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The River ChurchSermons

Psalm 136

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 19 July 2026 · 35:26 · 4,750 words

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The message explores how thankfulness and peace are inseparable, drawing on Psalm 136 and Colossians 3:15‑17. It calls believers to discipline themselves to remember God’s goodness, His past deliverance, present provision, and the future hope of eternity with Him. Listeners are challenged to write a personal “song of praise” that reflects on God’s steadfast love and to trust His peace in the midst of life’s struggles. The sermon encourages growing in gratitude as a vital part of the Christian walk.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

thankfulness 30 discipline 21 thankful 21 nine 15 posture 7 sing 17 steadfast 13 location 13 lord 60 thank 27 peace 16 thanksgiving 8

Topics

Salvation 5 Prayer 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sin 1 Baptism 1

Scripture referenced 13

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 136 5:37 Colossians 3 7:32 Colossians 3 7:38 Colossians 3 7:45 Colossians 3:15-17 7:45 Colossians 3 8:56 Colossians 3:15 8:57 Philippians 4 9:32 Colossians 3 15:19 Psalms 136 15:52 1 Corinthians 15 25:45 Revelation 21:4 26:12 Psalms 136 31:39

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hi everyone, my name is Jules, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope that you are blessed by today's message.

Morning, everybody. Welcome to The River Church. So glad you are here.

If you are new, my name is Jason Combs. I'm the location pastor here, and thanks for joining us this morning.

Just in the middle of a lot of exciting things. Last week, we were at the fair.

I don't know what the count is. I just, you know, 1, 2, 700, 900, I think a little short of 3,000 people as we joined at the fair.

Just a really fun, awesome day to gather together.

And then we had middle school camp this past week, as Justin said, our student director.

We're going to have, we have nine middle school kids getting baptized this morning, and that is just incredible, right?

It is just, these are middle school kids that are going to stand before you that say, I want you to know I follow Jesus.

And just an awesome, awesome week. I had the privilege of being up there and speaking on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and just love it.

And now the high school kids are going. Please pray for them. Pray for the leaders.

Listen, some of the high school kids are, they're just geeked out of their minds. They are so excited to go.

And then there are those who are not. And so I want you to pray for both of them.

Pray that the Lord will just use this, that the Lord will soften their heart, that they will grow in knowing the Lord.

And it is just something we've seen year after year, the Lord use.

They get away from all the stuff and they go and sit and have amazing leaders and have Bible studies and they have, they have fun together.

But really sitting in the word of God, it's so important.

One side note, we, we are the River Church. We have nine locations.

And so all of them, we have nine locations.

And so all of them, we have nine locations.

And so all of them, we have nine locations.

And so all of them, we have nine locations.

And so all of them, we have nine locations.

And so all of the locations, they take their high schoolers.

So this week, all the high schoolers from all locations are going.

And I looked this morning and what was really cool to me is we have a location in Davison that just a few years ago when we adopted them in a part of the River Church, they were struggling as a church.

And we've just watched the growth happen.

And this Easter, they had to have two gatherings because they couldn't fit in the building.

And they are sending nine high school kids.

And I was so thrilled about that because what you may not see or may not know that we, uh, the Waterford location, we are supporting location, which means that our giving is able to not only support here, but we're able to support those locations that aren't large enough to support themselves.

We're a part of that mission work.

And so we're a part of being able to give, to support there, the work of the gospel being shared in Davison.

And that is just really exciting to me to see, hey, we get to be a part.

I'm a part of that excited to see those nine teenagers come, um, a part of the river.

It's just really, really, really exciting.

All right.

Take your Bible, go to Psalms, uh, Psalm one 36 as the summer we're studying, uh, through some of the chapters in the book of Psalms.

Psalms are songs.

They are poetic literature.

They are, uh, they were sung.

They are sung there there to be a part of Thanksgiving that we have as Christians.

Psalms one 36.

It's one of those great Psalms to memorize.

Why?

Because there are 26 verses and each has two lines.

And the second line of every single verse in Psalm one 36 is exactly the same words.

It's what, I mean, you want to like crank up your memorize it like, man, I got lots of verses memorized.

You can, uh, every single verse, the second line says his steadfast love.

Endures forever over and over again, this steadfast love or other translations, his mercy endureth forever.

He is faithful.

He loves forever.

His loving kindness is ever lasting.

This Psalm is called the great Hallel.

It's the hallelujah.

And in a few moments when middle schoolers, uh, when, when a bunch of middle schoolers stand up and leave, don't think they're mad.

They're going to get baptized.

All right.

So don't get worried about that.

Uh, they're going to stand up here in a little bit and go get baptized, which is, which is awesome.

Parents, they won't get back.

You'll see it.

All right.

They're not going to go up and get baptized somewhere.

You're here.

You'll be able to see it.

It'll be at the end of the gathering, but the great Hallel, this hallelujah, this praise the Lord.

What likely happened is when the, the congregation, the Israelites would come together, they would sing this.

And the second line would be the congregation responding to the Thanksgiving, to the Lord, to who the Lord is.

And what God did and how God rescued them and how his steadfast love endureth forever.

So this morning, I just want to try it.

I want to read the first verse, uh, the first sentence.

And I want you to say back to me as a congregation for his steadfast love endures forever.

We're going to go through nine verses.

I didn't know if you'd be able to handle 26.

I thought nine, we can make it.

So the Bible says this in Psalm 136, one, give thanks to the Lord for he is.

And it's decent.

All right.

Give thanks to God.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords to him who alone does great wonders to whom, to him whom by understanding made the heavens to him who spread out the earth above the waters to him who made the great lights sun to rule over the day, the moon and the stars to rule over the night.

The chapter goes on in verse 10 verses 10 through 16.

The Israelites speak of who God is and how great God is.

And then they speak of how God came and rescued them.

God came and delivered them.

How he came and took them out of slavery and rescued their souls.

Verse 23 at the end, it says this.

It is he who remembered us in our lowest state and rescued us from our enemies.

He who gives food to all flesh.

And the, and the chapter and the song racks wraps up and says, give thanks to the God.

The God of heaven for his steadfast love endures forever.

The Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving.

It's, it's to be thankful to the Lord.

It's to give praise to the Lord.

I want to show you, uh, if you'll turn with me, go to Colossians chapter three.

So don't lose Psalm one 36.

We'll come back.

But in the new Testament in Colossians chapter three, there are a few verses here linked together that speak of this thankfulness.

And these verses in Colossians chapter three, verse 15 through 17.

They speak of thankfulness, but this thankfulness is wrapped together with something else.

It's, it's like you can't have one without the other.

There are these two things that are so knit together that you need to see, you know, it's like a PB and J.

You can't have one without the other.

I was thinking I could say some of these things.

It's like salt and what cholesterol.

Those two things go together.

It's like a bow and bread and butter.

It's a hammer and a nail.

It's shoes and socks.

Some of you weirdos wear shoes without socks, but we know it's the sun and the moon.

It's bride and groom.

It's Romeo and it's Bonnie and it's Batman and it's Alan Trammell.

And there you go.

Some of you, you got it.

It's lions and losing these things that are so associated.

They're so together.

Colossians chapter three.

It tells us of Thanksgiving, but it says this verse 15.

It says, let the peace.

Of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

The Bible over and over again speaks of thankfulness and peace that they're together, but to have

peace without thankfulness, you need thankfulness to find that peace.

Also in Philippians chapter four, it says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything

by prayer and supplication with.

Thanksgiving, let your quest request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses

all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.

Jesus once said, gratitude is intimately associated with peace.

Once a peace rules the heart where Thanksgiving is practiced, they are locked together, but

to have this peace in your soul that only comes from the Lord.

It's linked together with having a life, words, a heart that is thankful to God.

As you keep reading, verse number 16 says this, it says, let the word of Christ dwell

in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Here again, in the new Testament, now speaking to the church where we're to have this peace,

this thankfulness, really, when you look at verse 15 in the Greek there, it doesn't just

mean be thankful.

It literally means become thankful.

There's this growing.

Once I, we are to keep on striving for a deeper gratitude than we have already obtained.

There is not just this, okay, I'll be thankful.

The Bible speaks of growing in thankfulness that you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs with thankfulness for 17, whatever you do.

And word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the

father through him.

You ever, um, when you had a child go over a friend's house, or maybe when you were little

and you went over a friend's house, send my son to a friend's house and his parents, they

take them out, they go grab lunch and they take them bowling and they come back and you

go to pick them up and you look at him and go, Hey, did you tell him?

Thank you.

You ever do that?

You ever go, Hey, did you, did you say thanks for what they did?

Why do we do that?

Is it just to be polite?

Like, Hey, I just want you to be a polite or is it bigger than that?

Do you say, Hey, you need to say thanks.

Why?

Because I want you to know the blessing that you just received.

They took you out to lunch.

They took you bowling.

I want you to see it.

I don't want you to just go, thank you.

Okay.

I'm moving on.

Sometimes I want you to go, Hey, you were just blessed.

Isn't that awesome?

That family would be willing to take you out to eat, take you bowling, take you to the

tiger, whatever they do.

Are you thankful?

Are you thankful?

Because the other side, if they don't do that, they turn the other way.

What's that?

They're entitled.

I deserve this.

They become what we call a spoiled brat.

I, why wouldn't you give, why wouldn't they take me out to eat?

Why wouldn't I get to go bowling?

Right?

We look at them as this entitlement and we go, I don't want you to have a heart like

that.

You need to realize the blessing.

You need to see how blessed you are.

We tell that to our kids as adults, as Christians.

We have to take the same advice.

Do you see what you have to be thankful for Christian?

Do you see if you know the Lord, if the Lord has saved your life, if, if God who

sent his son, Jesus, and Jesus came and died on the cross and he rose again and

he offers you salvation, forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace, hope, joy, and

the Lord in this broken, messed up world that we live in.

The Lord says he'll be with us.

If you are a Christian and you have this, we have something to be thankful for, but

the truth is many times we can act like our little child that we sent off to a friend's

house and we just forget what the Lord has done.

We forget and we don't see what the Lord is doing.

We become entitled.

Lord, that's what I deserve.

Why are you not giving me that Lord?

The Bible over and over again brings us to a place to say, if you know the Lord, you

must come to a place.

A thankfulness.

There must be a discipline in our life.

We must discipline ourself in thankfulness, grow in being thankful to, to learn, to know

the Lord more and his love more.

So we grow to be more thankful in who he is and what he's doing to trust him more to

Colossians 3 15.

Let the peace of Christ rule your heart.

That word rule means really literally to umpire, to make the calls, to say if it's a ball or a

strike, to, to lead you, let the peace of God rule your heart.

These two things wrapped together.

There is a discipline of thankfulness that if we're a believer, we have to learn to grow

in.

So back to Psalm 136, what is happening?

There's a discipline of thankfulness, bringing them to a place of singing a song to remember

why?

Because they just as us, we can so easily forget to be thankful.

We can so easily.

Be overwhelmed with all the difficult things that are happening.

And yes, there are many difficult things.

And so I want to show you just quickly and simply this discipline of being thankful.

First, there was the discipline of remembering.

Well, verse one says this, give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever.

There's a discipline of remembering that God is good.

This word good is used some 700 times in the old Testament.

One said the word embraces everything.

Everything that is beneficial for life, pleasing to life, harmonious with life.

God is good because what he creates and what he gives us all good.

The discipline of being thankful is remembering God's goodness.

Charles Spurgeon said this, he is goodness itself.

Let us thank him that we have seen, proved and tasted that he is good.

He is good beyond all others.

Indeed, he alone is good in the highest sense.

He is the.

Source of good, the good of all good, the sustainer of good, the perfecter of good and the rewarder of good.

This discipline of thankfulness is to remember the whirlwind of this world, that God is good.

I love what Spurgeon said at the very beginning.

It says that we thank him because we've seen and we've proved and we've tasted.

If you're a follower of Jesus, the truth is, if you have accepted Christ, you've seen the goodness of the Lord.

You've received the.

Salvation of God.

You've received the forgiveness of sin.

You've received the salvation.

There should be this growing in this discipline of remembering God is good.

Then verses two through nine, we see this discipline and I'm a very simple man.

So here's, here's the point.

There's a discipline of remembering that God is big.

See verse two, give thanks to the God of gods.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords.

Now, some people have miscued this verse and see, see the Bible says there's many gods.

No, you're missing.

He is.

Saying there is no God, right?

There are false gods, phony gods.

It is saying there is one God.

He is the God of gods.

He's the Lord of lords.

There are those that will place people in the place of being Lord of their life.

Many times we just put ourselves there.

The Bible says he is the Lord of lords.

And as you read verses four through nine, you'll see that God is the great creator alone who does great wonders.

Verse five, him who, by understanding made the heavens, him who spread out the earth.

The waters, him who made the great lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night.

There's remembering, there's this looking at creation and knowing this is no accident.

Knowing this world and this galaxy and the universe and beyond that isn't just a very, very, very, very, very, very, I could go a long time, lucky thing that happened.

It is a very, very, go for a long time.

Magnificent design by the great and mighty God.

And this thankfulness is to come back to go, man, I need to walk outside and to see God's creation.

And that should point me to thankfulness.

One guy just said we need to have a posture of thankfulness.

And sometimes I'll read a word and it'll take me down a rabbit trail.

But just thinking of posture, there's the dynamic posture.

That's how you hold yourself when you are moving.

And then there's the static posture.

That's how you.

Hold yourself when you are not moving.

And there must be this discipline of thankfulness where whether we're walking, moving, running, stopping, driving, whether we're seated, we have this posture that is thankful to the Lord.

The song helps bring the Israelites back to a thankful heart.

Understand the Psalms.

When you look to the early church after Jesus rose, what were they doing?

Singing the Psalms, bringing back to thankful.

It's a running back.

It's why.

We come and preach the Psalm because this should be on our lips.

When I talk about memorizing God's scripture, this is a great place to start to be singing this.

When Jesus was on the cross, he quoted the Psalms.

This discipline of thankfulness.

Verses 10 through 16, you have the story of how God rescued, God delivered the Israelites.

Why?

Because they were so good and they were just, you know, really God honored.

No.

God showed up because God is good and God is loving.

Bible says that God shows up and delivers them from slavery, from Egypt by his strong

hand, his outstretched arms.

He delivered them from the Red Sea.

Here we see the discipline of remembering God's deliverance.

We see this posture of seeing that God is good and God is big and we see God's rescue

Remember, man, God showed up.

Now, I can say all these things of thankfulness.

But as your pastor of many of you, as God has called me to shepherd and to care for the

flock, I also know the struggle and the hurt and the pain.

And just this week, a man at our nine o'clock gathering lost his wife, a couple who come

to nine lost their daughter, a dear friend of mine dealing with cancer, dear friend of

mine having lunch with who has a broken body.

And we live in this broken world.

And you may be a pastor.

How do we run to this thankfulness?

How do I decide?

How do I grow to this thankfulness?

How do I discipline?

How do I get there?

And I'll tell you, if you're a Christian, there's three things you have to remember

in disciplining yourself in thankfulness.

Three things, because you can sit there and go, where is God?

What's God doing?

Why is God not doing what I think he should do?

Three things.

One, what is God doing?

You look to see what God has already done.

If we're going to discipline ourself in thankfulness, we must sit or we must have a posture that

looks and goes, I know what God did.

I sent Jesus Christ, his son, to take my wrath.

He went to the cross.

He died on the cross.

He offers me salvation.

I, no matter what going on, I am a child of God.

I am saved.

The thankfulness is looking to what Christ has done.

Christ gave his life.

He rose again to discipline ourself in thankfulness.

Not only do we get to look back at what Christ did, we look now to what God has done.

The Bible says he never leaves us nor forsakes us.

The Bible says that once we receive the Lord, he's not going anywhere.

No one is plucking us out of our father's hand.

The Lord has us and we can sit in a trust.

Even when we don't get it, even when we don't understand, we know God is with us and real

and we know he is good and we know his love.

Not only do we look back, we look to the now.

We get to look to the future.

Here's what we know.

God is with us.

God is returning.

Here's what we know.

This place of sin and death, there is going to be no more sin and death.

There's going to be a transfer.

We know and we have this thankfulness that eternity is with the Lord.

No more death.

No more sin.

God has me and it will be eternal.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God,

the father, after destroying every rule, every authority and power, for he must reign until

he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for God has put all things in subjection under

his feet.

Revelation 21, 4, for he will wipe away every tear from their eye and death shall be no

more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things.

Things have passed away.

The Bible over and over again brings us to a place of thanksgiving.

Why?

Because it's wrapped up in peace.

That even in the turmoil, even in the storm, even when the winds come and the rains come

down, we can have this thanksgiving.

We can have this peace.

I was at camp, got to speak Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday night and the chapel is connected

to the gym and so I was in the gym and their chapel had begun and they were singing a song

and all of a sudden, I was in the gym and I was in the gym and I was in the gym and I

was in the gym and all of a sudden, the whole camp lost power.

Everything just, everything shut off and it was so cool to watch what happened.

I'll let you watch it.

Don't go right, but you keep singing, keep giving praise, you keep worshiping the Lord.

Now they act a little different than you at every chapel.

They come running up here to the front.

You don't do that.

Most of you try to find a backseat, I get it, but worshiping and giving thanks to the

Camp, we shoot really straight with the kids.

You think Wednesday night, they got done singing.

I was singing and I walked up there and the first thing I said to him, I said, hey, what

makes your singing now any different than all the singing that happens at a Taylor Swift

What's the difference when people will come to a Taylor Swift concert or a country, wherever

it is, and they will sing as loud and as passionately and with everything they got?

I just said, what's the difference?

Is there a difference?

I want to tell you the difference is the singing.

The singing is not about us or our feeling.

The singing is to give glory to the good and almighty God.

The singing is to go, God, you are big and you deserve praise.

And it doesn't matter how I feel.

God, you are good.

God, I know what you did.

You saved my life and my soul.

God, I know what you're doing.

You don't leave me.

You are with me.

And God, I know the future.

No more death.

No more sickness.

Eternity with you, Lord, the almighty good God.

I have a little assignment for you this week.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come and we have one last song, but I have an assignment.

I'd like for you, your family, to write a song.

Now, I don't mean like the word of God.

I want you to write a song of praise.

What it looks like to me is just write down, for his steadfast love endures forever.

And then give an open line and then steadfast love and leave another open line.

And maybe.

Sit down for dinner one night with your family and ask your six-year-old,

hey, what do we have to be thankful to the Lord about?

And ask your 16-year-old, hey, what do we have to be thankful to the Lord about?

It will happen when you see what God did and what God is doing and what God is going to do.

You can trust and know God's peace.

It takes the world and all the struggles that we put right here in most important.

It pushes them back and lets you see the Lord.

And to know.

Know he's got you.

Know he's good.

And the Israelites in that Psalm 136, they got right up to the Red Sea.

They got cornered.

They got to a place where they're running from the Egyptian army.

And the Lord took them to this dead end.

And they're like, why would the Lord bring us here?

God brought them there.

He sliced that sea in half.

And he delivered them.

Why?

So the Lord could be praised.

Sometimes we feel, Lord, why?

Why did you bring me here?

May the Lord be praised for he is good.

And we know he has us.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord.

But may you write a little Psalm this week.

I started mine.

I said, thank you, Lord, for showing up in my dad's car.

We didn't know you.

Saving his life.

The steadfast love endures forever.

Thank you for parents who raised me, who brought me up in the way of the Lord.

So that when I'm old now, I don't depart from it.

The steadfast love endures.

Thank you, Lord, for moving me to cow country when I was in ninth grade.

And I hated it.

And seeing you were preparing me for ministry.

Steadfast love endures forever.

Your steadfast love, Lord.

Thank you.

And in that cow country to meet a lady, my wife, who is so faithful and trustworthy.

Steadfast love endures forever.

And I wrote down, and thank you for a church with such great fellowship.

Thank you for a church, Lord, where you're doing such a mighty work.

Thank you for seeing people saved.

Saved and baptized.

Church, there's a discipline of thankfulness.

It's wrapped in peace.

We must grow in it.

Continue to know him.

That he is good.

He is a big God.

And he has delivered us.

We who are saved have been delivered.

Lord God, thanks for this morning.

Thanks for our church.

Thank you for salvation.

Lord God, if there's anybody here who's never trusted you as Savior, Lord.

May this morning, right where they're at, may they know they can, Lord, call out to you.

We ask you, Lord, to forgive them of their sins and to save them.

We ask you, Lord, that you died on the cross and rose again.

May we grow in the discipline of thankfulness.

In Jesus' name we pray.

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