Sermon video here.
(Third in a Stewardship Sermon Series on Psalm 100, "Make a Joyful Noise")
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Well, it’s not quite November yet, but it’s time for us to talk about thanksgiving anyway. It’s funny, isn’t it, that this term, “Thanksgiving,” brings to mind turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing—that one specific day of celebration—more readily than an ongoing attitude of giving thanks. Scripture doesn’t seem to have the fourth Thursday of November in mind when it talks about Thanksgiving. Verse 4 of Psalm 100 says, “Enter [God’s] gates with thanksgiving and [God’s] courts with praise.” Definitely referring to an attitude and not a holiday.
So, on this Sunday in October, we’ll talk about “thanksgiving” with a lowercase “t”. If Psalm 100 is about “Making a joyful noise to the Lord,” then gratitude is the underlying reason that we should be making that noise. Almost every single English translation chooses to title this psalm, “a song of thanksgiving” instead of “a song of noise” (I can’t imagine why—such a catchy title). Giving thanks is pretty clearly the main theme of this psalm.