Why Thanksgiving?

O that today you would listen to his voice!

This Psalm is a wonderful reminder of the Psalmist’s  gratitude for God’s continued activity in his life and the world.  It is the assigned Psalm for the last Sunday of the Church year — Christ the King Sunday. The Psalmist begins by the praise due God.  And how that praise looks coming from lives of the faithful. 

When I begin to read this psalm, the feeling I get is one of joy and thankfulness.  But, in verse 8 the feeling changes, as I read of how God responds to the less faithful.  Those, from the past, who have tested God’s love and presence.  The immediate vision is of the Hebrew people, after their exodus from Egypt.  When they spent forty years in “in the wilderness”!  They were a strong necked people who grumbled all the time.  No matter what God did for them, they were never satisfied.  In this short Psalm we have the love and wrath of this God we worship.  

And this is the point of variance in those who follow Jesus.  

In this variance, some of us — me — error on the side of grace!  God’s nonjudgmental nature!  God’s constant willingness to accept us as we are. As long as we believe and desire to follow what Jesus.  Jesus -- God of the New Testament — who came to teach us about Himself.  

Some error on the side of the God of the Old Testament!  A God whose patience was constantly being tested by a people who wanted to do their own thing regardless of God’s will.  A God who was put in the position to punish their choices and behavior; because of their refusal to even care what God asked of them.  The Old Testament is full of  storied replete with the unsuccessful game of: warning, repenting, forgiveness.  This game was  repeated over and over again.  With never any successful results.  The game was a “no win” game!  The people had their own little gods and idols that were more important to them. And, God was put in the continued postion to warn them of their failure to worship him.  

That is why, in my simple mind, God finally came to earth in the skin of the baby Jesus.  Came to  proclaimed: “Believe in me!”  Or not!  Your choice!

No matter what side of the variance you stand, I hope you find a place in your heart for our great God who has never failed us. Has never left us alone!  Who blesses our lives daily with His guidance, love, forgiveness and total acceptance.  

When we are aware of this Gracious and merciful God we can’t help but live in gratitude.  A gratitude that fills us  with a precious feeling of joy.  

I use the word joy, instead of happy, because the feeling of joy brings with it a sense of peace and contentment.  A sense of being loved without exception.  A gift that gives us nothing else!  Nothing else but an awesome sense of freedom.  Freedom in its purest form.  

That is the blessing of faith in  — perceiving of —the God Jesus came to show us.

For that, most simple gift, we all have cause to Give Thanks!

1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways." 11 Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest.”(Psalm 95)