People will sometimes react to the same event in totally different ways. When Covid numbers began to improve in New York, someone suggested that the people should thank God. The governor replied, “We did this. There is no reason to thank God.”
It is hard for some to understand why Christians praise God. And we may do his cause harm by telling people that they ought to come to worship while giving them rather poor and self-centred reasons for doing so.
This psalm gives us three reasons why praise is due to our God.
Atonement
The first is the atonement for our sin.
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. 2O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. 3When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions (1-3).
But, of course, those who have little awareness of sin feel no need to give thanks for forgiveness. Most people today are not like Isaiah who said: (“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”). Most people are more like the adulteress who “wipes her mouth and says “I have done nothing wrong (Pr 30:20).
For people to praise God, we must first cause them to mourn their sins.
Undeserved access
The second reason for praise is our undeserved access to God.
“Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” (4).
Once we recognise our sin, and recognise our undeserved chosenness, we will praise God. Sadly, in our fellowship, there has been a long-standing overreaction to Calvinism. That overreaction has left many of our people claiming to have in some way deserved their calling and election. We need to teach passages like Deuteronomy 7:7-8 and 9:6; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Ephesians 2:8-9; and 2 Corinthians 4:6. We do not deserve access to God. We must praise him that he has granted this undeserved blessing.
Physical blessings
The third reason is the abundant physical blessings we receive. These are noted throughout this psalm, but especially toward the end.
You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. 10You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. 12The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy (9-13).
Here we have a beautifully worded description of fundamental physical blessings. Our generation has physical blessings inconceivable to past generations. Yet these are too often attributed to human effort, too rarely to God.
We have three great reasons for praising our God. In all three cases we are either more blessed or in a better position to appreciate our blessings than any Old Testament writer.
Yet we are often far from eager to praise him. At times even worship degenerates into self-congratulation rather than praise (see Lk 18:11-12). We have many other reasons to praise. But today let us focus on these excellent reasons. He has atoned for our sins. He has granted us undeserved access to him. He has granted us many physical blessings.