Psalm 111

“True Thanksgiving” (Psalm 111) – Dr. John Wiers

Main Theme:

True thankfulness is inseparable from praise. Psalm 111 shows why God’s people give thanks continually—not merely on Thanksgiving week, but as a constant posture of worship.

Key Summary Points

1. True Thankfulness Begins With God’s Works

• Psalm 111 repeatedly describes “the works of the Lord”—great, majestic, splendid, powerful, faithful, just.

• God’s works are meant to be studied and pondered; they are “exquisite in all their delights.”

• Creation’s beauty—soil, seasons, mountains—invites meditation, wonder, and gratitude.

• Reflecting on creation helps guard against complaining; even difficult weather, seasons, or circumstances are part of God’s providential care.

2. True Thankfulness Flows From God’s Trustworthy Character

• God’s righteousness, faithfulness, justice, mercy, compassion, and holiness are foundations for gratitude.

• Providence—not luck—governs life; all things work together for good (Romans 8:28).

• God provides food, sustains life, and remembers His covenant forever.

• Salvation in Christ is the highest demonstration of God’s trustworthy, covenant-keeping character.

3. True Thankfulness Leads to Wise Living According to God’s Word

• Psalm 111 culminates in: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

• Gratitude produces reverence, which leads to obedience to God’s trustworthy precepts.

• Wisdom is not speculation or mere common sense; it is obedience grounded in awe of God.

• Romans 1 links human depravity to the absence of thankfulness. Lack of gratitude breeds foolishness.

4. Thanksgiving Is a Posture of Worship

• Hebrews 12 teaches us to “be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” and thus offer God “acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”

• True thanksgiving is not merely saying “thank you” at holiday meals but cultivating a life of praise rooted in God’s unchanging character.

Psalm 111 & True Thanksgiving

1. Opening Discussion

• What do you usually associate with “thankfulness”?

• How often does gratitude shape your prayer life compared to petitions?

2. Read Psalm 111 Aloud

Invite the group to listen for three themes:

1. God’s Works

2. God’s Character

3. Our Response (wisdom & obedience)

3. Theme Study

A. The Lord’s Wonderful Works

Key Verses: Ps. 111:2–7

• God’s works are “great,” “full of splendor,” “wondrous,” “faithful,” and “just.”

• The psalm calls us not merely to see God’s works but to study them.

Historical Context:

• Psalm 111 is an acrostic poem, likely used by pilgrims at Passover.

• It begins with “Hallelujah,” a call to public praise.

Application:

• Identify aspects of creation or providence you normally overlook.

• How might studying God’s works weaken your tendency to complain?

B. The Lord’s Trustworthy Character

Key Verses: Ps. 111:3–9

• God’s righteousness, grace, mercy, justice, and covenant faithfulness stand behind all His works.

• His covenant is “established forever”—He is never fickle or forgetful.

Gospel Connection:

• Christ fulfills God’s covenant promises: the second Adam, the faithful Israel, our Redeemer.

• God’s faithfulness ensures believers can never be “plucked from His hand.”

Application:

• Reflect on how God’s character—not your circumstances—grounds your thanksgiving.

C. The Fear of the Lord & Wise Living

Key Verse: Ps. 111:10

• “Fear of the Lord” = reverent awe leading to obedience.

• Wisdom is inseparable from gratitude; the thankful heart is the obedient heart.

• Romans 1 shows that ingratitude is at the root of human rebellion.

Application:

• Consider how obedience to God’s precepts grows out of gratitude rather than guilt.

D. New Testament Echo — Hebrews 12:28–29

• Gratitude arises from receiving an unshakeable kingdom.

• Thanksgiving produces worship characterized by reverence and awe—paralleling Psalm 111.

4. Westminster Standards Connections

Westminster Confession of Faith

• WCF 5.1–5 (Providence): God upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and actions—no place for “luck,” only providence.

• WCF 7 (Covenant): God’s covenant faithfulness undergirds salvation and daily life.

• WCF 21.1 (Worship): Thanksgiving is an essential part of worship owed to God.

Westminster Larger Catechism

• WLC 2–5 (Attributes of God): His holiness, justice, goodness, and truth match Psalm 111’s descriptions.

• WLC 178 (Prayer): Thanksgiving is a required element of prayer.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

• WSC 1: Man’s chief end is to “glorify God, and enjoy him forever”—gratitude fulfills this purpose.

• WSC 11 (Providence): God preserves and governs all His creatures—basis for continual thanksgiving.

• WSC 98 (Prayer): Thanksgiving is one of the parts of prayer commanded by God.

5. Practical Application

Cultivate Thankfulness by:

• Beginning prayer with praise and thanksgiving before petitions.

• Practicing daily reflection on God's works (creation, providence, salvation).

• Confessing ingratitude and asking God to reshape your heart.

• Using Scripture and the Psalms to retrain your affections.

Our scripture text for our sermon this morning is Psalm 111. We've done this little short series of psalms. This psalm has themes that were ringing through the other psalms we sang this morning, and there are frequent themes in the psalms. But this particular Psalm, Psalm 111, brings several thoughts together on what true thankfulness is all about.

Let's hear the word of God this morning from Psalm 111. This is God's word.

Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart and the company of the upright in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him. He remembers his covenant forever. He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just. All his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people and he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have good understanding. His praise endures forever.

Let's pray. Father, we come this Lord's Day morning having read this psalm that speaks of your character as the grounds for our being people who are thankful. We ask and pray that we would hear what you have to say to us. May it be your words that we hear. May I just be the instrument through which we hear your word and we are thankful that you have given us your word, your inspired, inerrant, authoritative, faithful word. For in Christ's name we pray, amen.

In just a week and a half, we're going to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, a holiday which is beloved by many in our culture. I think my mother used to say it was one of her favorite holidays because she said it didn't have all that tinsel and glitz and everything connected with it. It was just a time when you could thank the Lord,

Now, although we as Christians can appreciate very much the sentiment behind Thanksgiving, it's been celebrated off and on. It was made a more public holiday during the Civil War, but it has roots much deeper. We've all known about the political correctness that just tried to come in, where instead of thanking the Lord, it becomes thanking the Indians or something like that. We are familiar with our cultural pressure where people start talking about it as Turkey Day or something like that and missing the whole point of the particular holiday.

But if you think about it, as Christians, thankfulness is something which should characterize us all the time. Did you notice how many of these Psalms that we sang this morning talked about thanking the Lord? And it shouldn't be difficult for us to thank God for his abundant blessings.

But we can laugh. A familiar movie, a famous movie that I like, because it's Jimmy Stewart, and he's a favorite actor of mine, has this interesting scene where he was not a Christian believer, and he was widowed, and his wife had been a Christian, and he had promised that he would quote, give a Christian upbringing to his family. So they're sitting around the table. And he said, he's praying his prayer. And he says, Lord, you know, we want to thank you, but if we hadn't planted the seeds, wouldn't be able to thank you. If we hadn't cultivated it, we wouldn't be able to thank you. If we hadn't harvested it, we wouldn't be able to thank you. If we hadn't cooked it, we wouldn't be able to thank you. But Lord, I guess we thank you anyway.

And we can kind of laugh at that and think, OK, that's silly. What thankfulness, what gratitude was there in that? But you know, we may not say words like that, but we can sometimes live that way, where our lives are not lives of gratitude. Scriptures, like this psalm we just read, and like the other psalms we were singing, call us to thank the Lord. And this type of thankfulness that is being spoken of in this psalm is almost indistinguishable from praise. Matter of fact, praise and thanksgiving blur together. That's important for us because as we pray, for example, we praise the Lord, but thankfulness needs to be a great part of that.

Think about that. When you pray, start a new application already in the introduction, but think about how much we should have to thank the Lord for. Knowing the horror of the opposite, knowing what life would be like without thanking the Lord, we're living in a world to just think to live in a world without having gratitude to God ought to bring home to us how much we can thank the Lord. And there are a lot of texts, of course, the Psalms are full of them, but I want us to focus this morning on this Psalm, Psalm 111, and there are three particular reasons we're going to focus on as to why we should thank the Lord, because this Psalm unpacks those.

Now, interesting, the setting of the Psalm, Most of our English translations don't show this because it's not easy to do that, but it's actually an acrostic poem. What does that mean? It means that every other line, the first word begins with the Hebrew alphabet in its order. There was one recent translation, if you're a translation collector, like I am, the Legacy Standard Bible. It's a good translation, by the way. It sets it up and tries to show it. It's the only English translation I know that does this, but it starts with Aleph and goes all the way down through all the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So it's designed to help the people remember it. And this Psalm primarily speaks about our Lord.

Now, it's interesting, it's linked to Psalm 112, which primarily talks about how we respond. Because you guys will want to leave here sometime without waiting to the middle of the afternoon, we're just going to look at the first Psalm, Psalm 111. But I would urge you to go home and read Psalm 112 because it piggybacks very nicely on Psalm 111.

Traditionally, this was sung by pilgrims. at Passover. And it's one of the so-called hallelujah songs, Psalms. Why do you say that? Well, most of our English translations translate it directly, praise the Lord, but the Hebrew word is literally hallelujah. And that is interesting that that's one Hebrew word that's come over directly into our English language.

There are certain church traditions where you hear people, they are churches that, church traditions, unlike we Presbyterians, we're always quiet when we sing. There are some church traditions where we get people being, praise the Lord, hallelujah, all the time in the service. And that's come into our English language, because we see it in the book of Revelation, the famous hallelujah chorus. Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

We understand that word, and this Psalm begins with that phrase. It starts, then, praise the Lord, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. And some translations actually translate it as praise or extol, but it's a word that has the idea of praise that flows out of gratitude to who God is. It's public thankfulness, because he says, I'm going to praise the Lord in the company of the upright. In other words, like we are here. You are the company of a small version of the company of the upright.

Remember, maybe you didn't think of yourself that way, but every Bible-believing congregation is a little piece of the company of the upright. That's why singing praises to God have been a part of the Christian traditions. It seems natural for us as Christians to sing, doesn't it? What would a worship service be like? If you didn't have singing, you'd say, well, I went to a nice lecture or something like that, but it wouldn't seem like a worship service without singing.

Every Christian tradition sings in some way, but there are other world religions that don't sing. They don't sing at all. But we sing as Christians because we have reason, joy in our hearts to thank the Lord for what he has done.

Well, let's look at that first reason that this Psalm wants us to see. That's because the Lord's works are wonderful. Did you notice how many times the works of the Lord or deeds of the Lord are mentioned? Verse two, great are the works of the Lord. Verse three, full of splendor and majesty is his work. Verse four, he's caused his wondrous works to be remembered. Verse six, he has shown his people the power of his works. Verse seven, the works of his hands are faithful and just.

What God has done in this world in every way. ought to cause us to break out in gratitude. There are all these wonderful adjectives to describe his good works. And I'm just going to read a few of them here without pointing out to the specific verses. And some of these are from, I've collected these from a variety of translations because I think they all, they like build like a crescendo. God's works are described as great or glorious or majestic, splendid, powerful, faithful, true, good. Amazing, wonderful, unforgettable, honorable.

They're so marvelous that the text tells us here in verse three, verse two rather, second part, that they should be studied by all who delight in them, or pondered by all who delight in them, or studied by all who have good pleasure in them, or all who love Him. My favorite. Translation of that verse is one that says, great are the works of the Lord, they are exquisite in all their delights. Think about that. The works of the Lord are exquisite in all their delights.

What's the idea behind this? Is that of a grateful, awestruck meditation on God works that should kindle a desire for us to know more about them.

Everything around this world around us is the work of God. He created it. Everything is God's creation. Yes, it's marred by sin. It's bent and broken, but it's still God's creation. He sustains it. We talk about the doctrine of providence. That's God sustaining this creation. Every spring, the plants come up. You plant the seeds, they come up. Marvelous is his creation. Every fall, the leaves turn, they're beautiful colors, unless you had that old ugly sycamore tree that we had at our old house, and they just turned ugly brown. He hated that tree. It was ugly as tree. But you look around, and our neighbors had glorious maples and other things, and we had a beautiful ash tree in the front. Glorious are the works of the Lord.

All of this should drive us to meditate, on how wonderful our Lord is. Now, when we meditate on the works of the Lord, we have to do this in conjunction with what Romans 2 reminds us. We worship and serve the creator and not the creature. What is idolatry but serving, worshiping and serving created things rather than the creator behind them? Looking at the works of the Lord should always drive us back to God, the creator. who made these things, who made all things.

The children's catechism, I don't know if you use that, it's used in a lot of Presbyterian circles, but it begins, what did God make? God made all things. I remember we had a little, in our first church, we had a little kid that used to say, all tings. We asked him, what did God make? And she would reply, all tings. And we look at creation and it should drive us back. to our Lord.

God's works and their greatness, it says, satisfies the hopes and wishes of his people. We study them. we meditate upon them. The creation declares the glory of God, Psalm 19 tells us, and the firmament displays his handiwork. Calvin comments on this, he says, the magnitude of God's works is a subject which generally eludes the observation of most men and therefore few of them are acquainted with it. He also says, incomprehensible as is the immensity of the wisdom, equity, justice, power and mercy of God and his works, the faithful nevertheless acquire as much knowledge of these as qualifies them for manifesting the glory of God.

So that brings us to the question then, how much do you ponder God's works? Do you look around and do you see God's works being found as reason for you to honor and glorify God. If we're going to be genuinely thankful, not just at the Thanksgiving season, but day in, day out in our lives, it means a diligent, studious pursuit of the delight of his marvelous works. Can you see beauty in all that?

I never remember my dad, who was a farm kid, who lived in town, but he would drive through and he would love it driving through these fields around here. He would look and say, look at that rich black dirt. That's what he'd say. We'd be driving in the country, go out to my aunt and uncle's farms, and he would say, look at that good, rich, black dirt. And we'd be traveling some other part of the country, and he would shake his head, and he'd go, hmm, no, that ugly brown stuff. I like that good, rich, black dirt. He could rejoice in that good, rich, black dirt, something some of you, I think, can really appreciate.

Every spring, you put your seeds down in that good, rich, black dirt, and you reap the bounty. He just got done doing that, just put the combines away. But whatever it is that's around us, we should rejoice that these are gifts of God.

That's not just the scientist, but the scientist should do that, but all of us who are not scientists should be able to do that as well. It means cultivating an eager desire to learn more about God's works. That's why the Christian faith has generated things like science. Because we meditate on the works of God and we say, these are God's works, this is his handiwork.

And we are not only, as we were reminded last week, told to be caretakers of this earth, but we also should rejoice in it, that God has given this. And I think this is very helpful for us whenever we fall into the temptation to complain. And complaining is something that's easy for all of us to do.

We complain, oh, the sun is hot today. Do you meditate on the fact that you need that sun? Because without that sun, how in the world is that corn going to grow? Well, we're thinking about growing corn. You grumble, it's a rainy day. I hate rainy days. Even there was a pop song when I was a kid. Rainy days and Mondays always make me sad. Well, how in the world are you going to grow that corn? How are you going to get that 200 plus bushel acre corn if you don't have the rain?

In other words, we look at things around us and we should say, these are gifts from God. Yes, it's a bent and broken world. Sometimes the sun gets too hot and it's dry and we have a drought. Sometimes we get too much rain and yes, we have floods. But we look around us and we say, all of these things are a gift from God.

You know, if you're on vacation and you're out in the Rocky Mountains, sometimes you can look at the majesty of that and thank the Lord for that beauty as well. But whatever situation you're in, this is the antidote to complaining, to meditate on the glory of God shown in his works, and to be thankful for every good gift the Lord gives us.

But our second reason that this text talks about is that the Lord's character is absolutely trustworthy. Did you see some of these character traits that relate to trustworthiness? One of them actually says trustworthy, but several of the others, in verse three, it says he's righteous. He's faithful in verse 8. He has justice in verse 7. His graciousness in verse 4. His compassion in verse 4. He's upright in verse 8. His truthfulness in verse 8. His holiness in verse 9. His awesomeness. All of these relate to the fact that our Lord's character is absolutely trustworthy.

How is that? What's shown in His providential care for us Things just don't happen in our lives by chance or fate. People will use that by luck or chance or fate, as we as Christians know absolutely that that is not true. That's why PCA's Covenant College a number of years ago banned, it was kind of a joke, but they supposedly banned the word potlucks, dinners, because they said we believe in pot providence as Presbyterians, not pot luck. In other words, this whole idea of luck, I find it even irritating, mildly so, when Christians always times up, oh, well, good luck to you, good luck to you. And I'm thinking, do you really believe in luck? Do you really believe things happen by luck? That's a pagan idea. We believe God is in control. His providence is there, controlling and organizing.

What? Romans 8 says, all things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. What a wonderful thing to thank the Lord for, for all of his works. He's faithful. Every day we should be thanking the Lord, saying, all things are working together for good. I don't understand them, Lord. You can say that. I don't understand how this particular thing that happened in my life is for my good. But I believe you, and I can thank you that everything that's happening to me is ultimately for my good.

The text says in verse five that he gives food to those who fear him. What's the center of the Thanksgiving holiday we're gonna celebrate? Food. Most holidays tend to go around food. Food is central. God provides food for us. It's interesting that the word that's used in Hebrew for food here, it's not just a generic word for food, it's a word that literally means food for wild beasts, implying that's food that's been obtained at the expense of enemies. We're familiar with with carnivorous animals that they live by killing other animals. That's the word that's used here. Is that saying that God provides for us at the expense of non-believers? Possibly, we don't know that for sure, but the point that this text is telling us is God is providing for us even in this bent and broken world.

Verse nine tells us he provides, he's faithful because his covenant Is established his precepts are trustworthy forever and ever and his covenant endures Forever he provides complete redemption For his people and it's an expression of his love and grace for us twice in this Passage it says he's a covenant keeping god verse 9 or it could be paraphrased. It's a guaranteed covenant God's covenant with us is not like a daisy, you know, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not. It's a, he's a faithful covenant keeping God. It's a beautiful harmony of all the sayings and doings of God.

Well, genuine thankfulness focuses on the character of God. and all of his trustworthiness. Why is the gospel such a comfort to us? Because the gospel shows the faithfulness of God's character. From the very beginning of creation, God said, I'm gonna send a redeemer who's gonna bruise the heel of, gonna crush the serpent even though his heel is going to be wounded himself. The gospel is about God's faithful promises for thousands of years. When he said, I haven't forgotten you, my covenant is there, the time is coming. And then the New Testament says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman to redeem us, redeem us. Jesus Christ lived and died. He kept us, he kept the law perfectly. He was the faithful second Adam. He was the faithful Israel. Where Israel had failed, Jesus Christ was the faithful Israel, showing God's faithfulness, His covenant-keeping character. He rose again. Death could not hold Him. He intercedes for us. He promised us that none of us could be plucked from His hand. Ever thought about that? Jesus said, the Father has given you to me and not one of you can be plucked from my hand. What a faithful promise for us to live by.

Or in the passage like 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The faithfulness of God underlies the whole of scripture. the trustworthiness of God to his promises. Or as it says in 1 Corinthians, the promises of God in Jesus Christ are all the old King James to say yay and amen. So be it. That's what amen means. The promises of God are trustworthy and true.

We thank God for his provision. The psalmist does this in several places. Psalm 145, for example, talks about the provision of God. But how much more shouldn't we trust God for his faithfulness, for his mercy, for his covenant love, his steadfast, loyal love? The Hebrew word is chesed, which means his covenant love that doesn't let us go. Thankfulness for his righteousness to him, to us. That's one of the other things. He's faithful in his righteousness. He is absolutely trustworthy in his righteousness to us. Well, what does that mean on a day in day out basis? Well, that means he corrects us. Read Hebrews 12 sometime and see the argument there. We are children of God. He said every argument there in Hebrews is every father disciplines his children. He doesn't let his kids run wild. We look at a father who lets his kids run wild and we say there's something wrong with that. No discipline in that house. God is a father to us. He disciplined, that's part of his righteousness.

We don't bear the curse. Christ bore that for us. We don't face condemnation. The cross meant the condemnation was dealt with, but our Lord corrects us, chastises us. That's part of that, all things work together for good. After all, Romans 5 had reminded us that tribulation works patience. The Lord is correcting us and we could be grateful and thankful for that. That's part of his upright character, his righteousness.

To be a genuinely thankful person means we thank God for every splendid aspect of who he is. You know, if we think about this, there's material enough for an eternity of thanksgivings. in the psalm, all of these ways in which we can thank the Lord. So when you sit down at that meal, a week and a half from now, if it's a Christian family, every Christian family, at least that I know of, always has a prayer of Thanksgiving as part of that meal. We thank the Lord then for his character, and not just that he has given us the bounty of food, a big turkey and all the other whatever your family's favorites are around that table, but that God is a covenant-keeping God. He's faithful. He corrects us. He sustains us. He keeps us and He will not let us go. What a wonderful thing to thank the Lord for.

And this psalmist is, this psalm here, the psalmist is reminding us, driving us back to that. He gives us the food, absolutely. Perfectly legitimate. The psalmist says we thank the Lord for the food He's given us. Psalm 145 says that. But we thank the Lord even so much more that He is a faithful God.

But it comes to its peak in verse 10. And in a surprising twist, this Psalm, in our third reason, that's the Lord's word is the foundation for wise living. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it's almost like saying, oh, what did the copyist get lost and found to find his way into Proverbs or something? Because that how many times in the book of Proverbs is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But here it is right in this Psalm. A psalm of thanksgiving, a psalm in which the psalmist is saying, here are these reasons why you are thankful. You're thankful for the Lord's provision, but above all, you're thankful for his character.

And he says, how do you respond? The next Psalm 112 is gonna flesh this out. And as I said, I urge you to go home and read it. But the psalmist says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and all who practice it have good understanding. or who all have, literally, it could be translated in a couple of different ways, depending on which particular text behind it you follow. It could be the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and all who practice it, as the ESV that I've read, or I think the New King James, all who practice them, is referring to the commandments of God. Either way, the sense is not that far apart. But what it's saying is that if you are thankful, It's going to lead you to that fear of the Lord. You might say, what is that? Well, the fear of the Lord is that sense of awe and reverence, that sense of saying, I understand who God is. I have that sense of awe of who he is, and that then leads me to understanding, or as various translations say, respect and obey the Lord. This is the first step in wisdom and good sense. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Prudent are those who live by it.

Various ways that this has been translated, but what the context is clearly showing us here is that the fear of the Lord and following his sure precepts are tightly Connected. God's word is trustworthy, sure, and the foundation of true wisdom.

Verse seven talks about it as well, when it says, the works of his hand are faithful and just, and all his precepts are trustworthy. So basically what the psalmist makes this little shift here, because he says to us, if you have gratitude to God, if you are thanking him for all of the good gifts, you understand that his precepts, his law, gives you good understanding. They're sure and trustworthy completely, because his precepts are a parallel expression in verse eight with the works of his hands, which are eternal, just, and true.

Now, wisdom isn't just sort of common sense knowledge. about the deeper complexities of life. It's not saying you've got a PhD in philosophy and you can philosophize about all sorts of things and come up with all kinds of interesting theories about the complexities of human existence. It isn't just common sense either. What it's saying is you understand if you're going to live a godly life, You start with the fear of God. You start with that awe and reverence of God and you say, Lord, your word is just and true and perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect, Psalm 119 says, restoring the soul. You recognize that and you say, thank you, Lord, for your word. I understand that because I am grateful for who you are and what you have provided. Your word then provides the foundation for my life.

Genuine wisdom and good sense are found in reverence to God, which follows divine rather than human wisdom. In other words, Calvin puts it this way. He charges with folly those who do not render implicit obedience to God. They're foolish not to take the words, the precepts of the creator, and sustainer of this universe, this world in which we live and say, those are the words I'm going to follow.

If you think about it, God's wisdom is so infinite that in this life, we've only scratched the surface. That's why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We've only begun to grow in that wisdom. So if we are going to thank God, then we will reverently attune our lives to his word. Genuine, thankful people understand their tremendous limitations and seek divine wisdom from God's word. If we reject God's wisdom, and here's where we become nothing but foolish and leading into disaster. Think of Romans chapter one. Romans 1 is what I oftentimes refer to as the downward spiral of human depravity. It says, thinking themselves to become wise, they become fools, foolish in their speculation, and all of this speculation leads to degenerate lifestyles. The wrath of God, Romans 1 says, remains on them.

But what's interesting in verse 21 of that passage, it ties this all together and says, but they weren't thankful. Did you notice that? They weren't thankful. You might say, oh, well, I didn't do any of those dastardly things that Romans 1 talks about. That's not me. But are you thankful? Because Paul in Romans 1 is linking together human depravity with lack of gratitude. Perhaps you've known somebody, you've been close to somebody, and they've drifted away from the Lord. And one of the things that you sometimes, oftentimes, I should say, notice is a lack of gratitude for the gifts and a complaining spirit. And sometimes this can even be a bridge to these people and to say, you know, have you thought about it? You don't have any gratitude for God.

The very air that you breathe is a gift from God. You're acting as if you deserve everything. You're worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator. All of these, everything around you is a gift of God.

The gospel is described as wisdom in 1 Corinthians 24 and 25. It says, it appears like foolishness to the unbeliever, but to those of us who are Christians, it is the wisdom and power of God. Because in the gospel, we as Christians recognize we are helpless. We are dependent upon the same God who gives us the air to breathe, who gives us the food to eat, who gives us the beauty, gives us that black soil that my father could appreciate, gives us those beautiful rocky mountains that when you're on vacation, you can look and just be awed by their splendor.

That same God made us. and we have rebelled against him. We've, apart from Christ, we're like the Romans 1 people, thinking ourselves to be wise, we became fools. We've adopted the foolishness of this world instead of the wisdom of the gospel.

But the wisdom of the gospel is that there's grace and mercy and forgiveness from the faithful God whose covenant endures forever. Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in chapter 12, there's a beautiful passage that talks about this. After speaking about the work of Jesus Christ, Hebrews is all about the superiority of Jesus Christ, talks about there's, if we neglect this great salvation, we only face judgment.

And he says, it says this, it ties this into gratitude. It says, therefore, let us be grateful "'for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, "'and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship "'with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.'"

What the author of Hebrews is telling us here is that Christ, the superior one, has given us perfect redemption, the one who is above everyone else, God incarnate, above the angels, God's final word to us, because that's how Hebrews 1 begins. God has spoken finally. He spoke in all different ways before, even talking donkeys. But he gave his final word in Jesus Christ.

He says, if you neglect him, all you face is judgment. But what we can do, we have trusted in him. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The psalmist is saying, telling us, reminding us in its poetic way, we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We can be grateful. And therefore, it says we can offer acceptable worship with reverence and awe.

The promises of God, the faithfulness of God, lead to fear of God, which lead to worship, which includes thanksgiving, thankfulness, gratitude as a key part. Just check yourself out. Think of your own prayer time, your own private worship. How much do you thank the Lord? Or do you almost immediately jump into petition? Lord, I need this, I need that, I have this problem, my wife has this problem, my kid has this problem, I need this, I need that.

Percentage-wise, how much of your prayer time is thankfulness? That's sometimes a good, a little checkpoint for us to say, are we worshiping the Lord with gratitude, offering acceptable worship with reverence and awe? It is, in this season, a time to give thankfulness to God for his material blessings, but also, as the psalmist reminds us, for who he is, his perfect wisdom. We've all been guilty of ingratitude of one way or the other, only the grace of God, can cleanse us from that.

But God's grace can even cleanse us from our ingratitude, which is in one sense, one of the chief sins. That's what Romans 1 is telling us. One of the chief sins is ingratitude, not thanking God. If we have a complaining spirit, we can confess it. And we can say, Lord, help me to be grateful. Help me to look and see all of the wonders of your creation, all of the blessings you've given to me. material blessings, but above all, your faithful covenant-keeping love toward me. And then let it flow over into the fear of God, which is the beginning of true wisdom and also a mark of true thanksgiving.

Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this psalm that speaks to us of true thanksgiving. Help us to Be grateful for all that you have done for us. The food you have provided, the material blessings, your covenant-keeping love, and with grateful hearts, with reverence and awe, offer our sacrifice of praise to you, Lord, because you are a gracious God, and we should be grateful for that. We thank you for this. Reminder from your word today, for in Christ's name we pray, amen.

• How does Psalm 111 challenge your usual understanding of thankfulness?

• Which of God’s works in creation stir gratitude in you most easily? Which do you overlook?

• How does remembering God’s covenant faithfulness increase your thankfulness in difficult seasons?

• In what ways has ingratitude affected your spiritual life?

• What does it look like to fear the Lord in daily life?

• How can you increase the role of thanksgiving in your personal prayer rhythms?

• Where do you see Romans 1’s warnings about ingratitude mirrored in today’s culture?

• How can rehearsing the gospel strengthen gratitude and weaken complaining?

• Hallelujah: “Praise the Lord.” A call to public, joyful worship.

• Providence: God’s continual upholding and governing of all creation.

• Covenant: God’s binding promise of relationship and redemption.

• Fear of the Lord: Reverent awe producing obedience and humility.

• Wisdom: God-given ability to live rightly in relationship to Him; rooted in awe and obedience.

• Chesed: God’s steadfast, covenant-keeping love.

• Redemption: God’s act of purchasing and rescuing His people through Christ.

• Ingratitude: A spiritual blindness that refuses to acknowledge God as source of every good gift.