“There's Within My Heart a Melody”

A Song of Thanksgiving

Gratitude (i.e., thanksgiving) is the quality of a selfless heart. A selfish person finds it difficult to be grateful!
Today David is going to teach us “A Song of Thanksgiving” in which we will learn 3 reasons why we should be thankful!

•  Three Reasons to be Thankful, (Psalm 65)

A. God Saves Sinners, (vs. 1-4)

1. Salvation is always and only given on God's terms. It is not up to man to tell God how he
should be saved!
a. ( v. 1 ), “There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God.”
1) Lots of people say they want to serve God. But only in an advisory capacity!
2) The prophet Habakkuk felt this way. ( Hab. 1:2 ), “How long, O Lord, will I
call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to you, ‘Violence!' Yet You do
not save.”
3) Yet after Habakkuk finally listened to God, he said, ( Hab. 2:20 ), “The Lord is
in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
b. Therefore, the best thing we can give God is our “…praise,” not our advice!!!


2. Yet the praise and thanksgiving for His goodness extends to all mankind.
a. ( v. 2 ), “O You who hears prayer, to You ALL MEN COME .”
1) God invites everyone to come and receive His blessings in their lives!
2) Do you need a written invitation? Then read what is written in ( Matt. 11:28 ),
“Come unto Me ALL who are weary and are heavy-laden, I will give you
rest.”
a) But some say, “I can't come to God! You don't know all the evil
things I have said and done!” or “I have too much guilt to come to
Him now!
b) Then listen as David, a sinner like all of us, comes to God…
c. He confesses his sins & God forgives him, ( v. 3 ) “Iniquities have prevailed [defeated]
me, as for our transgressions, you forgive them.”
1) Indeed, God came to earth to save all who come to Him.
2) ( Lk. 19:10 ), “I have come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
3. ( v. 4 ), How blessed is the one whom You choose , and whom You bring near to dwell in Your
courts.”
a. Clearly, thanksgiving is for all who have been chosen by God! But who are these
“chosen” ones?!
1) God's “choosing” (i.e., various called, “election/predestination”) is a topic of
much religious debate.
a) Does God choose us individually (to be saved/lost), or did God choose
the means through which all people can be saved? In other words;
“Did God choose the man or the plan”?!
b) God is impartial, ( Rom. 2:11, 13 ), “ For there is no partiality with God
… for it is not the hearers of the law who will be justified, but the
doers of the law will be justified.”
c) To be “chosen” by God we must be doers of His will, which includes..
1)) Believing in Jesus, ( Jn. 8:24; Ex. 3:14; Jn14:6 ), “Unless you
believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” Jesus is telling
us He was the One who spoke to Moses from a burning bush,
“I AM who I AM, thus you shall say to Israel, ‘I AM has sent
me.'” He is the only One who can bring us before the Father.
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to
the Father except through Me.”
2)) Knowing God's word, ( Jn. 6:44-45 ), “No one can come to
Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise
him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they
shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and
learned from the Father comes to Me.” ( Rom. 10:17 ), “Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
3)) Obeying His word , Jn. 3:36; Mk. 16:16 , “He who believes in
the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” “He
who has believed [i.e., “believes in the Son” ] and has been
baptized [i.e., “obeyed the Son” ] shall be saved.”
2) Therefore, we should be thankful that God has provided a means by which all
can be saved.


B. God Rules All Nations, (vs. 5-8)

1. We know d rules because of God's awesome power. He shows Himself to be ruler over all
the nations!
a. ( vs. 5-7 ), “You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, /
…who formed the mountains by Your power, having armed Yourself with strength, /
who stilled the roaring of the seas, and the roaring of their waves / and the turmoil of
the nations.”

1) The power of God, whether seen by His ability to create ( mountains ) or to
stabilize ( stilled the roaring of the seas/waves ), is something for which all
people may truly give thanks!
2) God's power is witness of His existence and His sovereignty.
3) Yet some do not want Him to rule in their lives, ( Rom. 1:1-20 ), “For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven… against all who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within
them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse.”

b. Even though everyone does not believe, David's song teaches us that some did!
1) ( v. 8 ), “Those living far away stand in awe of Your wonders; where morning
dawns and evening fades, You call forth songs of joy.”
2) The greatest of God's wonders was in giving Himself for our sins on a cross.
All mankind is called to worship. ( Phil. 2:8-11 ), “And being found in the
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death
on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father.”
3) These who were “far away,” did they allow God to rule in their lives?
a) ( Rev. 7:9-10 ), “I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one
could count, from every nation, and all tribes and peoples and
tongues, standing before the throne & before the Lamb, clothed in
white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cried
out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the
throne, & to the Lamb.'”
b) They sing their “songs of joy” because they learned God DOES rule
all the nations!



C. God Provides All We Need, (vs. 9-13)

1. There are two things we are called to see [understand] about the gracious Provider upon His
creation…
a. #1. Every blessing that is given is bestowed even to excess (i.e., “overflow,” v. 9 ):
1) “Stream of God is full of water,” “water its furrows abundantly ,”
“crowned the year with Your bounty ,” “paths drip with fatness,”
“meadows are clothed with flocks,” “valleys are covered /grain.”


2) God has promised to provide us with everything (physically/spiritually) we
need.
a)) ( Matt. 6:33 ), “?Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you.”
b)) ( Eph. 2:7 ), “That in the ages to come He might show the surpassing
riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

b. #2. God is the source of all these blessings:
1) “YOU visit the earth,” “YOU greatly enrich it,” “YOU prepare the grain,”
“YOU water, YOU settle…!”

c. Therefore, all the good that happens comes from a singular source… GOD!!!
1) No wonder the creation rejoices, ( v. 13c ), “They shout for joy, yes, THEY
SING!!!”
2) This reminds us of what Jesus said when He entered Jerusalem a week before
the cross, ( Lk. 19:37-40 ), “ As He was approaching, the whole crowd of the
disciples began to ?? praise God joyfully with a loud voice, shouting: “?? Blessed
is the ?? King who comes in the name of the Lord ; Peace in heaven and ??glory
in the highest!” ??Some of the Pharisees ??in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher,
rebuke Your disciples.”  But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become
silent, ?the stones will cry out!”

d. Therefore, we can be thankful for how God has blessed us through His creation!!!