We are probably not as aware of the history of Christianity, especially in Australia, as we should be. Yesterday, February the 3rd, is, for example, a significant date in Australia’s Christian history. On Feb. 3rd 1788 the Rev. Richard Johnson, chaplain to the first fleet, preached the first Christian sermon on Australian soil.
'On Feb. 3rd 1788 the Rev. Richard Johnson, chaplain to the first fleet, preached the first Christian sermon on Australian soil'
We don’t have the transcript of the sermon, but we do have the text. [Psalm 116:12-14 King James, Authorised Version].
What shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation,
and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people.
It is easy to think that, standing now at last on dry ground after a long and perilous journey, he was thankful, thankful and meditating on how he should respond to the goodness of God experienced in all the benefits – life, health, opportunity – he and those with him had received from God’s hand.
A good question for us.
Psalm 116: 12
What shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits toward me?
Or in the CSB
How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
Is also a good question for us to ask ourselves.
'"How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?"
Is also a good question for us to ask ourselves.'
We may or may not soon be coming to the end of our perilous journey through Covid. The signs are encouraging, with children returning to school, the Australian reporting that the death rate for the last two months to January 31st has dropped from one death per 95 cases up to November 25th 2021 to now being one death per 1018 cases [Australian 4/2/2022], and hospitalisations slowly coming down. But we don’t know if there is yet another more destructive variant around the corner.
But
Psalm 116: 12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
Is always a good question to ask ourselves, especially as we come to the end of the holidays and start into a new year.
It prompts us to remember the Lord’s goodness to us, and to think how we are to live in response to it.
And the Lord has been good to us. We have so much to be thankful for – food, shelter, peace and stability, a good health system, technology like vaccines, medications, ventilators that have prevented many deaths, education and training that allows our society to function – all from God who in His love sends His rain and sunshine on the just and the unjust, who in His common grace protects and sustains life.
'The Lord has been good to us. We have so much to be thankful for – food, shelter, peace and stability... – all from God who in His love [and] common grace protects and sustains life.'
A Shared Thankfulness for Life
But the Psalmist was thinking particularly of how the Lord had heard His prayer and given Him life.
Psalm 116: 1 I love the Lord because he has heard
my appeal for mercy.
2 Because he has turned his ear to me,
I will call out to him as long as I live.
3 The ropes of death were wrapped around me,
and the torments of Sheol overcame me;
I encountered trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”
When the Psalmist knew himself to be helpless v. 6, and that there was no help to be found in people vv.10-11, God had delivered him
8 For you, Lord, rescued me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
And isn’t that something every believer can say.
We were facing the deadly peril of death for our sins, death that would usher us into judgment and eternal death, but in believing in the Lord Jesus we have been rescued and given eternal life.
As the Lord Jesus said
John 5: 24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.
Already, forgiven, we know peace with God. Already we have the Spirit, the down-payment that guarantees to us the fulfilment of all God has promised us in the gospel [Eph. 1:13-14]
And having now eternal life through faith in Jesus, we can look forward with confidence to the fulfilment of Jesus’ great promise
John 11: 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
We know every day the goodness, the rescue from death, that prompts the Psalmist to ask
Psalm 116: 12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
Responding to God’s Goodness
And the Psalmist’s answer should inform our daily life.
13 I will take the cup of salvation,
and call upon the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people.
The cup of salvation, which parallels the sacrifice of thanksgiving in verse 17 of the psalm, was raised to remember the Lord’s salvation, a way of publicly giving thanks and testifying to His steadfast love and faithfulness experienced in deliverance from death.
We are give thanks and testify to our Lord’s goodness.
And we call on the name of the Lord. We rely on our Lord, and have no other gods or lords. We live faithful to our God, are singleminded in our worship, turn to Him alone for help and deliverance.
'We rely on our Lord, and have no other gods or lords. We live faithful to our God, are singleminded in our worship, turn to Him alone for help and deliverance.'
And the Psalmist speaks of paying his vows. A vow was a solemn promise made by a petitioner to do something if the Lord granted His request, for example, to offer sacrifice in Jerusalem if the Lord delivered him. It was a public acknowledgement that it was the Lord who had saved and delivered, and that the Lord was owed worship and praise for His goodness.
What that means for us, what is the fitting response to the Lord giving us life, is expressed by Paul in Romans 12:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
It is 234 years ago that Rev Johnson called on the inhabitants of the new colony to remember and respond to God’s goodness to them.
A fitting way to start the new year
It was a fitting way for the colony to start, and it is a fitting way for us to start our new year.
'It is 234 years ago that Rev Johnson called on the inhabitants of the new colony to remember and respond to God’s goodness to them.
It was a fitting way for the colony to start, and it is a fitting way for us to start our new year.'
TO rejoice to be able to say with every follower of Jesus
8 For you, Lord, rescued me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
And then to resolve to live publicly thankful lives, lives loyal to our God alone, depending on Him, lives that are living sacrifices in response to His kindness to us.
