Because He saved us
We started our journey of thanks-giving with Psalm 100 which is aptly titled "A Psalm for Giving Thanks". We started our gratitude expressions by giving thanks that there is a God (and it is not us) and that He is Creator, Sovereign and Loving.Stop and reflect on that for a moment...
What would your world be like if you had no concept of a loving God? Personally I can't bear to contemplate the idea that everything is random and purposeless. Knowing that there is a God who is personal, sovereign and loving makes sense of the world for me.
And so my first thanks-giving is simply "God I am so grateful that you are..."
Today we move to the second priority of thanks-giving and that is that we are grateful that God has rescued us and saved us.
Psalm 107 is a beautiful psalm that describes how Israel had wandered away from God and how He rescued them. The psalmist describes various scenarios:
- Some wandered in desert wastelands... (v.4)
- Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains... (v.10)
- Some became fools through their rebellious ways... (v.17)
- Others went out on the sea in ships... (v.23)
In each case, the psalmist describes how God rescued them with mighty acts of rescue and love.
His prologue (our reading for today) says it all:
Give thanks:
- God is good - His love endures forever
- And He rescues us.
And so, with our New Testament eyes, we read this Psalm and understand how all these rescues culminate in Jesus' cross and empty tomb...
So, we are "thanks-full" that there is a God.
And we give-thanks that He is a God who saves and rescues us.
Read the Psalm and then take a moment to say or sing "Thank You for the Cross, Thank You for the Cross!"
| Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this-- those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. (Psalms107:1-3) |
