김흥규목사 (성루가연합감리교회)
Today, we are gathered here to celebrate the Thanksgiving Sunday of Wheat Harvest. Whitsunday is observed 50 days after the Passover, so it is also called the Festival of Week or Pentecost. Whitsunday is one of the Three Festivals of Israel, along with Passover and the Festival of Ingathering.
Let’s altogether take a look at Exodus 34: 21-24. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of what harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.”
According to the above passage, all men of Israel had to appear before God three times each year, during Passover, Festival of Weeks, and Whitsunday. They appeared before God to give Him thanks. Whitsunday was a summer festival, giving thanks to the Lord for the wheat and millet harvest.
After 40 years of wandering and suffering, the people of Israel entered Canaan. When they reaped the first harvest of wheat during their first season of agriculture, the joy they felt was beyond explanation. Upon looking at the fruits of their sweat and blood, the 40 years of suffering in the wastelands probably passed before their eyes in a flash. The people of Israel, feeling abundance of joy, ground the first harvest of wheat and put oil and incense on top of it, offering God the burnt offering (Leviticus 1: 13). It was a worship ceremony of heartfelt thanks and wholesome devotion.
As we celebrate this great day, let’s take a moment to give God thanks for all that He has done for us over the past six months, and offer Him a holy worship service.
Today’s scripture, although short in length, is loved by many people, and it is often referred to as the ‘psalm of thanksgiving.’ Chapter 100 of Psalms is divided into two parts: First part calling all to come before God to give Him thanks, and the second part explaining why we must give God thanks.
First, in verses 1 and 2, it calls all people of God to come forth and give God thanks. In verse 1, it tells us to “Make a joyful shout to the Lord.” By joyful shouts, it means to trust in the victory and power of God, and to shout joy in His praise.
Second, in first part of verse 2, it tells us to serve the Lord in gladness, meaning to worship Him wholeheartedly.
Third, according to latter part of verse 2, it tells us to “Come before His presence with singing.” The author of Psalms 100 is imploring the people of God to come before the temple to worship and praise God.
Verse 4 uses four verbs to invite the people of God to the temple. It orders them to enter the gates with thanksgiving and enter the court with His praise. It is ordering them to sing praise with thanksgiving while entering the temple. Then it tells them to give thanks to God. Lastly, it orders them to bless His name.
Then why do the people of God need to enter God’s temple, sing in joy, worship, and give thanks to God? The reasons are given in verses 3 and 5.
Let’s take a look at the first part of verse 3. “Know that the Lord, He is God.” The biggest reason why we need to praise God with joy and gratefulness in our hearts is because He is our God. He created the universe and all things in it, and He alone determines the fate of man-life, death, blessing, and misfortune. Because He is our God, we need to give Him thanks. We need to praise Him and worship Him!
Careful reading of chapter 100 of Psalms reveals the things that God does for us through three poetic themes. In short, it tells us that because of what He has done for us in the past, what He is doing for us in the present, and what He will do for us in the future, we need to give God thanks and sing and praise in His glory.
First, we need to be thankful to God because He is the One that created us. “It is He who made us.” Not only did He create the universe and all things in it, He also created man in His image. Therefore, we are His possessions. There are no good looking or ugly people to God, because all of us are His unique creations.
In an article someone wrote, there was an interesting report regarding the human body. Our bodies are made up of 100 trillion cells, and every minute, some 300 million cells die. Our brains contain over 100 billion nerve cells.
A square inch of our skin contains about 20 feet, or 6 meters, of blood vessels. The length of blood vessels contained in our body, from head to toe, is some 62,000 miles. Is it not surprising that blood in our body travels such a long distance? Within a square inch of our skin, on average, some 32 million bacteria cells exist. How surprising is it that with so much bacteria on and in our bodies, we still live?
Our eyes do not grow after we are born, but our nose and ears grow as we get taller. So if your eyes are small, then you were born with small eyes. Every year, 98% of atoms in our bodies are replaced with newly generated ones.
Lastly, while you sneeze, you can never keep your eyes open, and while you sneeze, every physical function of our body, including heartbeat, stops momentarily. So when you sneeze, you temporarily die!
Who created such an amazing body? We believe that God created us. Those who have dissected human bodies, such as anatomists and physicians, are ever more surprised at the miraculous human body as they research deeper and deeper into the human body. The more we study the human body, the more we arrive at the conclusion that only God can create such a perfect body. It is not a coincidence that there are many devout Christians among doctors and scientists! They believe, because they have the knowledge that backs up their beliefs!
Second, as stated in the second part of verse 3, we need to give God thanks because “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” This is what God is doing for us at the present. We are not our own masters. Therefore, we cannot decide the fate of our lives, and we must never be careless with our lives.
Why are all people equal in front of God? Although we may have someone work for us as servants, we are not the true masters of that person. Only God is the real master. Therefore, no man is below another man and above another man. Only God can possess man. God is our Master, and we are His people. That is why we need to give thanks to God.
Another reason why we need to thank Him is because He is our shepherd, and we are His sheep. A shepherd shares in his sheep’s fate. Because sheep are ignorant, the shepherd must always keep an eye on them. God is our shepherd, and He watches over everything that we do and watches after us. That is why we need to thank Him.
According to John 10: 11, Jesus becomes our good shepherd and gives up His life for His sheep. It is true. In order to deliver us from sins and death, God, as the good shepherd, crucified His own Son on the cross.
If we reduce the entire world’s population into a village of 100 people, we get the following ratios. Of the 100, 57 are Asians, 21 are Europeans, 14 are from Western Hemisphere, and 8 are Africans. There would be 52 women and 48 men.
Of the 100, 6 people own the 59% of the world’s wealth. 80 live in sub-standard housing, and 70 are illiterate. 50 people suffer from chronic malnutrition. Among the 100, only 1 graduated from college, and only 1 owns a personal computer.
Looking at such statistic, we cannot even imagine how fortunate we are. While countless numbers of people are hungry and without clothes, we have enough to eat, enough to wear, and a good place to live in. Therefore, we need to thank God. We need to thank God, because our good shepherd had led us, up until this day, the calm blue waters and green fields.
Third, according to verse 5, we need to thank God “For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” As with the past and the present, God will give us blessings in the future. Just as the sun rose yesterday, is rising today, and will rise tomorrow, God will continue to turn the wheel of life into the future.
G. K. Chesterton said the following. “We know the sun shines, not because we can see the sun because if we look at the sun it would burn our eyes. We know the sun shines because we can see everything else.”
It is true. The reason why we believe in God is not because we have seen Him with our own eyes. It is because through all the sins, sadness, and suffering of this world, we can still see His light. As long as the earth exists, God’s goodness, gentleness, and diligence will continue without an end. That is why we need to be thankful to God.
We will conclude today’s word shortly, and sing Hymn 20 together. Before we do so, I would like to explain the background regarding the creation of this song, which took place in 1644. The composer of this song, Martin Rinkart (1586-1649), was a Lutheran minister in the town of Eilenburg in the Saxony region of Germany during the Thirty Years War.
In 1637, when the Swedish Army invaded, over 8,000 people lost their lives in course of 1 year. Rinkart presided over the funeral ceremony of some 4,000 people. Many refugees also fled into this village to escape war, creating a serious food problem until the food eventually ran out. On top of all this, the pestilence, a very contagious plague, swept through the region, killing thousands more. On some days, Rinkart oversaw 50 funerals.
One day, after burying dozens of deceased in the ground, Rinkart was totally exhausted. But in such a dire, hopeless, and dark moment, Rinkart lifted his pen and composed a song. That song is Hymn 20, titled “Now Thank We All Our God.”
If you read the verses to this hymn in detail, you can see that the first verse talks about thanking God for the past, the second verse about the present, and the third verse about the future.
As we celebrate the Whitsunday, we have all appeared before God. We all must sing joyfully to give God thanks and worship Him. As we look back on our past, gaze at the present, and forecast the future, there are too many reasons to thank God. At this time, thank God with wholesome gratitude. Amen!
Today, we are gathered here to celebrate the Thanksgiving Sunday of Wheat Harvest. Whitsunday is observed 50 days after the Passover, so it is also called the Festival of Week or Pentecost. Whitsunday is one of the Three Festivals of Israel, along with Passover and the Festival of Ingathering.
Let’s altogether take a look at Exodus 34: 21-24. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of what harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.”
According to the above passage, all men of Israel had to appear before God three times each year, during Passover, Festival of Weeks, and Whitsunday. They appeared before God to give Him thanks. Whitsunday was a summer festival, giving thanks to the Lord for the wheat and millet harvest.
After 40 years of wandering and suffering, the people of Israel entered Canaan. When they reaped the first harvest of wheat during their first season of agriculture, the joy they felt was beyond explanation. Upon looking at the fruits of their sweat and blood, the 40 years of suffering in the wastelands probably passed before their eyes in a flash. The people of Israel, feeling abundance of joy, ground the first harvest of wheat and put oil and incense on top of it, offering God the burnt offering (Leviticus 1: 13). It was a worship ceremony of heartfelt thanks and wholesome devotion.
As we celebrate this great day, let’s take a moment to give God thanks for all that He has done for us over the past six months, and offer Him a holy worship service.
Today’s scripture, although short in length, is loved by many people, and it is often referred to as the ‘psalm of thanksgiving.’ Chapter 100 of Psalms is divided into two parts: First part calling all to come before God to give Him thanks, and the second part explaining why we must give God thanks.
First, in verses 1 and 2, it calls all people of God to come forth and give God thanks. In verse 1, it tells us to “Make a joyful shout to the Lord.” By joyful shouts, it means to trust in the victory and power of God, and to shout joy in His praise.
Second, in first part of verse 2, it tells us to serve the Lord in gladness, meaning to worship Him wholeheartedly.
Third, according to latter part of verse 2, it tells us to “Come before His presence with singing.” The author of Psalms 100 is imploring the people of God to come before the temple to worship and praise God.
Verse 4 uses four verbs to invite the people of God to the temple. It orders them to enter the gates with thanksgiving and enter the court with His praise. It is ordering them to sing praise with thanksgiving while entering the temple. Then it tells them to give thanks to God. Lastly, it orders them to bless His name.
Then why do the people of God need to enter God’s temple, sing in joy, worship, and give thanks to God? The reasons are given in verses 3 and 5.
Let’s take a look at the first part of verse 3. “Know that the Lord, He is God.” The biggest reason why we need to praise God with joy and gratefulness in our hearts is because He is our God. He created the universe and all things in it, and He alone determines the fate of man-life, death, blessing, and misfortune. Because He is our God, we need to give Him thanks. We need to praise Him and worship Him!
Careful reading of chapter 100 of Psalms reveals the things that God does for us through three poetic themes. In short, it tells us that because of what He has done for us in the past, what He is doing for us in the present, and what He will do for us in the future, we need to give God thanks and sing and praise in His glory.
First, we need to be thankful to God because He is the One that created us. “It is He who made us.” Not only did He create the universe and all things in it, He also created man in His image. Therefore, we are His possessions. There are no good looking or ugly people to God, because all of us are His unique creations.
In an article someone wrote, there was an interesting report regarding the human body. Our bodies are made up of 100 trillion cells, and every minute, some 300 million cells die. Our brains contain over 100 billion nerve cells.
A square inch of our skin contains about 20 feet, or 6 meters, of blood vessels. The length of blood vessels contained in our body, from head to toe, is some 62,000 miles. Is it not surprising that blood in our body travels such a long distance? Within a square inch of our skin, on average, some 32 million bacteria cells exist. How surprising is it that with so much bacteria on and in our bodies, we still live?
Our eyes do not grow after we are born, but our nose and ears grow as we get taller. So if your eyes are small, then you were born with small eyes. Every year, 98% of atoms in our bodies are replaced with newly generated ones.
Lastly, while you sneeze, you can never keep your eyes open, and while you sneeze, every physical function of our body, including heartbeat, stops momentarily. So when you sneeze, you temporarily die!
Who created such an amazing body? We believe that God created us. Those who have dissected human bodies, such as anatomists and physicians, are ever more surprised at the miraculous human body as they research deeper and deeper into the human body. The more we study the human body, the more we arrive at the conclusion that only God can create such a perfect body. It is not a coincidence that there are many devout Christians among doctors and scientists! They believe, because they have the knowledge that backs up their beliefs!
Second, as stated in the second part of verse 3, we need to give God thanks because “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” This is what God is doing for us at the present. We are not our own masters. Therefore, we cannot decide the fate of our lives, and we must never be careless with our lives.
Why are all people equal in front of God? Although we may have someone work for us as servants, we are not the true masters of that person. Only God is the real master. Therefore, no man is below another man and above another man. Only God can possess man. God is our Master, and we are His people. That is why we need to give thanks to God.
Another reason why we need to thank Him is because He is our shepherd, and we are His sheep. A shepherd shares in his sheep’s fate. Because sheep are ignorant, the shepherd must always keep an eye on them. God is our shepherd, and He watches over everything that we do and watches after us. That is why we need to thank Him.
According to John 10: 11, Jesus becomes our good shepherd and gives up His life for His sheep. It is true. In order to deliver us from sins and death, God, as the good shepherd, crucified His own Son on the cross.
If we reduce the entire world’s population into a village of 100 people, we get the following ratios. Of the 100, 57 are Asians, 21 are Europeans, 14 are from Western Hemisphere, and 8 are Africans. There would be 52 women and 48 men.
Of the 100, 6 people own the 59% of the world’s wealth. 80 live in sub-standard housing, and 70 are illiterate. 50 people suffer from chronic malnutrition. Among the 100, only 1 graduated from college, and only 1 owns a personal computer.
Looking at such statistic, we cannot even imagine how fortunate we are. While countless numbers of people are hungry and without clothes, we have enough to eat, enough to wear, and a good place to live in. Therefore, we need to thank God. We need to thank God, because our good shepherd had led us, up until this day, the calm blue waters and green fields.
Third, according to verse 5, we need to thank God “For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” As with the past and the present, God will give us blessings in the future. Just as the sun rose yesterday, is rising today, and will rise tomorrow, God will continue to turn the wheel of life into the future.
G. K. Chesterton said the following. “We know the sun shines, not because we can see the sun because if we look at the sun it would burn our eyes. We know the sun shines because we can see everything else.”
It is true. The reason why we believe in God is not because we have seen Him with our own eyes. It is because through all the sins, sadness, and suffering of this world, we can still see His light. As long as the earth exists, God’s goodness, gentleness, and diligence will continue without an end. That is why we need to be thankful to God.
We will conclude today’s word shortly, and sing Hymn 20 together. Before we do so, I would like to explain the background regarding the creation of this song, which took place in 1644. The composer of this song, Martin Rinkart (1586-1649), was a Lutheran minister in the town of Eilenburg in the Saxony region of Germany during the Thirty Years War.
In 1637, when the Swedish Army invaded, over 8,000 people lost their lives in course of 1 year. Rinkart presided over the funeral ceremony of some 4,000 people. Many refugees also fled into this village to escape war, creating a serious food problem until the food eventually ran out. On top of all this, the pestilence, a very contagious plague, swept through the region, killing thousands more. On some days, Rinkart oversaw 50 funerals.
One day, after burying dozens of deceased in the ground, Rinkart was totally exhausted. But in such a dire, hopeless, and dark moment, Rinkart lifted his pen and composed a song. That song is Hymn 20, titled “Now Thank We All Our God.”
If you read the verses to this hymn in detail, you can see that the first verse talks about thanking God for the past, the second verse about the present, and the third verse about the future.
As we celebrate the Whitsunday, we have all appeared before God. We all must sing joyfully to give God thanks and worship Him. As we look back on our past, gaze at the present, and forecast the future, there are too many reasons to thank God. At this time, thank God with wholesome gratitude. Amen!
