Thanksgiving Eve
Beloved. Tomorrow we celebrate a day of national thanksgiving, a day that we stop and pause and think of all the blessings that we as a nation and that we individually enjoy. Although most will think of the physical blessings that we have, like food, clothing, shelter, job, family, friends, peace, etc. may we, as Christians, think first and foremost of all the spiritual gifts and blessings our good and gracious Lord has given us and thank Him for them—spiritual gifts and blessings like the forgiveness of sins and the faith to receive it, eternal life, peace and joy in Him even in the midst of difficulty, heaven, our church, His holy word and Sacraments, the protection of the holy angels, etc. Most people don’t even want to lift their eyes to see the great spiritual gifts and blessings the Lord wants to and does give. They are happy with the physical blessings that merely concern life here and now.
But the Lord has a purpose behind these physical blessings, He has a reason why He [Mt. 5.45] makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust; there is a reason why He has mercy on all and doesn’t just give us what we all deserve. And that reason? St. Paul tells us [Rm. 2.4]: God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. All of the physical, temporal gifts that we have and enjoy—those things that most people in our nation are happy and thankful for tomorrow—are meant by God to lead people to repentance—to recognize sin and that God is gracious and wants to forgive us our sin.
That’s why, if done rightly, thanksgiving is such hard work. True and right thanksgiving doesn’t stop with joy over some earthly blessing, but keeps going back and focuses ultimately on the Giver of that gift/ blessing, on His mercy and love; true thanksgiving also then focuses on our unworthiness of having/ receiving such a gift and blessing and again turns to the greatness of the Giver. After all, are we truly thankful for something we think we truly earned, deserved or worked hard for? It’s rightfully ours, after all!
Because a right and proper thanksgiving is such hard work—it involves not only taking stock of what I have but also of reflecting on my worthiness—or better put: my lack thereof—and also reflecting on the Giver of the gifts, it is much easier just to fill our day called Thanksgiving with all sorts of extras and smoke and mirrors so we think we are being thankful when in reality, we haven’t even rightly set our hearts and minds on a true thanksgiving, which is not just one day a year but a daily thing. True thanksgiving is a daily joyful reliance on the mercy of God.
Our text from the psalm helps us do that. In it the psalmist points us to nature and the abundant testimony nature gives of the Lord’s goodness. The LORD covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. The goodness and mercy of the Lord are literally abundantly surrounding us in nature—so much so that we can so easily take it for granted that the sun will rise, the rain will fall, the crops will grow, that we will have what we need to live. But as we do in this psalm and others and in other passages of Scripture, we have the word of God giving us the full picture. We need the revelation of God’s word to get a full and clear understanding of God’s goodness and mercy as He provides for us. As we ponder God’s word this Thanksgiving and throughout the year, we then see God’s hand of blessing more clearly. As we see God’s mercy and goodness in providing for us, we receive His blessings with thanksgiving and use them in ways pleasing to Him.
To receive God’s blessings with thanksgiving means, in part, doing what we are doing right now: being in church and thanking Him. He expects thanks for all His blessings to us—like we hear in the Gospel account when Jesus heals 10 men but only one returns to give Jesus thanks, He asks [Lk. 17.17]: Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?. If we truly recognize our gifts as coming from the mercy of the Lord to us, we will do as the psalmist says in our text: Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! That singing with thanksgiving that we read of here in our text is in songs of liturgical worship. That same word is used in other psalms to describe visiting the temple or tabernacle for worship [Ps. 95.2; 100.4]: Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving and Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
Although we are only in church on Sunday and other holy days, we can still each day live lives of thanksgiving as we receive our daily bread—that is, all that we need for this body and life—with thanksgiving, joyfully relying on God’s mercy to provide for us in the way He knows best for us.
How does our Lord give us our daily bread, in mercy provide for us bodily in this life? Our psalm answers: The LORD covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. Or perhaps more clearly: For us the LORD covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. The Lord works through means to provide for us and to give us His gifts and blessings. The clouds and the rain moisten the ground so the crops can grow for our food; the trees grow for our houses and furniture, etc. Carry this through for everything else. Ultimately you come back to God as the cause, working through various ways to bless us for what we need here and now. Notice as well The LORD covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. It is not the rain merely falling on the earth that makes it fertile and the grass to grow, it is because God prepares the rain in the clouds for that very purpose. The Lord says through St. Isaiah [55.10-11]: For…the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater…it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. As much as the farmer or rancher works, the carpenter build, the factory worker assemble, the miner digs, etc. it all ultimately depends on the Lord blessing their work and working through it to provide for us, His creation.
And to make it even clearer, our psalmist now takes away the “middle man” of the clouds and rain: He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. Yes, the beasts hunt for their food or graze on grass in pastures; yes, the mother bird feeds her young—but what? He The Lord gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. Not only us, humanity, the crown jewel of God’s creation, does the Lord provide for, but for all of His creation—and even those things that don’t directly benefit us, like the ravens. That’s how thorough God’s care of His creation is! That’s how thoroughly He provides for us in our needs. That’s why He is worthy of praise and thanksgiving always and for everything! Really how blessed we are! Listen again to our text: He gives … to the young ravens that cry. The baby ravens cry out to God, the gracious sustainer of all for food. And He provides! They have a natural longing to seek food from their Creator; they feel their dependence on His might and His care. They are irrational animals! How blessed we are—we are able to know what an irrational creature unconsciously acknowledges: all things come from the hand of our gracious and merciful Triune God, our Creator. And we have that great privilege and blessing of being able to thank Him with our hearts, hands, voices! Thanksgiving Day is set aside to us for such a glorious privilege. Let out thanks not just be one day but every day.
Why does God give us daily bread? Our text: His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man. God gives us our daily bread/ what we need for life in this world not because of our merit but for the sake of His goodness and mercy. God does not enquire if it is a weak baby raven crying out for food or whether it is a strong, mighty horse. He gives to one as to the other. God does not regard the person but gives to all—even the ungodly—what they need. And again why does He give gifts and blessings to the ungodly, what we would consider unworthy? –Because He is merciful to all; He wants His kindness and mercy to lead all to repent.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. The God who governs the rain and provides food for His whole creation does not have His greatest delight in the strength and abilities He gave His creatures but in the humble faith and loving trust we show Him. That’s what our daily lives of thanksgiving are all about: returning to the Lord the humble faith and loving trust that He, as our Creator and Preserver, is due. Thanksgiving is not: I can do it myself, but if I need help then I will turn to God. Instead, Thanksgiving is not relying on our own abilities, thinking I did it my way/ all by myself. That’s, in the end, saying: God, I don’t need you. I don’t need You graciously providing me my daily bread. It’s saying: God, You are a liar. You don’t provide for Your creation.
What tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day is, and our everyday lives of thanksgiving are, is a recognition and confession of our own weakness and inability in ourselves but that all we are and all we have is by God’s pure grace and mercy toward us.
And guess what? The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. As we fear the Lord, we then are aware of how fully we depend on Him. There’s nothing we can bring in our hands to make ourselves worthy and deserving before the Lord. As we realize that we are sinners and He is the one, true holy God all we can do is to fear Him. We fear to displease Him; we fear what He can do to us sinners; we fear Him as the almighty Creator of us and of all things. But our fear as Christians is also combined with knowing precisely Who God is—gracious and merciful who loves us and provides for us, His creation. Knowing rightly who God is also means knowing that He made us to love us and that He, the almighty Creator of everything, is working all things for my good. It means knowing that just as He provides all I need for my earthly life and existence, He has also done the same for me spiritually—that He has rescued me from sin, death and devil, that He has forgiven my sins, that He has opened heaven to me and is working to bring me safely there.
That’s why we hope in His steadfast love. And that’s really what Thanksgiving is all about: recognizing God’s grace, love and mercy and relying on it. Thanksgiving means that we renounce in ourselves any trust in our own works, any confident self-working and instead putting all our hope and reliance in His steadfast love. That’s thanksgiving because as we wait for/ put our hope in His steadfast love, we are by that recognizing and thanking God for His past blessings. This life of thanksgiving is a life of calm and confidence because it is a waiting for/ hoping in the Lord’s mercy, His steadfast love, that we have already experienced and know He does and will continue to show us. Living this life of thanksgiving is a confession of our faith, as we know who God is and live it out. Thanksgiving is joyfully relying on God’s mercy to receive our daily bread and giving back to the Lord humble faith and loving trust He is due. INJ Amen.