Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for November 24, 2019

Thanksgiving Message

A Psalm for Thanksgiving 2019: A Table in the Wilderness

Psalms 78:4-19

1. Setting/Background

• a statement of the Lord’s purpose in giving revelation to His people and a history of deliverance
• intention: “…that all future generations might remember what He had done and be encouraged by the remembrance to hope in Him for the future; and by both memory and hope be impelled in the charge of present duty.” (Maclaren)
• the passage of time which bears all of us onward steadily and silently
• tell the coming generation: deeds, might and wonders (4)
• establishment of testimony and appointment of law (7)
• purpose: set hope, not forget, keep commandments, not be like fathers (8)
• catalog of the history of the Lord with His people:

faithful/faithless contrast (8b-19)

• the question of a thankless and forgetful people

2. Remember the Lord with gratitude

• educating your memory for spiritual purposes
• a biblical perspective on your past
• cultivating the memory of His hand

3. Face the future with hope

• the connection between memory and hope
• looking forward to a fixed future

4. Consecrate the present with consistent obedience

• fitting us for work in the “flying” moment
• grains of sand in an hour glass

5. So What?

• Because the Lord can set a table in the wilderness, remember Him with a thankfulness that fuels future hope and present obedience.
• “…A home within the wilderness, A rest upon the way…” (E. Clephane)
• Christ: the living water and nourishing bread (John 6:35 and 7:38)