Subtitle:
Thank God for His Saving Grace
“Joyfully sing to the LORD, you righteous people. Praising {the LORD} is proper for decent people. Give thanks with a lyre to the LORD. Make music for him on a ten-stringed harp. Sing a new song to him. Play beautifully and joyfully on stringed instruments. The word of the LORD is correct, and everything he does is trustworthy. The LORD loves righteousness and justice. His mercy fills the earth. The heavens were made by the word of the LORD and all the stars by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the water in the sea like a dam and puts the oceans in his storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him. He spoke, and it came into being. He gave the order, and there it stood. The LORD blocks the plans of the nations. He frustrates the schemes of the people of the world. The LORD'S plan stands firm forever. His thoughts stand firm in every generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Blessed are the people he has chosen as his own.
“The LORD
looks down from heaven. He sees all of Adam's descendants. From the place where
he sits enthroned, he looks down upon all who live on earth. The one who formed
their hearts understands everything they do. No king achieves a victory with a
large army. No warrior rescues himself by his own great strength. Horses are
not a guarantee for victory. Their great strength cannot help someone escape.
“The
LORD'S eyes are on those who fear
him, on those who wait with hope for his mercy to rescue their souls from death
and keep them alive during a famine. We wait for the LORD. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts find
joy. In his holy name we trust. Let your mercy rest on us, O LORD, since we wait with hope for you.” Psalm 33:1-22
This is Thanksgiving week. It is a
time when (at least in the past) we would take time to pause and thank God for
every blessing we had received from Him and then we would, in good Sabbath
fashion, feast on the bounty of those provisions. However, lately it seems that for many Thanksgiving has become the day to check their list of Christmas wants against
the Black Friday specials and plan their strategy for scoring the most for the
least. Thanking the ONE who has provided for their means has become secondary to
acquiring more for themselves. Oh they can justify their actions by saying that they are being good stewards or thrifty or they are just doing their part to stimulate
the economy and keep their neighbors employed. But then if someone looks hard enough they can find justification
for every action in one way or another. So before we join in that rush to the store for
that once in a life-time bargain, let us pause…………… really PAUSE…
In this Psalm we can recount the
ways God has provided for us, beginning with the fact that He created us. He
formed us physically and spiritually; body and soul! He knows who we are. He
knows what we have done. He is engaged in our lives. He fights for us. He is
our defender, our help, and our provider. Everything we have has been given to
us by Him. So take the time to think about what that means for you today.
PAUSE………… and GIVE THANKS TO GOD.
This
is our Outreach promise: God
rescues those who fear Him; “those who wait with hope for His mercy to rescue
their souls from [eternal] death…” In the Psalm we receive the promise that everyone who waits on the LORD will be saved
from eternal death. It is God who gives life. It is God who gives us a new life in Jesus Christ. This is a certain truth!
On this Thanksgiving Day let us pause to THANK God for this promise fulfilled, for giving us salvation and then let us BOLDly tell someone else this good news!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.