Thanksgiving – Wednesday 22 November A✠D 2023
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 150:6;150:2, 1;145:15-16;103:1-2
✠ Lection: Deuteronomy 8:1-10;1 Timothy 2:1-8;St. Luke 17:11-19
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD; to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High; to herald Your love in the morning, Your truth at the close of the day. Thus here we are on this eve of our national day of Thanksgiving. Though we would contend with the Pilgrims on multiple points of doctrine, we would not deny them to be Christian brothers and sisters. Therefore we can give thanks to God for them. We thank God that they had Him in mind and sought to live pious and godly lives even in the midst of new world struggles that our imaginations would strain to fathom. We thank God for all the Christian people who have contributed to make these United States what they are, because of all the places we could’ve been born or come to live in, there are even still places much worse. As we watch our great nation crumble from its own forgetfulness of the Creator, the Lord Almighty still preserves His Church; He preserves His faithful remnant by giving them their meat in due season and by satisfying the desire of every living thing. Our desire is for the protection, for the provision, for the life that He promises and we thank Him that He is in the business of keeping 100% of His promises, having failed on none of them to date. We can expect the future to be the same.
We thank Him because we are commanded to, but if He had not acted upon our slimy hearts first, we would respond only as we still often have the desire to in turned-off rebellion because “only I get to tell me what to do.” But the Lord is good. We thank and praise Him because He has been gracious enough to us to reveal how worthy He is of receiving it without end; to create in us a clean heart that desires truly good things, like giving thanks and praise to Him.
Psalm 150 is a brief one that not only closes out the hallel psalms, the “praise psalms”, but the entire psalter itself. In this one, we have six verses that read: Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
Praise ye the LORD. Who? Ye. Y’all: those gathered in and by the Reason true thanks can be given. Thanks is not given by those who have not received this Good Gift. Therefore, the call goes out to you, dear Christians, to praise your great God and Savior out of the joy He has implanted within your hearts.
Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise Him here in this place where He comes to you again with Him promised, eternal treasures. Praise Him in all the earthly sanctuaries built by His grace given to generations that can leave behind such reverent places in which others can worship Him. No matter if they are humble abodes, such as ours, or grand cathedrals, all Trinitarian churches are glimpses of the praise of God taking place right now in his heavenly sanctuary.
Praise him in the firmament of his power. God is the One Who made the heavens and the earth and every time we take a moment to slow down and look up, we cannot deny that they testify to His power; power that was harnessed to bring forth your life; power that was incarnate to bring you forth out of your death. Praise Him when you think of it all, for the firmaments declare His handiwork as does the eternal life resounding within you.
Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness. There now, beloved, none are forced to praise God, but are taught and reminded of the reasons why it is good to do so; reasons that resonate from within the heart and soul that is alive in Him. You are alive forevermore because of His mighty acts, because of His excellent greatness. He has revealed His power not only in massive deep space explosions of stars being formed, but in displays of power upon the earth so that we may know the One Who loves us so dearly as to become not a star, not a planet, not a magnificent leviathan of the sea, but one of us that He may redeem us as His own beloved children. Remember what the Scriptures teach about what this Mighty One has done upon the earth so as to reconcile you to Himself forever. That’s true power in great love.
How may such gift recipients go about praising the One about Whom they have seen and heard so much, and from Whom they have received so much? Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. With one accord, we lift our voices to praise the Almighty and bring our souls to adore Him. Yes, even off-key, strained noise that may tumble out of our mouths arises to His inclined ear and brings Him delight as we sing the praise of our Maker. Part of the reason that He has given us new hearts is so that they may respond to Him in this way. In doing so, we give collective voice not only of our small gathered group this evening, but that of the whole Christian Church as well as all creation that itself groans and longs for its redemption that will come as part of our inheritance in Christ. The beauty of the firmaments, too, is but in a fallen state. How much more glorious will they be when this heavenly Lord purifies all things by fire on the Last Day! Until then, we count ourselves among every thing that hath breath and we praise the Lord with thanksgiving, for it is good to give thanks to the LORD. Amen! Praise ye the LORD!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.