The following sermon was preached on April 12th, 2026 at Faith United Methodist Church during the Sunday morning worship service. All verses quoted are from the English Standard Version.
As you all recall, during this past month Christians around the world celebrated a very significant day in the Church year. Here in the US we often call this day “Easter,” and historically it’s also been referred to more specifically as Resurrection Sunday. On this day we commemorate and reflect on the fact that Christ our Messiah, our Mediator between God and Man, rose from the dead roughly 2000 years ago. And this fact, of course, provides us with a great many reasons to celebrate. Something that I was taught while I was in seminary was that we ought to view every Sunday when we gather for worship as a mini-Easter, as a mini-Resurrection Sunday. And the reason for this is of course due to the fact that all of our future hope, our great hope for salvation and the forgiveness of sins, hinges on the fact that the Messiah stepped out of the tomb on the third day.
Now, I certainly agree with this idea. I think that every Sunday we ought to have the same joy that we have on Easter when we gather together to praise God on a weekly basis. But I would take it another step further. Here in the US we have another holiday that, although it isn’t exclusive to Christians, I do think we should celebrate more than once per year. And that holiday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is of course a time when we gather with loved ones and reflect on all that we are grateful for. As Christians, we especially use this time to thank God for all that He has provided for us despite how often we stray from our loving heavenly Father.
As we’ll see in our passage today, the psalmist is going to illustrate what it looks like to live a life of perpetual thanksgiving. He will show us what it’s like to be grateful to God each and everyday, not just on a set date in November. Let’s turn to God’s Word and read from Psalm 116, verses 1 through 4 and 12 through 19.
- 1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” … 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19)
PART 1: We Love the God Who Hears Us (vv. 1-4)
Let’s begin by reflecting on the first four verses. Here, the psalmist begins by proclaiming his affection for His heavenly father. He declares up front, “I love the Lord!” and thus sets up an atmosphere of praise and adoration for God. Of course, the word “love” in our day has many meanings. The love in which the psalmist speaks of goes much deeper than the romantic love between a husband and wife, or even the brotherly or sisterly love of two lifelong friends. As we’ve read in the verses to come of the psalm, the love that we see here is more closely understood as the love between a dependent and created being and his caring and providing Creator. It’s very similar to the love that a child naturally has for their parents, but magnified a hundredfold. So when he declares His love for the Lord, the psalmist is not proclaiming it casually like we often do to our loved ones when we walk out the door in the morning or when we hang up the phone. No, instead the psalmist is being very deliberate and clear of His affection for His Creator.
Now we may ask, “Psalmist, why do you say this?” And the remainder of this first section gives us our answer: God heard him. God heard the voice, the cry, of the psalmist. In the description of what God did for this person, we see a very important truth that separates God from the other false “gods” of other faiths. It is that our God, the Triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a personal God. So what do I mean by that? It means that God did not just create all of the universe and every creature and plant and element within it, but God actually intervenes and upholds all things by His own power. Our society would so often have us think that God doesn’t care about the little details of our lives or that God only cares when we do very important things. But that is a total lie. We see an example of this in Genesis 16 in the story of Hagar. When she flees from Abram and Sarai after Sarai gave Hagar to Abram so that he could bear a son, Hagar cries out to God with little hope left within her. But God sends the Angel of the Lord and promises that she will not be alone but will actually bear a son. And this is her response. She says: “You are a God of seeing…truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” And so a theme is established throughout all of Scripture: that the true God whom we serve is very active in His Creation and actually cares about His people.
The psalmist goes on to explain how this was demonstrated in his own life. He doesn’t hold back in his description of his distress, but states, “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” In other words, whatever he was experiencing had affected him in every way. It appears that not only was he physically suffering, possibly being in danger of being killed somehow, but the psalmist also testifies that he was suffering emotionally and mentally. All of this led to him being left with no other option other than to cling to His Creator and cry out, “Lord, deliver me!” But just as Hagar was heard by God, so too was the psalmist. He gives us the imagery of God lowering Himself and turning His ear to him. Now, when we read this we shouldn’t give into the temptation that God reluctantly heard the psalmist or that the psalmist had to earn God’s love. Not at all. In reality, God was joyous to deliver him because it is God’s nature to deliver and provide and care for His children. Moses tells us this in Deuteronomy 32:26 when he says, “For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free.” And of course, God proved this to the fullest when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver the people of God from the greatest danger of all: sin and death. Therefore, the psalmist is not alone in declaring his love for God. But in fact all believers who have been rescued from sin and death can join in and say, “Lord, we love you! You alone have heard our cries and you alone have rescued us from our distress.”
PART 2: The Nature of Giving Thanks (vv. 12-19)
So we’ve seen the verbal response of the psalmist after he’s been rescued from his trials and suffering, as well as how his love has grown for the Lord. But the psalmist is not done quite yet. For the final segment of the chapter, verses 12 through 19, we see this person’s love being put into action. He tells us exactly what he feels moved to do knowing that God has delivered him. Certainly, this sort of response is to be expected of the people of God. When another person does a kindness towards us, it is a righteous thing to find some way in which to repay them. For example, don’t we think that it’s right to repay our neighbor when they let us borrow an important tool we need? Don’t we think that it’s right to find a way to praise our spouse when they surprise us with a gift or an act of service? Well certainly it is! And in the same way, when God delivers us through trials or when He provides for one of our many needs, it logically follows that we ought to seek to praise our great God.
So what is the response of the Psalmist then? In a way he asks us that question in the twelfth verse. He says, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” Now, he doesn’t ask this seeking suggestions, but he’s rhetorically asking, “What gift or praise could I ever give to God to repay Him for all of the wonderful things that He’s given me?” Well the truth is that none of us, not even the psalmist, could ever perfectly repay God because He is infinite and perfect and we are mere fallen mortals. But nevertheless, God does indeed accept the worship of His people who have been washed by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And the psalmist, being aware of this, lists several ways in which he seeks to thank the Lord for all that He has done for him.
He lists four things that he intends to do in response to the Lord’s faithfulness to him. The psalmist states that he will…
- …lift up the cup of salvation
- …call on the name of the Lord (x2)
- …pay his vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem (x2)
- …offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
So we see that the psalmist is describing the things that he intends to do in a place of worship, in the Temple. And his actions inform us of an important truth: that praising God and showing our thankfulness to him can be both private and public. The psalmist does not limit his show of thankfulness to God by merely saying out loud, “Thank you, God!” He goes so much further. First, he states that he will “lift up the cup of salvation,” meaning that he will publicly declare that God is the one who rescued him from his distress. Next, he says that he will call on the name of the Lord personally when faced with any future distress. Third, the psalmist states that he has previous vows that he made to God, which he will fulfill (not privately, but) publicly before his fellow citizens and the court authorities. And finally, the author writes that he will offer “a sacrifice of thanksgiving”, meaning he would devote a physical sacrifice (typically made up of an animal and certain types of bread) and relinquish it to God at the Temple. Each of these ways of showing gratefulness display both the personal, private aspect of thankfulness while also displaying how thankfulness to God can be shown in public.
In our day and age, we often slip into one side or the other when thanking God. Some folks tend to only thank God privately, choosing to only acknowledge him in quiet prayer. On the other hand, some tend to only thank God publicly. Now of course, as we’ve just seen with the psalmist, showing gratitude either privately or publicly isn’t wrong one way or the other. But regardless of how we are able to thank God for all that we’ve done, we must strive to do so intentionally. If we are choosing to thank God privately, perhaps in the form of a prayer, we should do so with joy and with reverence, not making light of the moment with a brief, “Hey thanks, Lord!” but truly spend time meditating on what the Lord has done, perhaps even naming those things He has done for us. On the other hand, if we are able to thank God in the sight of others publicly, we should not do so as if we are boasting or making ourselves look great. Rather we should demonstrate humility and thank God in such a way that others are inspired to trust in this same loving Father. So this, dear friends, is how we are to demonstrate authentic thankfulness to our God.
PART 3: New Testament Connection: Jesus and the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:12-19)
Now, I’d like for us to briefly see what we’ve just discussed in an example that I think really brings out just how much God desires for those He loves to show gratitude. The example can be found in a short story involving Jesus and ten lepers in the Gospel of Luke. Let’s take a look and see how the principles we uncovered early are demonstrated here. This is Luke 17:12-19:
- 12 And as [Jesus] entered a village, He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When He saw them [Jesus] said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:12-19)
So to briefly recap what we just read here, ten people with a debilitating physical condition – what we call “leprosy” – ask Jesus for mercy. When they receive healing on their way to the priests, just one of them, a Samaritan, decides that it would be fitting to go back and thank God and the Man who healed him who he probably did not know was actually God in the flesh. And what a brilliant decision this is! Though there were ten lepers total, and all ten received physical healing, only the Samaritan leper received true spiritual healing as well. It was because of his virtue of gratefulness that this man was led to return to the One who helped him and rightfully offer his praise and thanks. And Christ acknowledges this by giving a final word of encouragement, saying, “Rise…your faith has made you well.”
Do we understand this, dear ones? What Christ is saying is that our displays of thankfulness to God, whether private or public, are indeed demonstrations of saving faith. As most of you know, the Book of James says that “faith without works is dead.” When we read stories like this in Luke’s Gospel we could also rightly say that faith without thanksgiving is dead. A person who says that they believe in God and has been blessed by Him but never takes the time to thank the Lord for their salvation or for any blessing is in grave danger of a dying faith. On the other hand, a person who believes in God and has been blessed by Him who makes a regular practice of praising and thanking God for all He has done has nothing to fear, not even death itself. One of the most notable fathers of the early church, St. Irenaeus, puts it this way. He says: “He who shall preserve the life bestowed upon him, and give thanks to [God] Who imparted it, shall receive also length of days forever and ever. But he who shall reject it, and prove himself ungrateful to his Maker, inasmuch as he has been created, and has not recognized Him Who bestowed the gift upon him, deprives himself of the privilege of continuance forever and ever.” In other words, a life of thanksgiving unto God is one heading to eternal life. And likewise, a life that lacks thanksgiving is one heading to eternal deprivation of God’s gifts.
CONCLUSION:
As we come to a close, we reflect on these two stories of godly gratitude. The psalmist in our main passage reminds us that God is very much active in our life and is the one who delivers us from the evil and danger of the world. He demonstrates to us that when we feel this gratefulness for these blessings in our hearts that it is right and proper that we either privately or publicly thank the Lord. To do so is to worship the one who cares for us. And likewise, in the story of the ten lepers who encounter Jesus, we learn from the example of the grateful leper that faith and thankfulness are two sides of the same coin. Ultimately, we see in his example that thankfulness is never a wasted pursuit because it leads us into a greater relationship with the one who saves and heals us: the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my friends, let’s not delay in thanking our God. Let’s make it a habit in our lives to give thanks like the psalmist, to give thanks like the Samaritan leper. Let’s give God the glory and the honor that He is rightly due. Another church father, St. John Chrysostom once wrote on this topic, encouraging his congregation this way. He tells them, “Let us give thanks to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His benefaction to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. [God] does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him.”
Brothers and sisters, God has joyfully given you life and woke you up this morning that you may experience it. And much more has the Father given you eternal life through the death and resurrection of His Son and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Having heard these words today, continue to thank God for what He has done; or perhaps for some of you, let today be the first day that you thank the Lord from now until you enter His glorious presence forever and ever.
Let us now go to our God in prayer…
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