GIVE THANKS

 

What was the best part of Thanksgiving for you?  Family, food, recreation time, time off from demands of everyday life, time giving thanks to God?  Thanksgiving is about remembering!  And it was so for the Israelites as well.  Psalm 136 

Remembering should cause us to “give thanks” to God.  Forgetting often does not.

Psalms—songs of worship—songs are about remembering—the goodness of God—His worthiness of our praise/worship—His love—His blessings.  Those are good things to remember and they caused the Israelite to praise and thank Him. 

The chorus of our songs is repeated in songs we sing today.  In this Psalm, part of that is “Give thanks to the LORD.”  But the most common thing that is repeated here is a reminder of God’s covenant—His promise with His people—“His love endures forever,” or in the KJV—“His lovingkindness is everlasting.” 

The word for “love” or “lovingkindness” here especially reminds of the covenant God made with His people.  And what you notice as you read or sing this Psalm is that it is a repeating—a reminder—of God’s goodness to them through their history.  Much of this talks of God creating, God choosing the Jews as His people, the giving of the land of Canaan to them, and God’s provision to them.  Remembering all of that—their history with God—His provisions for them—His choosing them to belong to Him—was cause for them to remember that “His love to them was everlasting, eternal, never ending.” 

So after recounting an aspect of God’s provision or God’s covenant with them, they would repeat, “His love endures forever.” 

There are times in any relationship when we need to remember our history with the person.  Husband and wife have words with one another over something that comes up—they get angry—say things they don’t mean.  But each needs to remember their history—what caused them to choose one another in the first place?  Love—they committed themselves to one another—for life—good and bad times.  And remembering that love and commitment—the promises they made to one another—the covenant they made—reminds them to forgive and forget—to remember that there are many more good times in that covenant than bad times.  And then they are willing to work through the problems—the crisis—the words. 

Same in relationship with God—Jews needed to remember His goodness—His promises—His blessings when things got hard.  Same with us today—so we have the Bible to remind us of those good things God did—so that we will renew our covenant—our promises with Him—and give Him thanks and worship. 

I like Psalm 103, which reminded Jews and us today who forgave their (and our) sins, who healed their (and our) diseases, who gave them (and us) love, compassion good things, and keeps walking through life with us. 

When you remember your history with God, you remember how indebted you are to God for things you could not provide for yourself. 

• What diseases have you had that He healed?
• What sins has God forgiven you?
• What has He done for you could not do for yourself?
• When were you down and He lifted your spirits and let you go on when you were ready to give up?
• What has He forgiven you of that you had trouble forgiving yourself for?
• How has He helped you to forgive others or love others who have done things to you that were terrible?

God is compassionate, gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love.  Did you deserve it all?  But He did it anyway. 

Are those things you are thankful for?   

But when we forget, we don’t give Him His rightful place in worship or love or thankfulness. 

Each of us has a story with God—our story connecting with His story.  Do you ever take time to remember—to reflect on that—to think of what you’ve already received from Him? 

If you really do, you will remember that “God is good and His lovingkindness is everlasting.” 

So we have Thanksgiving—not just to remember the pilgrims or the Indians or the first beginnings of our nation.  We have it to remember God’s goodness—God’s provisions—God’s love shown toward us—not just our nation—but to each one of us as well. 

“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, and His love endures forever.” 

“Give thanks with a grateful heart, to the Holy One, give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ for us.  And now, let the weak say I am strong, … because of what the LORD has done, give thanks.”