This coming Thursday marks the beginning of the holiday season that will last until the New Year, where overeating will affect many of us.  Some people look forward to the holidays because they will be with family.  Others dread the holidays because they will be with family.  I don’t know if you have traditions around the Thanksgiving table, but try this if you need to liven things up:  When everyone goes around the table to say what they are thankful for say, “I’m thankful I didn’t get caught,” and refuse to say anything more.  Or, at mid-meal, turn to your mom and say, “See, Mom, I told you they wouldn’t notice that the turkey was past the expiration date.  You were worried for nothing.” 

Rachel and I will be flying to Texas in the morning to spend Thanksgiving with our oldest son, David.  Our other sons will be with their fiancées’ families that day.   

Although Thanksgiving was not established as a national observance until 1863, the first Thanksgiving was held by the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621.  Although we have had some tough economic times, we are so much more affluent than our Pilgrim Fathers were.  During the first winter at Plymouth Colony, seven times as many graves were made for the dead than homes for the living.  The following Spring a ship arrived from England carrying 35 more settlers but virtually no provisions or supplies.   However, they persevered and by the harvest of 1623, the Pilgrims were bringing in ample crops.  Legend has it that at one point, each settler was given a food ration of five kernels of corn daily.  It appears that they had their backs against a wall and their stomachs were rubbing against their backbones.  And, think of it, they didn’t have the luxury of a government bailout plan.   

Whether the five kernels were actually a daily ration has not been proven, but the early Pilgrims did have a custom of putting five kernels of corn on each empty plate prior to their Thanksgiving dinners.  Each member of the family would pick up a kernel and tell what they were thankful for, reminding each other of the earlier time when the settlers were in dire straits.   

What are you thankful for today?  I’ll give you a few of mine: I’m thankful that there aren’t twice as many Congressmen than there are…we would be doubly messed up.  I’m thankful that teenagers will ultimately have children who will become teenagers.  I thankful that I’m not a turkey…at least, this week.   

We have so many reasons to be thankful today.  I want to use Psalm 103:1-5 as a basis for taking five kernels of corn today—giving us five things with which to praise God.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul, & all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, & forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love & mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”   

When people are looking for a job, they look at the potential employer and ask themselves, “Do I really want to work there?”  If they pursue employment they often want to know what the benefits package may contain…health coverage, 401K plans, vacation days, etc.  In verse 2 of Psalm 103 we are told to “forget not all God’s benefits.”   

Do we ever forget God’s benefits?  Do you remember when you were dating?  Do you remember your boyfriend doing something special that seemed to “sweep you off your feet?”  It made you feel special—it made your heart flutter and your toes tingle.  What happens as years go by?  You’re married now and you both wake up with morning breath and your hair is sticking out in every direction.  The tingle is gone.  The heart is just beating instead of fluttering and your toe hurts instead of tingling.  How come?  You’ve become familiar with that person and you may take him or her for granted.  It can become that way in our relationship with God.  Folks, God has an incredible benefits package.  He gives big blessings, but if we aren’t careful, we may fall deeply in love with the gift and forget the Giver.   

Do you remember the joy that you had when you first were saved from your sin?  You were excited and grateful for what God had done in your life.  He saved you from a life of sin and changed your direction from hell to heaven.  He cleaned up your life and made you a brand new person.  Some people who knew you noticed the difference in your life.  You knew that Jesus had His hold on you.  But as the months passed by, instead of looking for a reason to come to church, you looked for excuses to stay home.  Instead of reading God’s Word, you turned on the television.  Instead of taking your situation to God in prayer, you went to bed worrying how it was all going to work out.  That doesn’t happen to everyone. 

Some have been saved and still have hearts that burn hot for God.  They’re in God’s Word everyday and they pray.  They’re upset when they can’t make it to church.  They’re in love with Jesus.   

What causes such disparaging differences among professing Christians?  We all start at the same place, which is at the foot of the cross of Jesus.  We can’t make it without Him and there is no salvation apart from Him.  The difference is some people forget their benefits.  This morning I want to ask you if you are thankful for what Christ has done for you.   

There is a danger is growing accustomed to God’s blessing and treat it as common.  But there is a danger of developing an attitude that we deserve what God did for us.  We should be thankful this morning that we haven’t received what we deserved.  If we got what we deserved, we would still be on our way to hell right now.  But God has been merciful to us.  A few of God’s benefits and blessings are disclosed in verses 3-5.  Like the Pilgrims did before their Thanksgiving meals, let us look at David’s Five Kernels of Corn. 

1. The Kernel of Forgiveness.

Verse three tells us that God “forgives all your iniquity…”  Notice that it says ALL of our sins.  A man was visiting his pastor and picked up a book in the pastor’s study and was thumbing through it and all of a sudden, he got very excited.  The pastor asked, “What’s the matter with you?”  The fellow replied, “This book says that in certain places earth’s oceans are five miles deep!”  The pastor replied, “That’s right.  What of it?”  “Well, the Bible says that my sins have been cast into the depth of the seas, and if it’s that deep, I’m not afraid of their coming up again.  The pressure of the water is so great that if a battleship could be sunk at that depth, it would be crushed like an egg shell.”  (Micah 7:19) 

We can never have a relationship with God until the question of our sin has been dealt with.  Do you think King David knew his need of forgiveness?  Although he was a great leader for his country, he had fallen into temptation and committed terrible sins that are listed in the Bible.  And yet he had found that the Lord was merciful to those who repented and looked to Him for forgiveness.   

Verses 10-12 of Psalm 103 says, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”   

This forgiveness is a promise of the Father that was provided by the death of His Son on the cross.  If God never did anything else for us, this kernel of corn should give us an incredible sense of gratitude.   

2. The Kernel of Redemption.

Verse 4 tells us that God “redeems your life from the pit.”   I have never collected antiques but my late mom, who was a packrat, left behind all kinds of old things and we have our share at our house.  As a result, I like to watch the Antique Road Show on PBS from time to time, seeing if any stuff like our stuff is being appraised.  It amazes me what some old stuff is worth.  You judge the value of something by the price paid for it.  And we can judge our value by the price that Jesus paid for us—the depths into which He had to reach to redeem us. 

Pat Neff was the governor of Texas in the 1920s.  He spoke to the convicts at the state penitentiary and at the conclusion of his talk, he said he would remain to listen if any man wanted to speak to him.  A large group of men remained, most of them were “lifers.”  One by one they told the governor that they were there though a frame-up, an injustice or a judicial blunder and each asked to be freed. 

Finally one man came up and said, “Governor, I just want to say that I’m guilty.  I did what they sent me here for, but I believe I’ve paid for it.  If I were freed, I would do everything I could to be a good citizen and prove myself worthy of your mercy.”  The governor pardoned the guy and when asked why, he said it was because the man admitted his guilt.  We have been “redeemed from the pit,” but we can’t say that we’ve paid for any of it, like that convicted man.  The old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin has left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”   

The Lord not only pulls our souls from Hell but He has freed us from the clutches of the devil.  Our prisons, sanitariums, and half-way houses are filled with people whose lives are being destroyed by Satan.  Jesus warned (Matt. 7:13) “Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide & the way is easy that leads to destruction, & those who enter by it are many.” 

So we should praise God this morning, along with the Psalmist, who said, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, & set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see & fear & put their trust in the Lord.”  (Psalm 40:2-3) 

3. The Kernel of Healing.

Verse 3 of Psalm 103 tells us that God “heals all your diseases.”  When I read that I can’t reconcile this verse with the fact that God doesn’t heal everyone who has an “incurable” disease.  But I believe there are truths in this verse.

·         All healing is divine healing and all recovery from sickness, injury and surgery is the result of the healing properties that God has built into our bodies.  Medicine, surgery and therapy are merely extensions of God’s healing ministry.

·         This verse doesn’t say that God heals everyone’s diseases, but that He heals all diseases.  There is no disease or sickness that lies beyond God’s healing power—He is the Great Physician.

·         The main illness the Psalmist is speaking about is the disease of his soul.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul…who heals all your diseases.”    

The diseases of the soul all come from the virus of sin, which Jesus identified in Matt. 15:19-20 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person.”   Just as some illnesses can be cured by medicine and surgery, our souls can be cleanses and made whole when God the Holy Spirit is allowed to possess us completely. 

4. The Kernel of Love and Compassion.

Verse 4 of our passage tells us that God “crowns you with steadfast love & mercy.”  Jesus illustrated this passage in His parable of the Prodigal Son.  God welcomes us home and gives us love and compassion, things that we don’t deserve.  God’s loving kindness and tender mercies are with us daily. 

It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of me because my Heavenly Father has crowned me with loving kindness.  He loves me when no one else is treating me right.  When no one seems to be giving me a chance, God does.   

The Psalmist made some horrible mistakes that had bitter consequences.  But God didn’t abandon him.  He gave David His love and mercy. 

How can you measure that love and mercy?  We don’t have tools capable of measuring it.  Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer, tried to measure an extremely deep part of the Arctic Ocean.  The first day, he used his longest measuring line but couldn’t reach the bottom.  He wrote in his log book, “The ocean is deeper than that!”  The next day, he added more line but still couldn’t measure the depth and recorded in his log book, “Deeper than that!”  After several days of adding more line he had to leave that part of the ocean without learning its actual depth.  All he knew was that it was beyond his ability to measure.  We are unable to plumb the depths of God’s love, because our human measuring line is too short. 

5. The Kernel of Satisfaction and Renewal.

Vs. five tells us that God “satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.”  On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger & thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  (Matt. 5:6)  There is a paradox here.  We’re satisfied but never satisfied.  My wife is a fabulous cook.  I’m always satisfied when I eat, but I always want more because it’s so good I want to taste it again and again.  So it should be with righteousness.  We’re filled and that filling is so sweet and rich that we want more.   

Folks, when we seek after God’s righteousness, He gives it to us.  Ps. 107:9 “For he satisfies the longing soul, & the hungry soul he fills with good things.”  We should be thankful that God satisfies us with good, but He will renew my youth like the eagle’s.  And we know that eagles are known for their size, strength and longevity.  This is the result of living a fulfilled satisfying spiritual life.  We will constantly be renewed and refreshed by the Lord. 

Everything in your life that flows out of love has come to you from God.  Everything in your life that is good has been initiated by God.  He has everything for you and He should be everything to you and He can enrich the lives of others through you.   

No one has favored you more than God.  He has removed every stain of your sin, He has cleansed all the defilement of your iniquity and He has silenced every voice of condemnation that has hung over your head.   

His grace abounds toward you and all of Christ’s riches are made available to you.  Through Christ, you have received treasures that can never be taken away…we have a hope that will never fade and a life that will never pass away.  We have received so much because He has been so generous. 

As I close, I go back to verse 2.  Please, people of faith, do NOT forget “all his benefits.”   Tokyo, Japan was hit by a huge earthquake and fire in September 1923.  The Red Cross estimated that 300,000 people were killed.  President Hoover sent help and supplies and the American people collected over $10 million to help those in Japan.  (That was a lot of money in those days.)  The Japanese were grateful and the Japanese government sent a thank you to the United States stating, “Japan will never forget.”  But you know what happened.  They did forget.  The American ships of mercy were forgotten and Japan sent planes of destruction on December 7, 1941, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The Japanese, however, are not the only ones who overlooked past mercies.  A long time ago, the Lord said this of Israel: “My people have forgotten me days without number.”  (Jer. 2:32)  God blessed them but they forgot Him. 

When you look back at Psalm 103, it is no wonder that the Psalmist declared, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, & all that is within me bless His holy name!”  As you enjoy your Thanksgiving meal this week, take time to thank God for His many blessing—these five kernels from Psalm 103.  Let’ pray!