Give Thanks To the Lord, For He Is Good; His Love Endures Forever
The proclamation in part of our first President: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor… “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be”. George Washington 1789.
There is no better explanation of the means and purposes of Thanksgiving than that presented in God’s Word. King David presents a very useful approach to rendering thanks to our Lord in the following Psalm.
COME, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. (Psalm 95:1-11)
Please note that the first manner of expressing Godly Thanksgiving is with song. We are not singing to impress any audience, but we sing “unto the Lord.” Once again, we are reminded that this is the aim and purpose of the classic hymns of the Church. They embody true biblical doctrine and they give all the glory to God. Nothing can lift the despondent soul more than the singing of the blessed old hymns, as many of us can attest to!
In our Thanksgiving, we acknowledge the Lord as the very rock of our salvation. We should never come before the Lord without a spirit of Thanksgiving for we owe Him our all. There is no power, no head of state, no monarch that can measure up to the Almighty power of our God.
He raises up rulers and he dethrones them as well. He determines the end of all things. There are no mysteries that escape His certain knowledge – even those of the hidden chambers of the heart.
We do not come before the
Lord with irreverence. We do not scream and shout at Him. He is not deaf to hear our petitions even when not spoken.
We come before His greatness on bended knee. We are less than sheep gone astray compared to this great and wonderful, Good Shepherd. Never utter a lamentation against the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He does all things well.
Many of us fear the Lord is grieved with this generation in America for forty years as well. We have denounced the Power on High, we have elevated evil as good, and demeaned that which is good, as evil. Half of our nation thinks the most important “right” is the freedom to kill our unborn children. We have advanced depraved men and women to roles of leadership in our nation for which we shall pay in deprivations unmentionable.
We must turn very soon, from our wicked ways and behold that One on the cross who died that we might truly be free to enjoy our God-given freedoms. We are not judged simply by whom we exalt to leadership over us, but for our individual heart conditions.
Matthew Henry commented: “This psalm must be sung with a holy reverence of God’s majesty and a dread of his justice, with a desire to please him and a fear to offend him”.
To turn the nation back to God, we must individually repent and be thankful for the opportunity: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17-18)
Remember also the words of Ezra, or as some would say the “Chronicler”: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:3). Amen.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.