Sermon on Psalm 104

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 18, 2007

Scripture Readings: 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Matthew 6:24-34

Hymns: 28; 141; 434; 17

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The word of God taken for our meditation this morning is taken from selected verses of Psalm 104:

14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, 15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, 17 Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. 18 The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. 24 O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions— 27 These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. 28 What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. 29 You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works. 32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke. 33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 34 May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the LORD.

Theme: Give us this day our daily bread!

We acknowledge that the LORD gives us all things

We ask that the LORD would provide us with what we need

We implore that the LORD would help us be content with what we have

In the Name of our Great God, by who’s divine power we have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), Dear fellow redeemed.

Does the name Eddie Nabors mean anything to you? He recently won the huge jackpot of 116 million dollars in the Georgia Lottery. As a result the topic of the lottery has been on the minds of many people and has come up a number of times in my conversations with others recently. The questions and concerns that many people have in connection with the lottery are closely connected to the theme of our service for this morning as we consider the theme: Give us this day our daily bread. Based on the words of David from Psalm 104, we are offered some inspired thoughts on the meaning of this petition.

When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread”

• we acknowledge that everything we have comes from God;

• we ask that God would provide everything we need for our earthly life, including food, lodging and life itself;

• we also pray that God would help us to trust in Him for all we need and be content with what God in His grace has given us!

Lord Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is Truth - Amen.

In the sermon on the mount, when Jesus was speaking to the people about loving their enemies He used the example of God’s love of all people. He said: “for He [God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). God provides physical blessings for believers and unbelievers. This may cause us to wonder why we should ask for them if He gives them to us anyway. In fact, we just read in our Scripture reading where Jesus tells His disciples: “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:32).

First - we must acknowledge that the LORD gives us all things. The blessings we have do not come to us by chance. They come from God. We have a natural tendency to think that we have worked for all that we have and that makes what I have “mine”. By praying “Give us this day our daily bread” we must first acknowledge that these blessings come from God.

David begins this Psalm with a declaration of praise to God saying “Bless the LORD, O my soul!” (Psalm 104:1). He declares God’s power in creating the world and continuing to preserve the world by His power. Then in verse 24 he continues: “O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions— ”. Everything we have is a blessing from God! He goes on to point out the providing and preserving hand of God in the world in verses 31-32: “May the glory of the LORD endure forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works. He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke.”

What do we mean when we say “bread”? Not just the loaf - Scripture often uses the word “bread” in a general sense to describe everything that we need for this life. That is how Jesus is using it here. In this prayer we are asking that God would provide us with everything that we need for our earthly pilgrimage.

Certainly this would include food (14-16): “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart. The trees of the LORD are full of sap.” Notice that David speaks of how God provides food for us and the rest of the human race as well as our animals. When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” we should not pray for ourselves only, but our others as well - our family friends, neighbors as well as farmers, ranchers and other workers who grow the food that we eat. Things have changed in our society and most people do not grow their own food in the backyard. We go to the store to buy what we need to eat. But we are still dependant on the LORD’s blessing on crops and animals. David continues (27-28): “These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good.” No matter where we get our food, it still comes to us through the blessing of the LORD.

But “bread” includes more than food, it also includes our lodging (16-18): “The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.” God provides a home for birds, storks, goat, badgers and everything else - yes, even us. Now you might say that humans beings aren’t mentioned by David in that verse, and that God really doesn’t provide housing for us like He does the badger, but remember the words of Jesus in our Gospel reading: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ... Now if God so clothes the grass of the field... will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:26, 30). If God provides housing for the animals, we can be sure that He will provide for us also.

Finally, David reminds us that we must even include life itself in that term “bread” (29-30): “You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.” God gives us everything we need for this life, including life itself. Paul told the men of Athens: God “gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25).

Martin Luther summarized the meaning of “bread” in the Lord’s Prayer and including: “everything required to satisfy our bodily needs, such as food and clothing, house and home, fields and flocks, money and property; a faithful spouse, good children, trustworthy servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government, seasonable weather, peace and health, order and honor; true friends, faithful neighbors and the like” (Luther’s explanation of the Fourth Petition from The Small Catechism).

We dare not overlook the word “daily” either. The word “daily” reminds us that our needs are new every day. We should not take our blessings from God for granted, which is done so easily. It is so easy to take food for granted because we have a pantry full. We take for granted our house or car because we make regular payments for them. The same is true of our job, our spouse, children and so much more which are all blessings from God. To help us not take these blessing for granted we should think of the example of the children of Israel while they were wandering in the wilderness. Every morning the LORD would provide bread for them in the form of manna, and meat in the form of quail. Those blessings were new every morning - a miracle of God’s love and care. The blessings we have are no less a miracle, and we should not treat them as less. “Bless the LORD, O my soul!” (Psalm 104:1). We should remember that our daily bread includes everything that we need in this life.

Finally when we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” we are praying that the LORD would help us to be content with what He has given us. Not only is it easy for us to take our blessings for granted, but it is also easy for us worry about whether we will have enough, or to become greedy and desire more than what we have.

Think once more of the children of Israel. God provided food for them every morning and still they complained: “For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5). They did not complain because they didn’t have food, they complained because they weren’t content with the food God provided for them! How often do we do the same! Paul spoke of the blessing of contentment in the opening verses of our Epistle reading “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Timothy 6:6-8).

This is the problem with the lottery. Playing the lottery generally comes down to a lack of contentment with what God has given to us. Some who play the lottery will argue that they are content, but that the lottery may be the means that God will use to give them the money He wants them to have – as if God needs the lottery! If God wants us to have 116 million dollars, He will give us that money without our wasting a single dollar on a lottery ticket. May God preserve us from such greed. By God-given wisdom Solomon was able to declare: “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).

In this petition we pray that God would remove ungodly worry, doubting, distrust or coveting from us. We pray that we would not hate the manna that we have been given, that we would not look at the quails grudgingly, but that we would accept God’s gifts in our lives as His good will for us. We pray for trust in God to give us what we need when we need it, and that we would use the gifts God has given to us in a God pleasing way. In our Psalm David proclaims such trust and contentment saying: “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the LORD.” May that be our song as well!

So, when we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” let us remember to acknowledge that everything we have comes from God. Let us ask our Heavenly Father to provide everything we need for our earthly life, including food, lodging and life itself. And let us pray to God for the ability to trust in Him for all we need and be content with what He in His grace has given us! Amen.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 Amen.

Pastor Nathanael Mayhew