The List of Thankfulness

"The List of Thankfulness"
Psalm 95

How many of you make lists?  (show of hands)

How many of you who make lists, mainly make To-Do Lists?  (show of hands)  Jan Luttrell is a great To-Do list maker.  And she gets a lot done each day.  It must be very gratifying to scratch out stuff on your list as you go through your day.  I always put, "Drink a cup of tea" on my To-Do list.  That way I know I'll get at least one thing done.

There are other kinds of lists you can make.  I saw a list this week that was titled, "Fun Things You Can Do On An Elevator."  Here it is:

1.  Stand silently and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.
2.  Crack open your briefcase or purse and while peering inside, ask, "Got enough air in there?
3.  Drop a pen and wait until someone bends to pick it up; then scream, "That's mine!"
4.  Leave a box in the corner, and when someone gets on, ask them if they can hear ticking.
5.  Stare, grinning at another passenger for a while, then announce, "I have new socks on."
6.  Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce in horror, "You're one of THEM!" and back away slowly.
7.  Greet everyone with a warm handshake and ask them to call you Admiral.
8.  Dress up as the devil and then ask other people as they get in, "Going down?"
9.  Put a small desk in the elevator, and sit behind it.  When the door opens, ask the person standing there, "Do you have an appointment?"
10.  Announce in a creepy voice, over and over,  "I must find a more suitable host body."

How many of you would do such things?  (show of hands)

So far, during our Journaling Class, as well as Sunday mornings during sermons, I have suggested a few exercises to write about using lists.  Making lists, within the spiritual discipline of journaling can help you in a lot of ways.  Lists can be answers to important questions.  The more answers you have to look at, the less confusion you have to deal with.

Making a list can help you select and prioritize what is really important.  Looking at your lists, you can decide what is just minutia, and what really matters.  Once you have your list made, say of values you feel are important to exemplify in life, and you cross off those that really don't matter, or create the kind of ripple effect you hope for, then you've gone a long way in setting your priorities.  Now that you have a short list of your core values, you can develop the actions you will take in which those core values will shine through.

There are times in anyone's life where you feel chaotic, scattered, unclear and out of control.  Making a list of these situations, and looking at them on paper can help you organize and contain a sense of inner chaos, which can make your load feel more manageable.

This morning, I'm going to suggest you make a short list—no more than three items—of what you are thankful to God for.  We're going to use Psalm 95 as a guide for those three items for which we are thankful.  So, in a way, the list has already been made for you.  Easy-peasy assignment.  Until you see what the three things are.

The first thing Psalm 95 thanks God for is that,

The LORD is the greatest God,
king over all other gods.  (vs. 3)

That seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?

An interesting fact is that the Old Testament doesn't dispute that there are other gods.  In fact, the Old Testament people assume there are.  They know there are.  At some points the Old Testament prophets make the case that these other gods are actually no-gods at all.  At other places, the other gods are acknowledged, but the people are told not to worship them.  At all!

These other gods were all over the place.  There was the god baal, who in many cultures around Israel, was the god of the storm.  Baal was the god who created and granted fertility of crops and people.  He was also the god of justice, of whom people were terrified because his justice was so harsh and punishing.  The goddesses, asherah, astarte, and anath, were consorts of baal, mostly having to do with fertility rites.

Dagan was the god of the coastal people called the Philistines.  He was the fish god, and also a fertility god.

There are other gods today, some of which go along with the gods of the past.  Our other gods today are more ideas, or false values.  Things like pleasure, the self, prestige, safety, the human body, and power.  Two of the biggest gods, that are invoked daily in our culture, are blame and denial.

Mainly, these false gods are things that have weaseled their way into your lives to such an extent that it would be really hard for you to separate them from who you are.  They are such a part of you, such a part of your everyday life, that if you had to stop giving it that place, you don't know what you'd do.

Here's the part I really want you to do some hard thinking about.  List and identify that in your life that is on the level of being another god.  Then, once you're done making your list, ask of each entry, compared to this entry, "Is the LORD the greatest God, king over this god?"  Are you thankful for the fact that the LORD is greater than all other gods—so much greater, in fact, that the LORD wants that other god out of your life?

Secondly, the psalmist is thankful that the LORD holds the deepest parts (meaning, the oceans) in his hands.  The reason that ancient people were thankful God holds the oceans is because the oceans—the deep—was the scariest part of the creation.  The ocean is where the most fearsome beasts dwelt.

One of those beasts was Tiamat, the symbol of chaos prior to creation.  Tiamat was a female god of great beauty, but who could transform into a monstrous sea serpent dragon, unleashing chaos upon the world from the bottom of the ocean.  Tiamat was believed to have created the first dragons who were filled with poison instead of blood.

The other ocean god was Marduk, the storm god.  All storms were believed to originate in the oceans, created by Marduk.

So, as the psalm states, if God holds the deepest oceans in his hands, God also, then, holds the scariest parts of those oceans in his hands as well.  Thus, our God is in control of the oceans and anything in them.

Think of the scariest parts of your life—the things that terrify you the most.  God has control of those, holding them in his hands.  For God to hold our scariest thoughts, and experiences means God can deal with them in mighty and powerful ways.

So make a list of what scares you most.  Keep the list pretty much in the center of the page of your journal.  Then when you are done with the list, draw a large pair of hands holding that list.  Aren't you so thankful for God's hands are holding and taking care of your fears?


And, lastly, the psalmist is thankful for how God tends to us like a shepherd does her sheep.  The psalmist states, "…we are his people, the sheep he takes care of in his own pasture.  Listen to God's voice today!"

Jesus said something similar in the gospel of John:
When (the shepherd) has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice.  The sheep will not follow strangers.  They don't recognize a stranger's voice, and they run away.  (John 10:4-5)

There are lots of qualities of the relationship between shepherd and sheep.  But the one—the only one—highlighted here, is, as God's sheep we hear and know his voice.  The psalm first identifies us as God's people.  Then, as God's people we are sheep he takes care of.  Then, that which links us most intimately with God is hearing his voice "today."

One of the themes I am running into in all the classes I'm teaching now is the temptation or trait we humans have of trying to do everything on our own—to face life as a lone wolf.  It may not be self-centeredness, as much as it is our assumption that we should be able to take life on, on our own.  That somehow we're a failure as a person if we have to ask for help.  Or that we have to have someone take care of us.  Our fierce independence is part of what keeps us from allowing God to take us to his pasture and take care of us as he sheep.

Aren't there times you just want to be taken care of, though?  To just give up taking life on alone?  Or trying to bandage yourself up from all the wounds life inflicts?  To just let God tend to you?  To hear God's tender and tending voice, calming you while God bandages your wounds?  To be taken, by God, out into a lush pasture—whatever that represents for you—and lets you roam, and eat, and rest, and sleep in the soft grass?  Don't you wish you could turn yourself over to God for that kind of treatment?  That's what the psalmist thanks God for.

Make a list of the ways you would love to have God tend to you.  In and around and through that list draw the grass of God's pasture, symbolizing your thankfulness for how God takes care of you.

So these are the three experiences with God the psalmist is thankful for.  In your journal this week, write three things you are thankful to God for that has to do with the three themes in this Psalm.  See what you come up with.