“Now Thank We All Our God”

 Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things have done,

In whom his world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms

Has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

(Verse 1 of the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” authored by Martin Rinckart, translated from German by Catherine Winkworth, from Hymnary. Org).

  Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord, he is God; it is he who hath made us, and

Not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise;

Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth

To all generations.   (Psalm 100, NKJV)

Across the ages, from ancient psalms to modern hymns, the whole creation of God has been engaged in praise and thanksgiving to our Lord!  Those who penned these words and those who translated them for our service have all passed from this earth into God’s eternity.  Yet these words stand strong and resonant in our hearts today even as they did in the heart of the psalmist and the author of this hymn many centuries ago!

We might ask, “Why is this so?”  The truth of the matter is this, all of us, from the least to the greatest are created to give praise to our God, and thanksgiving!  If we miss this simple and so basic truth, we never find our true purpose on this earth.

“What is the chief end of man?” the Westminster catechism muses.

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.”  (Question 1)

So the first question and the primary question of our catechism instruction is that we should glorify God.  We enjoy our relationship with our Creator – Redeemer – Sustainer of all living when we give thanks.

What then are we to be thankful for?

We are to be thankful for the gift of the breath of life.  God gives us our life and sustains us in this world that we might give praise and thanksgiving to God.

We may choose on any given day to give thanks for specific things.  For example, we might give thanks that our hands still work so we can type this treatise.  Or we might give thanks that our minds are clear enough to form these words in a coherent fashion.  We could thank God for oxygen enriching our atmosphere, so we can breathe and our life processes continue to function.  We might thank God for the massive amount of food we consumed over the past four days, during the holiday called “Thanksgiving.”  We might also thank God that many of our family gathered around the table with us this year, as life is short and we are grateful that we are able to hold hands and pray together just this once more!

Shall I go on?  I write this small note today to remember that you are my friend, not my enemy and that when we sit together and share a common meal we find communion.  I write today to pause in the busyness of this holiday season to remember why I am here, where I am going and from whence I originally came.

I write today in amazement at the graciousness of my God.  For all my many screw ups and manifold stupidities, for God pardoning my many sins of commission and omission, for the renewal of the life of my mind so that I can understand the grace of my Redeemer, for God allowing me to have breath to once again express my gratitude for all things, not simply things God has done for me, and there are many!  But also for who God is, God’s faithfulness, God’s power and God’s love.

Our God is faithful, even when we are not faithful.  Our God expresses God’s goodness and God’s power when we have neither goodness nor power.  God loves us even when we are unlovely. God loves us when we are weak and when we are strong.  God loves us when we know where we should go and when we do not know where we should go.  God loves us when we are faithful and God loves us when we are not faithful.  God loves us when we have no other place to go, but home.

So on this day after the day after Thanksgiving, I pause to give thanks and praise to my God, in my Lord Jesus Christ, who through the Holy Spirit of God has grafted me into this new family of the redeemed, not by my works, but solely by the wondrous grace of my God!

You see, this grace gives hope to all men and women!  If God can save me from my sin and my death, our God can save anyone!  For as the apostle Paul remarked, “I am the chief of sinners.”  There is no one more in need of God’s grace, God’s help than me.

If any within the hearing and sound of my voice hear the Lord speaking, simply say “Here am I, Lord.”  “Here am I!”

The Lord our God in Jesus Christ knows where you are and knows how to find you!  I invite you on this day after the day after Thanksgiving to open your heart to his wondrous, undying, reconciling and redeeming love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son to redeem the world.  For God did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16,17)

Bill W