And that is Christ.
I think that this psalm is more Messianic than is usually understood.
The whole covenant of grace rests in Christ. Out of God, but through Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.
The whole re-created Universe must be unto the praise of God's glory. And again God calls to the new heaven and the new earth: Glorify Me. Offer unto Me thanksgiving. And: pay thy vows unto the Lord.
All this is fulfilled in Christ. All the praise of the new creation comes from the heart of Jesus of Nazareth.
And that includes all the thanksgiving of all the saints of God of all the ages.
Never was there a sigh of rapture, looking in the face of God, or it was first in Jesus, and through His Spirit, then in you.
It all centers in Jesus Christ.
Attend to Paul: That in the dispensation of the fullness of time He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in Him...
We are called unto a new obedience. And make no mistake: it is the obedience of Christ.
Also when you gather in the churches and have your thanksgiving day service.
And thus it shall be when the moon shall shine no more.
The individual impetus is wrought in our hearts by Christ's Spirit and the Word Divine by showing us our redemption.
When that is seen we cry out: He has saved us from so great a death!
The curse, damnation, and hell are gone, forever gone! Hallelujah!
And in their stead I see an unspeakable glory that shall permeate me and shall make me an instrument upon which God will play the songs of everlasting thanksgiving in the new Jerusalem.
* * * * *
And that everlasting symphony will begin here on earth.
We hear it from our cradle: God gave Jesus. Jesus gave Himself. The Holy Spirit writes the story of salvation in a Book. And He also applies all the heavenly story of a love that will make heaven musical forever.
And the answer from the heart of the redeemed saint? It is this: They give themselves. They are led by the Holy Spirit and the Word to make their vows unto God.
They confessed: I am His!
He owns me body and soul, for time and eternity.
I am created anew unto His glory. And I will live and sing His praises.
Such are the vows of the children of God.
And they pay these vows. Oh, how they pay them. God Himself is the Guarantor that they shall pay these vows. It is included in the work of salvation.
Yes, yes, I did read my text which speaks of the ordering of a man's conversation aright. And that then the Lord will show him the salvation of God.
Some people might speak here of the conditio sine qua non.
But it is nonsense.
What does it mean that a man ordereth his conversation aright?
For that matter: what is a man's conversation?
It is his life as he lives it from the heart, including all his thought, desire, will, imagination, speech, and works. A man's conversation is the same as his pathway, his way, or his life.
And to order that conversation aright means that by an effort of the will and the avowed purpose of the heart he directs all that heart and life toward the heart of God.
I ask you in all seriousness: where does that leave every cursed son and daughter of Adam and Eve?
You have already supplied the answer: every one of us has chosen his own way, and we have turned backward from the Lord.
That is the plain testimony of the Bible, of history, and of the experience of the heart of man, of every man.
Oh, there is only one man who ordered his conversation aright, and that Man is Christ.
And He did it for Himself, for us, for all the elect saints of God.
Of course, there is no other door to heaven than good behavior. No one can approach the great white throne, and be assured of a warm welcome, other than those who do the commandments of God (Rev. 22:14).
And the only One who did and who does and who will unto all eternity is Jesus. He arrived before the door of heaven full of thanksgiving, praise, and adoration on the day of ascension.
And the angels sang: Lift up your heads, O ye gates!!
And the gates were lifted up, and Jesus entered heaven.
Later we bear that He went through all the heavens until He arrived before the throne of God.
And then God said to Him: Sit at My right hand!
And Jesus began paying His vows.
And He does so unto all eternity through you and me, and through all those who are the beloved of God.
Thanksgiving? To the Triune God?
You could not very well do anything else, when you are touched by the Almighty.
Gratitude for Earthly Life!
by John Calvin
from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter IX, 3See more articles by this author
But let believers accustom themselves to a contempt of the present life that engenders no hatred of it or ingratitude against God. Indeed, this life, however crammed with infinite miseries it may be, is still rightly to be counted among those blessings of God which are not to be spurned. Therefore, if we recognize in it no divine benefit, we are already guilty of grave ingratitude toward God himself. For believers especially, this ought to be a testimony of divine benevolence, wholly destined, as it is, to promote their salvation. For before he shows us openly the inheritance of eternal glory, God wills by lesser proofs to show himself to be our Father. These are the benefits that are daily conferred on us by him. Since, therefore, this life serves us in understanding God's goodness, should we despise it as if it had no grain of good in itself? We must, then, become so disposed and minded that we count it among those gifts of divine generosity which are not at all to be rejected. For if testimonies of Scripture were lacking, and they are very many and very clear, nature itself also exhorts us to give thanks to the Lord because he has brought us into its light, granted us the use of it, and provided all the necessary means to preserve it.
And this is a much greater reason if in it we reflect that we are in preparation, so to speak, for the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom. For the Lord has ordained that those who are one day to be crowned in heaven should first undergo struggles on earth in order that they may not triumph until they have overcome the difficulties of war, and attained victory.
Then there is another reason: we begin in the present life, through various benefits, to taste the sweetness of the divine generosity in order to whet our hope and desire to seek after the full revelation of this. When we are certain that the earthly life we live is a gift of God's kindness, as we are beholden to him for it we ought to remember it and be thankful. Then we shall come in good time to consider its most unhappy condition in order that we may, indeed, be freed from too much desire of it, to which, as has been said, we are of ourselves inclined by nature.
The Idea of this Third Part
From The Triple Knowledge - An Exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism
by Herman Hoeksema, Volume 3, pp. 41-46, Lord's Day XXXIISee more articles by this author
... The Heidelberg Catechism teaches us that the believer does good works in order thereby to testify his gratitude to God for His blessings.
Now what is gratitude?
It certainly is a form and an expression of love.
Gratitude never expresses itself in an attempt to remunerate. Remuneration of God is not only impossible, but the very idea of it is in its deepest sense phariseeism. We have nothing, and owe everything to the God of our salvation. God is the absolute proprietor of all things. He declares: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof." There is probably no objection, even in the new dispensation, to pay tithes. But beware, lest, in doing so, we imagine that we give anything to God. Absolutely everything we owe to the God of our salvation, even the privilege and the ability and the desire to do good works. Good works are not a gift of us to God, but they are His gift to us: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," Ephesians 2:10. And so, the end of it all is that if we show gratitude to God in our good works, we give thanks for the very gratitude which we express. Nor is it possible for us to do anything for God. We are not even co-laborers with God. The expression that occurs in Scripture, sunergoi tou Theou, co-laborers of God, does not mean that we labor together with God, but that the apostles and their helpers and all that labor in the kingdom of God are co-laborers with one another in the service of God. God does everything for us. We can do nothing in His behalf, except by His grace express our gratitude and praise His holy name.
But true gratitude can consist only in this, that we show forth the glorious praises of Him that called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. It is God that redeemed and delivered His people from the guilt and out of the mire of sin and corruption. A beggar that receives a beautiful suit of clothes from his benefactor certainly does not reveal his gratitude by rolling in the mud with it, but rather by showing his new suit and telling all who ask him from whom he received it. This is a homely figure, but it will serve the purpose. The Christian will not show his thankfulness to God by continuing in sin, but rather by purifying himself, putting off the old man and putting on the new, walking in all righteousness, and declaring to all the world that he is able and willing and privileged to do so, because by the grace of the God of his salvation he is redeemed and delivered through the blood of Christ and by His Spirit from all the power and dominion of sin. And the purpose of all this is the glory of God. And this purpose the believer desires to attain...
The Catechism says that we must testify our gratitude by the whole of our conduct. This certainly includes the spoken word: for as we hope to see later, it is especially in the spoken word that we express our gratitude to God. Prayer is the highest expression of gratitude. We must declare the praises of God everywhere. We must declare them in our home before our children, for thus we read in Psalm 78:4: "We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." We must show forth the praises of Him that called us out of darkness into His marvellous light in the school, where our children are instructed in the fear of the Lord; in society; before employer or employee; in shop and office; on the street and in the midst of the world. And above all, we must declare His praises in the great congregation, in the midst of the church, and before the angels of God.
But it is not only in our word, but also in the whole of our conduct in the midst of the world that we must declare the glory of the God of our salvation. In the whole of our conduct we must show that we have fellowship with Him: "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," I John 1:6,7. And again: "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," I John 3:6-8. And again: "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother," I John 3:10. This whole of our conduct includes our personal life in soul and body, with all our powers and talents which God hath given unto us. And again, it includes our life in every relationship in the world, in the home, in society, in the state and in the church. Walking in the light in every relationship in the midst of the world and of the church, and pointing out that this life in the light is the fruit of the grace of our sovereign God, the God of our salvation, we will show forth the praises of Him that called us from darkness into His marvellous light.
Finally, we must remember that this whole of our life in the light must necessarily assume the form of the antithesis. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and Mammon. Neither can we serve only one, in exclusion from the other. In this world we must serve the one in antithesis to the other. We must love the one, and at the same time we must hate the other. We must love the light and hate the darkness. And in the midst of the world that lieth in darkness we have the calling to walk as children of light, and live antithetically from the principle of regeneration, according to the Word of God. Doing this, we will have to suffer with Christ. But even this is a gift of grace: "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake," Philippians 1:29. And if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together.
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.
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