THANKFULNESS OR NATURAL JOY

Yes, these are two things which are often confused with each other.

Indeed, thousands and thousands of people, because of their blindness, do not know nor see any difference between these two. Man is quite sure that when a person praises God with his lips and his mouth, that is thankfulness. We are prosperous, everything prospers, and, of course, now we praise God because things are so well with us.

We commence with thanking, and there is almost no end to the register of things for which we give thanks. Men acknowledge God as their heavenly Father; they praise Him for the Gift of His Son, they thank Him that they are Christians. God loves them. They are so happy with God’s Word, with God’s ordinances, with the Sacraments and with the covenant. There is no doubt, yea, they are sure of it, that they are a child of God. They believe and have no unbelief in their heart; they are assured of heaven, yea it goes so far, that they also believe of their children that they are no children of wrath, but are children of the covenant, and by and by they all go to heaven.

Yet there are still people, here and there, who cannot become jealous of such praying, glorying and thanking. Yea, it happens that they become distressed because of it, and they say: “Lord, if it is like that, then I stand outside of everything; then I am a stranger of the work of God. ‘‘

But when they hear a person beg, like the poor Lazarus, who lay at the gate full of sores, then the strings of their soul are touched. Or, if they read at times of the disciples in Luke 11 who asked the Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” then they agree with that with their whole heart.

Also, when they may overhear an uncovered child of God, who accuses himself before God because of his prayerlessness, ingratitude, fruitlessness and dullness, yea who complains of his enmity and inability to agree with the ways God leads him, then they think, “If I had the liberty, I would like to shake hands with him.”

Yea, the true life of God feels more fellowship with poor people than with those that are rich and are increased with goods. While I am sitting here writing, I am thinking of an incident from the time that I had received permission to speak in the congregations. It was on a Monday morning that I had to go and preach at an unfamiliar place in Overijssel. I had heard at times, and they had made me believe, that many kings and many great and high people lived there. While I was sitting in the train, I was sorely attacked and oppressed. It seemed as if I had to go to a scaffold. How many voices were there within, and I also had in my heart those that agreed therewith. Finally I became so fearful, that I decided to send a telegram that I was not coming. When the train stopped at the station where I had to be, I would try to send a telegram since the place where I had to be was still a few kilometers from there. I had taken only a few steps on that platform when a man asked me if I was the person that was to preach that evening in …

There I was caught. I had not thought about that in the least. He took me outside of the station, and there stood a car in which, of course, I had to take a seat. That man (he was an elder of that congregation) was very friendly, but I had not many words and lacked also the courage to tell him how it was within my heart. The wife of that elder was also very friendly. They were very plain people (for years already both of them are in eternity) and the table was set ready to eat. I remained fearful. I just could not trust it. After the meal, that man asked me if I wanted to go with him to the church, and then to observe if perhaps a little bench had to be placed at the pulpit or that something had to be taken out of it to be able to stand in comfort (outwardly of course). I went with him; what else could I do? But suddenly, that man began to tell me that in the morning he had read of Bunyan that all the bells of heaven would ring if he should enter there. And then, he said, “I do not know what shall have to take place if I may ever get there.”

How humble he was! I thought, ah, at least that man is no king and no high spirit. In the evening in the church, it exceeded my expectations.

But at that gathering, it went still better. It was already late in the night before we separated. An aged, respected man was requested to close. He complied with that and commenced with the Lord’s Prayer. During my life, I have seldom heard anyone pray with such an enlargement, with such an assurance, with such a respect and love toward God and with what a deep impression in his soul, did he stammer of his great spiritual poverty. No, that was no prayer of a Pharisee, but it was as we read in Psalm 102, a prayer of the destitute.

I cannot enlarge upon all that now, neither do I want to since God alone deserves all praise, adoration and thanksgiving.

“Not the formal sacrifice,
Hath acceptance in Thine eyes:
Broken hearts are in Thy sight
More than sacrificial rite.
Contrite spirits, pleading cries,
Thou, O God, wilt not despise.”

Psalter No. 141:3

Among Israel, only living animals, no dead ones, might be offered upon the altar. Lipwork cannot please God. It is a stench in His holy nostrils. A person may say the entire day: “Lord I thank Thee and am thankful for this and for that.” But, ah, the Lord loathes all that praying and exaltation where the heart is lacking.

True gratitude is exercised in the depth of un-worthiness and the consciousness of guilt. Abraham, the father of the faithful, testified before the face of the Lord that he was only dust and ashes. Jacob acknowledged that he was not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which the Lord had showed unto him.

For Job it was a real Thanksgiving Day, when after God had taken away all his children and all his possessions, he was enabled to cry out: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.”

When it was thanksgiving for David, he cried out: “And what shall I say; for Thou knowest Thy servant.” God’s people must thank God with empty hands.

When we are led to the Spring and Fountain of all blessings, when we obtain a sight and an impression by Whom, and at what price all those benefits have been obtained, but also when we may receive a realization upon whom the benefits have been bestowed, then there is a sinking away before the High God. But that does not take place everyday. That belongs to the exceptions in our life. We profess more than we experience.

For Christ it was Thanksgiving Day in Isaiah 43:11: “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.”

True gratitude in the life and in the hearts of God’s children is only in the immediate union of faith with Christ, that Thanking High Priest: “The poor committeth himself unto Thee,” Psalm 10:14.

God’s people learn to know the difference between thankfulness and natural joy, and also with respect to that it is true: “Neither doth a fool understand this,” Psalm 92:6. God’s people learn to know the times that they become sick of their religion and loathe their profession. And how may we know now how the case stands? With everything that comes from above, we become humble; and with everything from below, we become proud.

He that is able, let him receive it.

And most of the time we may have something of it when we do not know it ourselves. Ah, when a moment dawns that we may become before God what we really are, and God may become to us what He is, then, “Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vows be paid.” Those are the moments when we no longer speak. And how seldom does that happen during our life. If we begin to talk about it, then in the meantime, we crawl upon the throne, and we only seek our own honor. Although they are no hes which we relate, but ah, it stinks of all the glorying in self. Christ tells us in Songs of Solomon 8:13: “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to Thy voice; cause me to hear it.” Self crawls between everything, and we cannot keep it out. Happy is he who may have that discovered to him; may be truly grieved about that, and with the sins and iniquities of his most holy actions, may be brought to that Fountain which is opened for the house of Israel and the inhabitants of Jerusalem against all sins and uncleanness.

In this life, our best works are incomplete and tainted with sins. Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. It is not this or that, but our entire life is wrong. Our head must only hang upon our heart, and only in Christ we may lift it up if He grants it. “Thou, in the hour of dread, Dost lift my weary head.”

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