Dr. Richard L. Strauss
November 22, 1981

It was Wednesday, April 4, 1979. The 80 passengers aboard a TWA flight from New York to Minneapolis had just finished their midair snack and were settling down to rest for the rest of the flight, when suddenly they felt the plane begin to vibrate. Then it veered off to the right and did a complete 360-degree barrel roll and then began to plummet toward the earth, exceeding the speed of sound.

Five miles it fell, totally out of control. Passengers began to scream. A flight attendant started to cry. They all later acknowledged that they were sure they were going to die.

The captain struggled to pull the craft out of its nosedive using every procedure he'd ever been taught. Nothing worked. The force of the plane literally tore the wing flaps from the plane. Finally, in desperation, he let down the landing gear and for some reason, at that moment began to regain control of the plane.

After an emergency landing at Detroit, FAA inspectors said it was—they used the term—"miraculous," and they used the term "unprecedented," that a Boeing 727 should survive such a mid-air trauma. It was the first time in FAA history that a commercial passenger-carrying jet had been subjected to that degree of stress and had held together. The people on that plane had literally been snatched from the jaws of death.

Now, I don't think the human author of Psalm 116 was on that flight, but he may well just have been because he had experienced something just as traumatic. God had delivered him from something just as serious as that. And he was so grateful and so thankful for it that the question kept running through his mind: How can I say thanks?

Look at the question. It's in verse 12, basically. It's not in those words, but that's what he's saying.

"What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116:12).

How can I say thanks?

Now, we don't know who wrote psalm 116. It was apparently an individual that had some sensational experience of deliverance, as we'll see. But yet it beautifully described the experience of the entire nation, Israel, when they were delivered from their Egyptian bondage. And for that reason, it was included in a series of psalms called Halal Psalms. That's the first part of the word "hallelujah," by the way. It means praise.

And these six praise psalms, 113 through 118, were all recited every year by Jewish families at the feast of Passover.

Let's look at the development of Psalm 116 today and try to discover the psalmist's answer to his own question. How can I say thanks?

Watch for five things he says he's going to do to express his gratitude to God as we move through the psalm.

The Psalmist's Distress

The first four verses describe his distress. And he doesn't really get to the plight until down in verse 3.

"The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow" (Psalm 116:3).

Now, we don't know what it was, but we know it was a horribly dangerous predicament that brought him to the brink of death. Death cords were tightening around him, squeezing the life out of him as though he were in the grasp of a giant boa constrictor. The pangs or the pains of Sheol found him.

Sheol can be used simply as a synonym for death in the psalms, and I think that's how it's used here. But this death is accompanied by pain (as death often is), and distress, like narrow walls closing in on him. And that's the idea in the word pain, like he's being squeezed to death.

I don't know what it was, but it sure wasn't a very pleasant experience, I can tell you that. And he looked for relief, he says in verse 3. And all he found is more trouble and sorrow. Whether it was a desperate illness or a dangerous predicament or a disillusioning setback or all three, we don't know. But it was painful, and it was grievous and it was unpleasant, and it was hard, and any other awful adjective you can think of.

Maybe some here this morning are facing some similar situation. You feel just like the psalmist did, like the life is being squeezed out of you and the lights are about to go out and you've been looking for relief and all you found is trouble and sorrow, just as the psalmist found.

You're asking yourself this morning, what are you going to do? Well, I'd suggest for one thing, you do what the psalmist did.

"Then I called upon the name of the Lord: 'O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!'" (Psalm 116:4).

He prayed.

Now, we know that God delivers people in different ways. Some He heals. For some He provides miraculous escape, like the passengers and crew on that TWA flight. For some He rearranges circumstances miraculously. For some He ministers a superabundant supply of His sustaining grace to help them bear the problem a little longer. Some He delivers through entrance into His presence. He delivers in different ways. And we don't always know how He's going to deliver.

So when we pray, we must pray in utter submission and subjection to His sovereign will. But we still have a right to pray, to ask Him anytime anywhere, for anything we feel might be within His will.

What a comfort to know that He's there and He's listening, and He cares.

"Then called I upon the name of the Lord."

Now, obviously, God answered him. That's what this psalm is all about. In fact, the whole psalm begins by telling us God answered him.

He says in Psalm 116:1, "I love the Lord because He heard my voice and my supplications."

Nothing increases our love for the Lord more than rehearsing the good things He's done for us, especially as answers to prayer. You know, when you think about what God's done for you, you just can't help but love Him.

• To think that He came to this world and experienced the agony of our sin, that He bore it for us.
• To think that He provides our needs daily.
• To think that He answers our prayers.
• To think that He's given us the gift of life, the joy and pleasure of family and friends.

He's made it all available to us. To think about those things and rehearse them is to love Him.

If you don't feel a genuine love in your heart for the Lord today, maybe it's because you haven't given much thought to those things. You really haven't been rehearsing some of the things God's been doing for you.

Or maybe you haven't been spending much time in prayer. Or when you do pray, it's just selfish little things that you want to relieve your discomfort or make life more pleasant for you. And you really haven't learned what it means to lay hold of God in intercessory prayer for the needs of other people and the prosperity of God's work in the world today. And you don't have any specific answers to prayer to show. That could be why maybe you don't feel that depth of love for the Lord in your heart.

"I love the Lord," he says, "because He has heard my voice and my supplications."

How Can I Say Thanks? I Will Call Upon Him

But don't miss verse 2 because we're about to discover the psalmist's first answer to his own question.

"Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live" (Psalm 116:2).

There are eight "I wills" in this psalm describing five different things the psalmist says he's going to do to express his thanks to God. And this is the first. Some of them are repeated. One is repeated twice, the others are repeated once. So, there's eight "I wills" but five different things we'll see as we go through the psalm.

The first thing he says he's going to do is call on the name of the Lord for the rest of his life. As long as he lives. Whether he's in trouble or whether he's not. Whether the Lord delivers him immediately from his trouble or whether He doesn't. Whether he has a need or whether it's just to give God praise and thanks. He's going to pray. He's going to make prayer a regular part of his life from this point on.

How are you grateful to God for what He's done? Would you like Him to know that you're grateful? "How can I say thanks?" is the question we're asking this morning. Here's a good place to start, right here in Psalm 116:2.

Resolve today that you're going, by God's grace, to share the rest of your life with Him—all of your life with Him, day in and day out, moment by moment. You're going to talk to Him about everything. Just tell Him about it. Not just the problems in life, but the pleasures as well. It's going to be part of your life, just sharing it all with God.

That's the way to say thanks, because that's the way God wants us to live. He wants us to talk to Him about everything. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God." In everything. Talk to Him about everything. Call upon Him as long as you live.

It seems to me that would be a logical commitment to make on this thanksgiving Sunday: to share all of your life with the Lord.

The Psalmist's Deliverance

Well, in the second section of the psalm, beginning in verse 5, the thankful poet tells us some of what he's learned about God through his miraculous deliverance. Let's call it the psalmist's deliverance.

He says in verse 5, "Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful."

Three great attributes of God are sandwiched in this verse.

First, he says He's gracious. That emphasizes the undeserved character of the help He gives. A few men yesterday said, "Boy, what a beautiful day God's given us and what a wonderful place God's allowed us to live. Why should He allow us to be here?" The answer is no reason at all. It's by His grace. And if we ever think we deserve some of these good things, we're in trouble.

God is gracious. God is also righteous. That means God does what is right, and He does it fairly and without partiality. If the psalmist's sorrow and trouble were being inflicted unjustly by the enemies of God, then he could count on the fact that the scales would be balanced someday and God would make it right because He's righteous. He does that. He's just and fair.

And then our God is merciful. In other words, He feels with us in our distress and He acts to relieve that distress. He's merciful, but He does something else. Look at verse 6. It says, "The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and He helped me."

Simple. Now that's not usually a very flattering term in Scripture. It kind of means simple minded. Nobody likes to be called simple minded. It's used to describe those foolish folks who roam the pages of Proverbs getting in and out of trouble.

But it does have a good side. It describes people who are still in need of spiritual enlightenment and guidance. And they are willing to admit it. "I don't know everything I need to learn and I'm willing to learn and to change." And that's basically, I think, what the psalmist would say. That's the kind of a person he was. He knows he didn't know everything. And God takes care of simple folks.

The psalmist was living proof. He says, "I was brought low and He helped me."

God helps the simple. And that's a good reason for the psalmist to talk to himself. Now you may think that's a little strange for people to talk to themselves, but it really isn't. There's a lot of it in the Bible and it's good to do periodically. In verse 7, the psalmist says:

"Return to your rest, o my soul"—whenever you see o my soul, you know somebody's talking to himself—"for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."

"Return to your rest, o my soul." Evidently there had been a time, probably in the thick of his problem, when he refused to rest in the Lord. He preferred rather to wallow in self-pity and work himself up into a state of frenzied anxiety. And we've all been there, haven't we? I've been there. Have you been there? Don't look so pious. You've probably been there, too!

Rather than just rest in the Lord and believe that He's in control of the situation, we just go to pieces. But the psalmist has also been in fellowship with the Lord and resting in the Lord, and he knows what that's like, too. He's enjoyed the stability and tranquility that comes by believing that God is in control of every circumstance. And he wants to enjoy that stability and that tranquility again. So he says, "Return to your rest, o my soul."

And after rehearsing how God helped him and what God did for him, he's convinced there isn't any reason for him not to return to his rest. "For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."

Maybe we need to talk to ourselves this morning in this area. Maybe we've had some times when we've really known the peace of God that passes all understanding. But this morning we're just all churning over some problem. Maybe we need to remind ourselves what God has done for us in the past and remind ourselves to rest in Him now. "Return to your rest, o my soul."

And then the psalmist lists some of the things God has done, things that make it sensible to rest in him today.

"For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling" (Psalm 116:8).

He was probably talking about a physical deliverance: the same thing, the situation he was in in verse 3 when the pains of Sheol were grabbing him and squeezing him to death. And he's been delivered.

Maybe He hasn't delivered us physically, but God's delivered us in a spiritual sense. We can praise him for that. God saved us from sin. He gives us joy, and He keeps us from falling into sin when we depend upon Him.

Well, how can I say thanks?

How Can I Say Thanks? I Will Walk Before the Lord

Verse 9 gives us the second "I will." It's the second answer to the question, how can I say thanks?

"You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling."

That's something to be thankful for.

"I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 116:9).

Well, what does that mean? The psalmist is saying, I'm going to live with a daily consciousness of God's presence and a daily awareness of God's care and a genuine desire to do God's will. That's walking before God: to know that God is with me every moment and to want to please Him. That's walking before God.

Now, not every professing believer walks before God. Many of us would have to admit that a good bit of the time we walk before men. We're more interested in what other people think than what God thinks. And we try to impress them and we do what we do to look good before them so that they'll think well of us and bolster our sagging self esteem.

God is saying we don't need to worry about what other people think of us. If we walk before God, conscious of His presence and desiring to please Him, we'll look to others just the way God wants us to look and that ought to be good enough. They may not always like what they see, because what they see may illuminate their sin, but they will respect us. Solomon said in Proverbs 16:7, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."

See, we ought to be interested in walking before God, folks, that's the key to the Christian life: a consciousness of God's presence, a desire to do His will, and a dependence on Him. "So whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord," Paul says in Colossians 3:23. Not unto men. Walk before God.

Are you grateful to God for what He's done? Can you think of some good things He's done for you? Would you like to let Him know how thankful you are? Here's a good way to show it. Resolve today to walk before Him in the land of the living.

In other words, as long as we live, we're going to live in His presence, conscious of His presence with us, and desire to do His will. Regardless of what anybody else thinks, we're going to do His will.

And sometimes people will say, "Oh, don't do that." But we're going to do it anyway because God says it in His word and we know that's where our greatest joy is going to be found.

That seems like a logical commitment to make on this Thanksgiving Sunday when we're asking ourselves, how can we give thanks? That we're going to walk before God.

Well, the next two verses are kind of difficult to understand. I'm not sure even what they're doing here. Verse 10 he says, "I believe, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted." Maybe the psalmist is telling us why he said he's going to live the rest of his life in God's presence in submission to God's will. It's because he trusts God. His trust has now been strengthened. It's been through some weak times, but it's growing stronger.

You know, we're not going to follow God's direction unless we're convinced God's going to lead us in the best possible way. We've got to trust Him. Have you ever been in a strange town and you're looking for directions and you stop and ask somebody where something is and they say, "Well, now let's see. I think you go down here about three blocks and turn left. No, no, no, it's right. No, left. No, turn left."

You probably won't follow that man's directions. At least if I get in a situation like that I go about another block and ask somebody else for directions. And if the second guy says, "Oh yeah, I know where that is, you go down one block here to the first light, take a left, go down three blocks, turn right, and just about two tenths of a mile down that road, look to your left and you'll see it," boy, then I follow those directions because that man knows what he's talking about. I trust him. I know he's leading me right. That's what the psalmist is saying.

"I believed. I trusted God. Therefore have I said, I'm going to do his will and walk in His presence and live for His glory the rest of my life. I trust Him."

Now that isn't to say he's always done that without some weak moments. There were times in his distress when he trusted people rather than God and they let him down. And he became so disillusioned that he overgeneralized. In verse 11 he said, "I said in my haste, all men are liars."

Have you ever been to that point? That's not really true, but, and the psalmist admitted it was a hasty conclusion. He says that, but the fact remains the Lord alone is perfectly trustworthy and dependable. That's why he's decided to walk before Him as long as he lives on earth.

And that would be a good decision for us to make this Thanksgiving Sunday as well, to walk before God.

The Psalmist's Devotion

Well, it's at this point in the psalm that the psalmist asked the question that sums up the whole theme of the entire chapter that we've been developing here.

"What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116:12).

And in the rest of the psalm, he gives us three more answers to that question, answers that reveal to us his utter devotion to God.

So let's call this section of the psalm from verses 12 to 19, the psalmist's devotion.

How Can I Say Thanks? I Will Take the Cup of Salvation

He gives us a third "I will"—a third answer to his question—in verse 13. "I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."

That seems strange. How can I say thanks? Take the cup of salvation.

How can taking something more from God express our thanks to Him or repay Him for what He's already given to us?

Well, the reason, you see, is because taking the cup and lifting it up, which is what they did, was an act of worship to God. It was an acknowledgment that all the blessings of life, salvation included, are from God's gracious hand and are to be received from Him with thanksgiving. It was an act of adoration. It was an act that magnified the Lord and exalted Him. It was an act that acknowledged His greatness and gave to Him the glory He was due. Lifting the cup was an act of worship.

Incidentally, this was the passage the Lord Jesus had in His mind when at the last Passover with His disciples, He took the cup and gave thanks. It was called by Paul "the cup of blessing." And it was this cup spoken of in Psalm 116. It was a part of the Passover ritual with the title, "Cup of Blessing."

Jesus took the cup of blessing and He said, This cup "is the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:27).

For Jesus, it was a cup of suffering and sorrow and death. And yet He thanked the Father for it and drank it.

That illustrates a principle we've all observed on occasion. That is, that the most thankful people are often those who, by human standards, have the least to be thankful for. And that's often because they have a greater appreciation for spiritual values and blessings.

I was talking to someone yesterday who was sharing with me a group of people, and the happiest ones and the most joyful ones in the bunch were those in wheelchairs. How can that be? Those people had learned to rejoice in spiritual blessings, you see. The Lord Jesus knew that drinking that cup of sorrow would provide salvation from sin for a lost human race. And that's why He was thankful. He saw beyond the suffering. And because He drank the cup of sorrow, we can take the cup of salvation, the cup of eternal blessing, and hold it up in worship and adoration, and praise unto God!

If we have accepted God's eternal salvation, we have a lot to be thankful for. So let's commit ourselves to giving him the honor He is due. Commit ourselves to a life of worship. Make worshiping the Lord a vital, integral, regular part of our lives daily, not just on the Lord's day. Daily. Exalting Him, giving Him the glory He's due.

It seems like a logical commitment to make on this Thanksgiving Sunday. How can I say thanks? By committing myself to a life of worship of the Almighty God.

How Can I Say Thanks? I Will Pay My Vows to the Lord

The fourth "I will" is in the next verse, verse 14.

"I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people" (Psalm 116:14).

How can I say thanks? By carrying out what I promised God some time ago and by doing it publicly in the presence of all His people as an example to them.

Have you ever made a promise to God in a tight spot? "God, You get me out of this one, and I'll..." Ooh. Have you kept your promise? You know, if we have made promises to God we haven't kept, we aren't very grateful people. And even going through the ritual of celebrating another Thanksgiving holiday is a mockery.

If we've told God we're going to do something that we haven't done, how can I say thanks? If we're truly thankful to God, we can follow through with the commitments we've made to the Lord. That's one way to show Him we're thankful.

Thanksgiving Sunday would be a good time to commit ourselves afresh to following through and doing what we know God wants us to do, and what we promised Him we would do. It's a good way to say thanks.

The next verse seems at first to be an inappropriate intrusion into the whole chapter. It's a great verse and I've read it many times. But when I read it in its context, I almost ask, what is it doing here?

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15).

Evidently the psalmist is acknowledging that not every child of God will experience physical deliverance as he did. Some will be ushered into the presence of God. But even then we can be thankful. That's why it's here. Even then we can be thankful, for that is a precious thing in the sight of God, a thing that is highly valued. That's what precious means.

The death of God's children is something to be highly valued. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? Spurgeon said, "If we walk before God in the land of the living, we need not fear to die before Him when the hour of our departure has come."

You see, death for the child of God is like saying goodbye to sin and sorrow and suffering and Satan. That's not too bad, you know. That doesn't mean we go out and take our own lives. That's in God's hands. But a true child of God need not fear death. It's precious in the sight of the Lord.

Death, for a believer, is like saying hello to glory and blessing and uninterrupted joy and delight in the Father's presence. That doesn't sound too shabby, does it?

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." The psalmist is one of those saints, one of those servants of God. He reaffirms that in verse 16, "O Lord, truly, I am Your servant. I am Your servant and the son of your handmaid and You've loosed my bonds."

How Can I Give Thanks? I Will Offer to God the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Then he gives us his fifth "I will"—the fifth answer to his question, in verse 17. "I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving." And then he repeats, "And I will call on the name of the Lord." And he repeats again, "I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people in the courts of the Lord's house."

Let's look at that fifth one: "I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving."

That really sums up all the other four. Sacrifices in the Old Testament were the method man had of approaching a holy God. And God himself said in Psalm 51 that the sacrifices that please Him most are proper heart attitudes. Not the animals. Attitudes.

One of those attitudes God wants us to develop is the attitude of thankfulness. You see, coming to worship God today is really the New Testament equivalent of bringing sacrifices to God in the Old Testament. But coming to worship Him today is a meaningless motion if our hearts are full of grumbling and complaining and criticism and dissatisfaction and covetousness.

How can I say thanks? Well, just say it, first of all. Just say, "Thank you, Lord. Lord, I praise You for all You've done in my life." Say it, then act in grateful ways so that people around you begin to see that gratitude by the joy of your life.

You know what? Soon you'll begin to feel thankful. I mean, really feel it. And that's the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

The psalmist says it. He starts where he needs to start. He closes the psalm with "Praise the Lord."

That's one hebrew word, alleluia. "Praise Jehovah" it means. Praise Jehovah! Let's learn to praise Him.

There's so much to be thankful for. Big things and little things. Learn to find them and see them and be thankful.

Somebody sent me a clipping this week that he thought I might be able to use in the message this morning. It's a little something to be thankful for. Did you know that much of the food we buy and eat in 1981, is proportionally less expensive than it was even 20 years ago in 1960? In 1960, you had to work 16 minutes to buy a dozen eggs on the average. Today you only have to work eight. Isn't that neat? You can be thankful for that. That's a little thing. Find little things.

With all the inflation and the high interest rates and the unemployment and everything else that's happening—hey, there are a few things around.to be thankful for. Find them and develop an attitude of gratitude. An attitude of gratitude. That ought to be a Christian's lifestyle.

Summary

Maybe you haven't been dramatically delivered from death in a crashing airplane, but you do have a great deal to be thankful for. Let's decide today to make thanksgiving a way of life for us by calling on the name of the Lord.

They're all summarized on the back of your outline. Look at them. How can I say thanks? The five "I wills" are there.

1. I will call on the name of the Lord. That is, I'm going to make prayer a regular part of my life all the time from this day forward. Make that commitment this Thanksgiving Sunday, will you?
    
2. I will walk before Him. I'm going to live in His presence and do His will regardless of what anybody else thinks.
    
3. I will live a life of worship. I'm going to acknowledge that every blessing is from the good hand of our God, and I'm going to give Him the honor that He's due.
    
4. I will follow through and keep the promises I've made to God through the years.
    
5. I will praise Him by my lips and by my life. I'm going to ask God to cultivate in me an attitude of thankfulness.

That's how to say thanks to God according to Psalm 116.

Now, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, I can understand why you may not be very thankful today. You're living under a burden of guilt, and that's not anything to be thankful for.

But I can suggest something you can be thankful for. You can be thankful for the fact that you're still alive and that God has allowed you to remain breathing and conscious to this moment right now, where He's going to give you another opportunity, maybe your last for all we know, to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin.

You can be thankful that you have this opportunity because it affects eternity. It means heaven or hell. You see, if you will acknowledge your sin and believe that Christ died in your place and put your trust in Him as your Savior from sin, the Spirit of Jesus Christ will enter your life, give you everlasting salvation, assure you of eternity in heaven's glory, so that even at death's door, that moment will be precious to you and to God.

Wouldn't you like to have God's salvation, God's forgiveness, God's life? If you'll accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you'll have it, and then you'll really have something to be thankful for.

Trusting Jesus As Your Savior

Let's bow our heads together. In an attitude of prayerfulness now, may I ask you to examine your heart before God? Do you know Christ as your personal savior? I'm not asking if you believe that He lived and died and rose again even. I'm asking if you have ever personally invited him to be your Savior. That's the issue.

Jesus is the Savior. Nothing you say or do will change that. Is He your Savior?

That decision is yours to make. He wants you in heaven with Him forever. But He's not going to force you to be there. It's your decision. He sent His Son to the cross to pay for your sins. If you'll trust Him and receive Him as your Savior, He'll forgive you and grant you everlasting life. Will you do it today? Maybe you've been putting it off and this morning you're ready to say yes to God. Settle it in prayer, will you?

God, I'm a sinner.

In the quiet of your mind, you tell Him that right now.

I believe Christ died for my sins. I want Him as my Savior. Lord Jesus, come into my heart and save me.

He'll do it. It's the inviolable promise of His word. He said, "If anybody hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him" (Revelation 3:20).

Closing Prayer

Oh God, I pray that some this morning will trust You as Savior from sin and invite the Lord Jesus Christ into their lives lives. And I pray that all of us may truly learn to be thankful and to radiate that attitude of thankfulness day in and day out till Jesus comes. For it's in His name we pray. Amen.