Give Thanks to the Lord (Psalm 136:1)

Dear friends in Christ.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. These beautiful words from the first verses of Psalm 136 are some of the most beautiful and well known verses in all of Scripture. They are some of the most beautiful words of all Scripture because they are words that so clearly remind us that the great love of the Lord our God is not something that will simply endure for only a day, or a week, or even for just a single year. Instead, these words assure us that the great love of the Lord our God never fails! The great love of the Lord our God is something that has endured since the beginning of eternity, and it is something that will continue to endure until the end of eternity. In fact, this is the very thing that we are confessing each and every time we speak these well known words as part of our common table prayer. For if you think about it, how often don’t you speak these words as one of your meal time prayers? How often don’t you speak these words silently in your heads either before or after you eat? How often don’t you speak these words with your family giving thanks to the Lord either for the food you are about to receive, or giving thanks to the Lord for the food that you have received? In fact, how many of you will be using these very words as one of your prayers as you sit down with friends or family for your Thanksgiving celebration?

Yet even as we gather to worship the Lord and give him thanks on this Thanksgiving eve, it almost seems that there are fewer reasons for us to give thanks to the Lord our God this year. After all, we still find ourselves in the mist of unusual weather: a spring filled with rain at the wrong times, a summer cooler and drier than expected, a fall filled with rain delays for harvesters, and the beginnings of a winter season with warmer than usual temperatures and a lot less snow than we usually have by this time of year. (Not that I’m complaining about a scarcity of ice and snow.) Not only that, but we find ourselves in a church filled with less than our normally bounty of fall decorations, simply because our own personal harvests yielded a lot less than we expected. We are living in an economy that is moving much slower than it has for a long time, and many of us are either struggling to find a job, struggling to keep a job by working longer and harder than we ever have before, or find ourselves somewhere in the middle of that tug of war. Add to that the reports we hear about governmental health care, and it doesn’t matter if you are for it or against it, the back and forth battle between legislators and public opinion is both daunting and exhausting, even for someone who is just a casual bystander and getting their information from the local paper.
Because of all of this, there seems to be a subdued air about America as we prepare ourselves for our Thanksgiving celebrations. Even among our own members I have seen worry and dread, doubt and anxiousness. I have even heard some wondering just what there is for us to be thankful for this year; especially considering everything that is going on in our world. Well the answer to that question is simple. We have every reason to give thanks to the Lord our God today and everyday because we know the one to whom we belong. We have every reason to give thanks to the Lord our God because we know that through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we belong to him as his dearly loved children. We have every reason to give thanks to the Lord our God, because we know that it was his great love for us that moved him to create us in the first place. We know that it was his great love for us that moved him to send his Son to be the Savior of the world. We know that because of his great love for us, he chose us to be his own and called us to faith in Jesus Christ who freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection. We know that because of his great love for us, one day, when our Lord determines, he will call us out of this life and bring us into his heavenly kingdom where we will live by his side forever and ever. This is the great love that the Lord our God has lavished upon us, this is the great love that has endured since the beginning of eternity and will endure for all time, and this is the great love that moves us to give thanks to the Lord our God, even in the midst of the hardships and frustrations we are seeing today.

So no matter what hardships, frustrations, or personal setbacks we might be enduring today, we can still give thanks to the Lord our God, because his love does indeed endure forever. Even though we might be dealing with a strange year for weather and smaller personal harvests, we can still give thanks to the Lord who provides for all our needs, because we know that his love will endure forever. Even though we may be struggling through the tug of war of employment—looking for jobs that aren’t there, or struggling to hold on to one that is—we can still give thanks to the Lord our God, because in his forever enduring love, he will continue to provide for all our needs. Though we may not have as much money as we would like, or we may have bill upon bill eating away at our pocket change, we can still give thanks to the Lord, because in his great love for us, he has never failed to provide us with all that we need and even more than that.

In fact, though we may not always be consciously aware of it, whenever we speak the beautiful words of our text today as a prayer, we are giving thanks to the Lord for the fact that no matter what has happened in our lives his goodness and his love have never failed us. Whenever we speak these beautiful words as a prayer to the Lord, we are giving thanks to him for all the goodness and love that he has poured out on us throughout our lifetime. When we speak these beautiful words as a prayer, we are reminding ourselves of the fact that there is nothing in all creation that can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No matter what we fact in this life we are victorious in the Lord our God because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. No matter what we might endure, our God has promised that he will work all things out for good for those who love him. No matter what we may have already faced this past year, we have every reason to give thanks to the Lord our God today and always, because as the Psalmist assures us, his love endures forever.

Such simple words, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever” yet such beautiful words filled with fathoms of meaning. Though you may use a couple different words when you pray this prayer at mealtimes, as I do, and though you might say them so quickly that you barely pay attention to them as you say them, as I too often do; now, we have something more to think about when we pray this prayer. For with these words we are truly giving thanks to the Lord for his goodness and his love which he showers upon us each and every day. So, as you sit down at your thanksgiving feasts this weekend, if you should choose to use these words as your prayer, take a moment and think about all that they mean. Take a moment and consider all that is wrapped up in these simple words, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever.”

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN