As with many folks in America, this week is all about preparation to celebrate a holiday. Now that might mean a bunch of different things. From packing a suit case and hitting the road or getting on an airplane. Or just going to the store to get all of the ingredients for the Thanksgiving holiday feast. Whatever your plans are this week, for most people it seems to pass by with little sincere consideration of thanksgiving. Sure, we give a passing gesture of what we are thankful for, a brief thought of thanks, and the traditional thanks for the banquet feast we are about to overstuff ourselves with. We will give thanks for the family and friends that we will share it with and we might even let God in on the festive moment of thanks with a placated prayer and then we set Him back in a box.
Perhaps I exaggerate, but I hope you get the idea that we more often fail to come to the Holy Day – holiday – of Thanksgiving with a heart full of thanks. A heart ready to give thanks, not for the things that fill our table, or house, or garages, but to the One who has filled our hearts. Yes, it is good and right to acknowledge Him and give thanks to Him for filling our table and house and all of those things. But all these things should not be the first that come to mind when we gather in celebration of Thanksgiving. Let’s look at a particular Psalm to get an idea of how we ought to approach this particular Holy Day, Psalm 95:1-5:
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods, 4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are His also. 5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.
The opening verse speaks to everyone coming together in a communal gathering to sing prepared songs with great joy to the God of the universe. This is not a haphazard, “let’s throw something together right at the last second as we go to grandma’s house.” It is prepared worship; we have thought things through. We know what we are thankful for, but above all we know Who we are thankful to. It is not some mystical abstract force, or chance, or luck that you are saved or blessed of the Lord. It is by His gracious hand that all is accomplished and all are blessed, we would be wise to remember all that He these blessings. Even the unbelievers that are living on this world He blessing, that should be demonstrative enough of His goodness and His lovingkindness. Verse 2 reminds us that we are in the very presence of this great God, and if we have forgotten His credentials, take a look at verse 3. He is a great God and a great king above all gods. There is none like Him, nothing to compare Him to.
He is a consuming fire, and when the Israelites heard Him speak from the mountain in the desert they shook with fear. This is the very same God that we are to be giving thanks to. This is the very same God that parted the Red Sea. His power is the same today as it was then and it is the same as when He said let there be light and there was light. He does not change. We may not see a physical manifestation of Him in our time like a burning bush or a pillar of cloud by day or a pillar of fire by night, but we have something far greater. We have the precious blood of Christ, the Rock of our salvation.
The last 2 verses remind us of His majestic reach of what belongs to Him on this world. It does not even go into the great expanse of the rest of the universe but remains on planet earth. The depths of the earth and the peaks of the mountains are in His hands; they belong to Him and all that they contain. It goes on, the seas are also His and I love how verse 5 ends, “for it was He who made it, and His hands form the dry land.” It was by Him, and through Him, and for Him that creation was created. It was not for our benefit alone that He did what He did. We do benefit, yes, and we should give much more thanks that He created us, that He redeemed us for Himself and by Himself, and much more than we should give thanks for a holiday meal.
Iron Striking Iron 