A GREAT FUTURE



GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

Psalm 66

Things were not going well for the Union Armies in July 1, 1863.

President Lincoln could not find a general who would fight. The North kept losing battles, even when they outnumbered Southern soldiers two to one. On June 28th, Lincoln had made General Meade the commander of the Army – making him the fifth general to command the Union army since the war broke out.

General Lee, who had not been defeated in battle, was marching toward Washington and everyone was worried about what would happen to the capital. But Lincoln was not a man to worry – he was a man who prayed and trusted God. Being the leader of the nation in such a time of terrible conflict had pushed him into an even deeper relationship with God.

So, with a General Lee marching toward the capital and a new commander in charge of its defense, Lincoln prayed and his prayers were answered. Lee was stopped Gettysburg on July 3rd and the next day the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Miss.

surrendered, these marked the turning points of the war.

After the battle Union General Sickles ask Lincoln, “Were you anxious about the battle at Gettysburg?” He responded, “I got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him for victory. I told him this was His war and our cause His cause.

And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would stand by you boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by him.”

On July 15th Lincoln asked for a day of national thanksgiving, praise and prayer, exhorting people to thank God for the wonderful things He had done on behalf of the nation.

During his presidency, which lasted only four years and six weeks,

Lincoln called for three days of national prayer and repentance and

six days of national thanksgiving and praise for God’s goodness.

Background

This seems to be a national song remembering God’s faithfulness to the nation of Israel as he brought them out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. Along the way they went through trials and suffering, but through it all God was always faithful to them.

Maybe it was sung by the choir at a Passover celebration because the title says it was written: To the choirmaster. A song.

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING :1-12

Grateful Praise :1-4

Everyone is called to praise God by recognizing the glory and honor which is due God because of all he has done for us.

:2 Name – used to describe the character of a person.

In this psalm God is described as: powerful and controlling the forces of nature to the benefit of his people to be delivered from slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea becoming dry land (:6).

:3 Awesome (KJB terrible) – Heb. to show reverence (:5).

The word is used of God’s name and his power over nature.

Psalm 106:22 miracles and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

It is to show reverence and fear out of respect for God’s power.

The power of God displayed in caring for his people should cause us to have a great reverence, respect and fear of him.

Cringing (KJB submit) – Heb. to make themselves small.

They understand the great difference between themselves and God.

They are nothing compared to his almighty presence and power.

Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before God.

:4 All people are to worship God because he of his awesome

deeds which have displayed his almighty power over nature.

When Christ returns and sets up his millennial kingdom, then

all the nations of the earth will acknowledge and worship God.

Selah – probably a musical interlude used for people to pause and think about what they have just sung because it is significant.

Definition

John MacArthur – “Worship is honor and adoration directed

to God. A fuller definition is: worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts and words based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself. Another way of saying it is that worship is glorifying God.”

Application

1. Worship comes out of knowing who God is and therefore

our worship must come from the truths of Scripture.

2. Worship is honoring God for what he has done.

• It can be historical events in the past.

• It can be current events in our own life.

3. Worship is focusing on the character of God not just our own feelings and emotions of the moment which quickly change.

National Deliverance :5-7

Come and see – is an invitation to acknowledge what God has done on behalf of man. We cannot experience what God did in

the past for others, but we can think about those events and acknowledge that God is truly sovereign over history.

:6 The nation was finally delivered from slavery when God parted

the waters of the Red Sea so they could escape the Egyptian army. Then 40 years later God stopped the Jordan River from flowing

so the nation could cross into the Promised Land.

These dramatic displays of God’s power showed them God would use his power to help them when they couldn’t help themselves.

His great power on their behalf gave them their freedom.

:7 Who rules . . . forever – the same mighty God who performed those awesome deeds still controls the destiny of nations, he has not changed. Therefore, we trust in his power to care for us.

Stephen Charnock – “The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct and whatsoever His will may resolve. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal; it can

not be checked, restrained or frustrated by the creature.”

Keep watch – God knows what the nations are doing, both the good and the evil for which they will have to answer to him.

Rebellious exalt themselves – just because God is not physically present, they need to know that he is watching what they do.

Because God is watching of the nations and they are under his authority they need to be humble instead of rebellious or they will be judged by his almighty power like the nation of Egypt was.

Principle

God always punishes those who rebel against his authority:

• Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden.

• Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised land.

• Israel was removed from the Promised land.

National Trials :8-12

Bless – Heb. to express honor and praise.

Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me bless his holy name.

John Calvin – “When visited with affliction, it is of great importance that we should consider it as coming from God,

and as expressly intended for our good.”

:10 God knows all about the trials the nation of Israel went through. His purpose in them was that they would learn to trust him no matter what happened to them. There is nothing that happens to our nation that God does not know before it happens. God allows trials to happen so people will depend upon him.

:11 Burdens (KJB affliction) – Heb. to press causing pressure.

God uses trials to test our faith and to help our faith grow strong.

:12 Fire – could refer to the warfare they faced with other nations.

Water refers to passing through the Red Sea and Jordon River.

Abundance (KJB wealthy place) – Heb. fullness.

Only used in Psalm 23:5 my cup runneth over (overflows).

God blessed the nation by giving them more than they needed.

He prospered them by giving them cities which were already built, houses in which they could move into and fields which already had been prepared. His blessing results in abundance.

Andrae Crouch’s song Through It All explains why we have trials.

I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys,

I thank Him for the storms He brought me through;

For if I’d never had a problem

I wouldn’t know that He could solve them,

I’d never know what faith in God could do.

We need to see that God has richly blessed our nation even though we have gone through times of suffering and wars. In spite of the fact that this nation is not as godly as we would like it to be still

God has richly blessed our great nation and allowed it to be free.

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.

We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and

prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power,

as no other nation has ever grown.”

INDIVIDUAL GRATITUDE :13-20

The national praise for what God had done gives way to the voice of a single individual who personally thanks God.

Individual Commitment :13-15

John Calvin – “When God delivers us in our adversity, we do an injustice to his name if we forget to celebrate our deliverances

with solemn acknowledgements.”

Here the individual is fulfilling vows he made to the Lord when he was going through difficulties and trials. This is more than just offering thanksgiving because his trials are over. These burnt-offerings spoke of his personal dedication to God.

He is following through with the personal commitment he made to God when he was going through the trials. When our trial is over it is easy to forget our commitment, but we need to be faithful to God because he has been faithful to us.

Personal Praise :16-20

Come and hear – what God has done for this individual. His story is a miniature of the nation’s story. God has been faithful to him just as God has been faithful to the nation and so he praises him.

God doesn’t just bless nations because they are part of his plan he also blesses individuals because he loves them personally.

When God does something in our life we should praise him for what he has done. First, we should praise him privately and then we should praise him publicly so others will know as well.

:18 If we hold on to our sin instead of confessing it, God will

not answer our prayers because we are living out of his will.

:19 His final word of gratitude is not for answered prayer, but for what is signifies – a personal relationship with God by grace.

ILLUSTRATION

Set in the midst of the Civil War the 1965 movie Shenandoah portrays Jimmy Stewart as a farmer in Virginia. He is a self-made man whose prayers at supper consist of him bragging about how he did every thing to provide the food which the family enjoyed and that if it wasn’t for him they wouldn’t have any food to eat.

He decides not to get involved in the war because he believes it is not his war. Over the course of the movie several of his children are killed and one is taken captured and taken away as a POW.

By the end of the movie Stewart starts his dinner prayer with his remaining children and chokes it off in the middle. He is no longer in charge as his bragging has been emptied by life and reality.

The last scene is set in a church, which he had gone to before merely to keep a promise to his believing wife, who died before the war. In the midst of the service the son who has been a POW comes walking into the service and the congregation breaks out

in the Doxology – Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above,

ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Stewart, his father, starts singing along with them. He is

no longer a self-made man, but now thanks God for safely

bringing his son home to him.

CONCLUSION

Being thankful is not just about saying thanks. It is about a way

of living your life, always mindful of the incredible goodness of God and responding with sincere gratitude for what he has done.

There is nothing we have that has not been given to us in some way. Our blessings as well as our sufferings are under the control of our loving heavenly Father. God has a purpose in everything

that he allows to happen in our lives.

The abundant goodness of God should cause us to thank him.

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