Thanksgiving

I recently saw an article declaring that “November is the month of thanksgiving.” I wish there had been a capital letter beginning the word thanksgiving. That way, the statement would have been less bothering to me. November is the month our culture celebrates Thanksgiving Day, but surely those who belong to God don’t wait until Thanksgiving to be thankful!

Psalm 92:1-4 is one of hundreds of biblical texts that remind us of our need to be thankful.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to you name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy. (NRSV)

We live our lives surrounded by testimony in the world God created of His goodness to us. Exactly how God created this world is unknown, and as Hebrews 11:3 declares, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. However God chose to make the world, what is not a matter of dispute is that we live in a world that is wonderful beyond belief.

Morning and night we have reason to recognize that “it is good to give thanks to the Lord.” The same physics that allow the space shuttle to dock with the massive space station in outer space allow air rushing through the pipes of a pipe organ to make music. That there are predictable laws in sciences like physics, chemistry, biology, botany, astronomy, and all the others says something very significant about how God made the world. “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God . . .”

How could we not be thankful morning and evening? God has placed us in a universe that is marvelous beyond description and we haven’t even made it to “the new heaven and new earth” yet!

If I have to wait to Thanksgiving Day to be reminded to be thankful, then perhaps I need to be more observant of the world around me, to be more observant of all that has been done for me in God’s grace through Jesus Christ, to be more observant of all that the people of God have done for me, and to be more observant of the testimony of Scripture itself.

The psalmist was right! It is good to give thanks to the Lord.