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Tag: thanks

  • Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95

    Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95


    His faithful love endures forever.

    Psalm 136

    I don’t know about you, but once again Thanksgiving seems to be upon us as a prerequisite observance preceding the rush of the Christmas holidays. Some would observe in political correctness, ‘the holiday season,’ which promoted for lights in darkness and gifts seemingly endures forever.

    menorah Knesset

    I have previously mentioned this hustle and bustle of black Friday having overtaken the archaic imagery of worshiping pilgrims. Yet each year’s commercial focus on a relatively minor Jewish holiday and formerly insignificant Christian observance grows more and more into a worship of our prosperity (for which we give thanks).


    Puritans forbade Christmas, considering it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually threatened New Englanders with work, jail or fines if they were caught observing Christmas.

    Christianity.com

    Perhaps our 17th century Puritan forefathers, who celebrated on this uniquely American Thanksgiving holiday, weren’t so far from the truth of this holiday season. For these brief days provide little rest and even less thanks.

    Thanks giving in two Psalms

    Set aside your devices and distractions for a moment as you gather together with family and you will see much bounty, a recurring theme for America and also Israel of the Psalms and Scripture.

    Who will you thank?

    Your host and hostess? Sure. Or maybe family who have made this gathering possible? Perhaps. Yet the thanks giving of those faithful to the Lord is always to God.

    No book better expresses our worship, our praises, and singing with joy to the LORD than Psalms, which is the hymnal of Jewish and Christian worship.

    One simple form of praising God for the worshipers is to simply repeat a single phrase, when the worship leader praises the LORD. One example of several with thanksgiving of the worshipers for God is Psalm 136.

    You could give thanksgiving to God right now simply by repeating your response out loud after reading every praise of the Psalm [linked below].

    Psalm 136

    Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. [136:1 הֹודוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טֹוב כִּי לְעֹולָם חַסְדֹּֽו׃]

    His faithful love endures forever. OR 

    For His mercy endures forever. OR

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

    Different translations all reinforce God’s love in our response of worship to the LORD. The Psalmist praises God in many ways:

    v.4 He alone does great wonders.

    v.7 He made the great lights

    v.23 He remembered us in our humiliation

    25 Who giveth food to all flesh:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.

    26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.


    King James Version (KJV)

    This is giving thanks as the Pilgrims of America’s founding would have given to God – not only on this holiday, but also in other worship.

    Thanks is often a theme of worship, therefore thanking God is the first fruits of harvest for believers of all faiths who landed in this new world.

    Yet we have forgotten the lessons of the Lord — He who has preserved us for bounty and blessings of a new land.

    Are we so unlike those who worshiped the Lord before, yet then neglected to thank their Provider?

    Psalm 95

    Worship 

    1 Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord,
    shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

    2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us shout triumphantly to him in song.

    Psalm 95 CSB

    3 For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.

    If the LORD is God, then as worshipers giving God thanks, what must we do?

    Hear this caution from the Psalm, that we might not give our thanks lightly, forgetting the worship of Almighty God our Creator.

    6 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,
    the sheep under his care.

    The Psalmist then reminds worshipers of those who had previously turned from the Lord.

    Warning

    Today, if you hear his voice:
    8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
    as on that day at Massah in the wilderness
    9 where your fathers tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

    Psalm 95, referring to exodus 17:17

    Wilderness of the Negev 

    Meribah מְרִיבָה means testing and is the place where the Hebrews escaping Egypt tested the Lord, rather than giving thanks to the Lord. And Massah מַסָּה means quarreling, the politics of an ungrateful saved people in the wilderness.

    The Lord saved many who had fled to the New World from persecution and death in the seventeenth century. The Pilgrims and others gave God thanks for this. Yet the Psalmist reminds worshipers to not harden our hearts.

    Those escaping to a new land had far to go and much to learn of community, about authority and of thankfulness. Because of their testing and quarreling, the promise of the Lord would not be fulfilled in their generation.

    Therefore let us heed these cautions of the Psalmist in our attitude of thanks to the Lord. Even today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

    10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;
    I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;
    they do not know my ways.”
    11 So I swore in my anger,
    “They will not enter my rest.”

     Would you enter the eternal rest of the Lord? Do you thank the Lord this day?

    We will have more to say of this rest in our Lord after this holiday of Thanks giving.

  • Feasts: Thanksgiving to God

    Feasts: Thanksgiving to God

    “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. – Leviticus 23:4

    Feasts, Fasts & Festivals

    Americans view Thanksgiving as a defining national holiday, complete with feasts focused on our  Utopian culture of American families. Yet a stark reality lingers as a less than an alternative truth of family feasts of the American family. In fact, as I pointed out in the preface to this Thanksgiving message for 2017, we focus almost entirely on ourselves rather than God.

    Festivals, feasts and celebrations have digressed to a holiday from work. Who do we thank, anyway? Certainly not the Lord. Though these feasts may have originated with God and governments, the LORD loses honor in all lands in our contemporary celebrations of self-accomplishment.

    Never-the-less, let’s take a brief Biblical look at the origin of feasts and fasts appointed by the LORD.

     Note: Most information shared from other sources. Check out the several links for additional study.

    Feast and Holy Days and Dates 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
    Purim Adar 14 Mar. 12 Mar. 1 Mar. 21 Mar. 10 Feb. 26
    Pesach (Passover) Aviv 14 Apr. 11 Mar. 31 Apr. 20 Apr. 9 Mar. 28
    Feast of Firstfruits Aviv ___ (varies) Apr. 16 Apr. 1 Apr. 21 Apr. 12 Apr. 11
    Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) Sivan ___ (varies) June 4 §May 31 May 20 §May 20 June 9 §June 9 May 31 §May 29 May 23 §May 17
    Rosh haShanah (Feast of Trumpets) Tishri 1 Sep. 21 Sep. 10 Sep. 30 Sep. 19 Sep. 7
    Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Tishri 10 Sep. 30 Sep. 19 Oct. 9 Sep. 28 Sep. 16
    Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Tishri 15-22 Oct. 5 Sep. 24 Oct. 14 Oct. 3 Sep. 21
    Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication) Kislev 25 Dec. 13 Dec. 3 Dec. 23 Dec. 11 Nov. 29

    Feasts of the Lord

    חָגַג – to hold a feast, hold a festival, make pilgrimage, keep a pilgrim-feast, celebrate, dance, stagger

    Contemporary Jewish Calendars include a mixture of Hebrew Festivals, some which are considered minor festivals, with others of more importance.

    Names of Hebrew festivals in other languages vary widely, without a singular reference such as ‘Thanksgiving’ for each.

    All preexilic festivals were “holy convocations”

    PRE-EXILIC Annual (Hebrew) Festivals
    1. Passover, 15th-22d Nican
    2. Pentecost, 6th Ciwan) Pilgrimage
    3. Tabernacles, 15th-22d Tishri) Festivals
    4. Shemini ‘Atsereth, 23d Tishri
    5. New Year, Feast of Trumpets, 1st Tishri
    6. Atonement, 10th Tishri

    Five festivals, in addition to the all-important weekly Sabbath [שַׁבָּת], monthly (28 days) New Moon, Sabbath Year (every 7) and Jubilee Year ( every 50) ALL honor the LORD! The Day of Atonement was the only ‘pre-exilic’ fast.

    Faithful worshipers of God included fasting, prayer and preparation for these feasts honoring the LORD. A feast was much more important than a mere family gathering, a feast followed a prescribed honoring of Almighty God.

    Leviticus 23:

    The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

    Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement

    Yom Kippur (in Hebrew)

    More Feasts, Fasts & Festivals

    The Hebrew calendar begins with two thanksgivings (holy convocations, rather than festivals) to the LORD.

    Both commemorate events when the Lord saved Israel: Passover or Pesach the Lord saves the Hebrew people through Moses from slavery in Egypt. And  Purim celebrates the Lord using Queen Esther during the exile to save the Hebrews from holocaust at the hands of Haman the Persian.

    Post-exilic Festivals

    After the fall of Jerusalem more than a dozen new celebrations and fasts were added to the Hebrew calendar. The period of the Babylonian captivity marks a complete change, not only in the kinds of festivals instituted from time to time, but also in the manner of celebrating the old.

    God, America & Thankfulness

    What do Hebrew holidays and a uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving have to do with you?

    (After all, most of the world is neither Hebrew or American.)

    I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations. – Psalm 57:9

    Yes, giving thanks is our most appropriate witness to the Lord.

    O, give thanks! you sons and daughters of Jacob. Yadah, yadah יָדָה the unrighteous will hear nothing of your blessings; yet we give thanks, laud and praise to your glorious Name, O Lord of Hosts!

    1 Chronicles 16:8  הֹודוּ לַֽיהוָה קִרְאוּ בִשְׁמֹו הֹודִיעוּ בָעַמִּים עֲלִילֹתָֽיו׃

    As the Lord has chosen but a remnant of Jacob for eternal redemption. God chooses no nation, but only a faithful remnant of those who believe.

    Israel fell. Rome fell. The U.S. spirals down toward destruction as has every earthly nation before us. The Lord will judge each man and woman for our own sin. He has prepared a remnant for His witness, praise and thanksgiving.

    εὐχαριστία – thankfulness, the giving of thanks

    Our witness is that the Messiah Jesus was, is and is to come – He is God in the flesh, the Spirit and Creator of all things.

    He will judge and condemn the evil which surrounds us.

    He will redeem those who call upon His Name; therefore give Him thanks for the covering of our sins.

    Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ

    John 1:

    16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

    John 3:

    God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

    and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

    See how evil unmasks evil. It cannot remain covered and neither will our sin, unless we are in Christ by his love and mercy and grace.

    20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

    Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
    the King of creation!
    O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy
    health and salvation!
    All ye who hear,
    Now to His temple draw near;
    Sing now in glad adoration!

    Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that
    is in me adore Him!
    All that hath life and breath, come
    now with praises before Him!

    Let the Amen
    Sound from His people again;
    Gladly for aye we adore Him.

    Psalm 103

     

  • A Psalm of Thanksgiving – Psalm 100, Psalm 50

    A Psalm of Thanksgiving – Psalm 100, Psalm 50

    Psalm 100

    Who is giving thanks? And to whom? “For what do we give thanks on Thanksgiving?” 

    The New International Version tells us it is For giving grateful praise. The New King James Version calls it, A Song of Praise for the Lord’s Faithfulness to His People and the English Standard Version, borrowing from its text reminds us, His Steadfast Love Endures Forever.

    מִזְמֹור לְתֹודָה

    A Psalm of Praise, in Hebrew, תּוֹדָה, towdah, a common theme in the Psalms, means, thanksgiving.

    “Thanksgiving, done proper, is worship of the Lord God.”

    Psalm 100 for the year of our Lord, 2016

    A select version of verses 1-5

    A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

    Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

    Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

    It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
    We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

    Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
    And into His courts with praise.

    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

    For the Lord is good.
    His unfailing love continues forever,

    And His truth endures to all generations.

    תּוֹדָה tôwdâh -a definition:

    תּוֹדָה tôwdâh, to-daw’; from H3034; properly, an extension of the hand, i.e. (by implication) avowal, or (usually) adoration; specifically, a choir of worshippers:—confession, (sacrifice of) praise, thanks(-giving, offering).

    give praise to God
    thanksgiving in songs of liturgical worship, hymn of praise
    thanksgiving choir or procession or line or company
    thank-offering, sacrifice of thanksgiving
    confession

    An extension of the hand

    Psalm 100, though written for the Hebrew people speaks to all. Make a joyful shout, a joyful noise, a celebration unto the LORD, all you lands, all people, all of His creation, all of the earth. And why not? Has the Lord God not been gracious to many peoples of many lands, most especially US?

    This should be a time of joyful songs, not quiet personal celebration of what we have done. We have food, we have shelter, most of us have not been driven from our homes, like those so oppressed in lands of conflict. We are blessed!

    “Is it not appropriate for us to extend our hand of thanks to the Lord who has provided for us so abundantly?” Thanksgiving is an extension of praise and worship to our One Provider.”

    The long tradition which precedes Thursday’s annual holiday is worship, acknowledging the Lord who provides the fruits of the harvest. At times some have no food, yet even these learn to rely on the graciousness of God – all the more reason to say more than grace over our meal.

    What is our problem with God?

    It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. Even if sinful man points to a big bang without cause, reason or likelihood, we like to take credit for everything we do – all we accomplish, even the very act of creation, cell from cell or primate from amphibian. Some even would imagine alien intelligence (yet who created them) before humbly considering a God greater than man. We don’t want to be sheep and certainly resist being led by a God or a King or even someone of an opposing political persuasion.

    Know that the Lord, he is God! Acknowledge that the Lord is God! We know it in our hearts, but a certain humility must bow down to worship the One we do not understand with all power and mercy we cannot comprehend.

    Perhaps you never thought of this as a time of worship or a place to have your hands extended in praise and thanksgiving to your creator who knows each synapse of your thoughts and every pulsing of your heart. Though you resist any as King over you, even a most benevolent Lord over all of our provision, the King of the heavens and earth welcomes you through the gates of the eternal place of worship and into the courts of loving worshipers saved in the blood of His own Sacrifice for our sins.

    The LORD יְהֹוָה Yĕhovah

    Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Do you need a reason to make the Lord the center of your celebrations? It’s really quite simple: He is good. The LORD is good.

    [ctt title=”What man can claim the righteousness of the LORD our God?” tweet=”Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. – Psalm 100:4b” coverup=”doKDN”]

    For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever… Not only is the Lord good – the only One – God’s love endures. Whose love in your life has endured more than a season? Who truly loves you until your death… and beyond, can a mortal soul love your flawed flesh forever? The Lord will when you extend your hand in worship.

    His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. Praise the Lord with what words the Spirit will share. God is good.

    Mark this, then…

    Psalm 50:22-23

    “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

    The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”