Thanksgiving is upon us and if you are reading this, I hope that you do have a wonderful Thanksgiving. This past Sunday at our church we focused on a “Heart of Thanks,” at our morning service and in the evening as we came together for a special Thanksgiving service many were able to express their testimonies and thanks to the Lord. As I spoke about on Sunday, I do think that sometimes we become perhaps a bit ritualistic in giving our thanks. Now I do think that giving thanks always to God is following Him on obedience and thanking others in our life is a critical aspect of growing relationships with others. Giving thanks to God and to others is also a humbling part of our lives. For the purpose of our time here I will focus on the aspect of our giving thanks to the Lord.
Psalm 50 is a psalm that provides us with some direction in the giving of thanks to God. Three verses in particular jump out at me. I shared these three verses (Psalm 50:14-15; 23) at our recent men’s breakfast as they can help us in this season of thanksgiving and always as we look to give God thanks for His presence, power, grace, and mercy. Do we not like being giving direction as we look to grow our relationship with God?
If we take a look at verses fourteen and fifteen of Psalm 50, we find three commands. First, we read, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving.” The next states, “And pay your vows to the Most High.” The final command in the list speaks to us and says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble.” As we read these commands from God’s Word it appears that we have a direction in which to move that God is calling us towards. There is a fourth line that concludes this fourteenth and fifteenth verses which is God’s promise followed by one more command. God’s promise is clearly stated, and He will rescue us. Following God’s promise is the final command for us and that is, “You will honor me.” I am not quite sure that the final line here is something that we should even consider as a command. God rescues us and would it not be our natural reaction to honor Him. This is the part that I do not want you to miss. As we present our thanks to the Lord, does it bring us to our needs? As I contemplated these two verses this past week, I found it to be impossible not to be humbled in the presence of God. Should I, should we, always be humbled in the presence of God? Of course, but the question is, “am I?” I find that a heart of thankfulness towards the Lord changes every circumstance around me. The humbling is good as the thanks actually takes the pressure off of me in trying to do everything myself.
The final verse of Psalm 50 is all about the promise that God has for us. And we all know that a promise put forth by God to us is based on His perfect, unchanging character as opposed to anything we promise (sarcasm there directed at us). This Thanksgiving let us start anew with a fresh heart of thankfulness. Not just in church, not just around Thanksgiving, but every day. This may just be what God’s Word is calling us to when it says, “Orders his way aright.” God bless each one of you this Thanksgiving and each day. Enjoy the time that you spend with the Lord thanking Him for all that He has done.