“Therefore, Our God, We Thank Thee”
SIH’s Think On
These Things: 1 Chron 29:10-14”
1Chr 29:10-14 (KJV) Wherefore David blessed
the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed [be] thou, LORD God of Israel our father,
for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, [is] the greatness, and the power, and
the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all [that is] in the heaven and in the earth [is thine]; thine [is] the
kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour [come] of thee, and thou reignest over
all; and in thine hand [is] power and
might; and in thine hand [it is] to
make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who [am] I, and what [is] my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after
this sort? for all things [come] of
thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
To begin our “Month of Thankfulness” series I would
like us to look at the above text. In
our text, we find King David addressing the nation of Israel. He is presenting a message that would
encourage them to thank Jehovah through both their words and their actions.
His message included teaching the people
concerning:
1. Jehovah’s person and attributes (vs 11a)
2. Jehovah’s control of all things (vs 11b)
3. Jehovah’s blessings given to us (vs 12)
Following these teachings, David then declares “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.” In other words, based upon his previous teachings
about Jehovah, he now advises the people on their need to show appreciation for
such a great God blessing them as He works in their midst.
For our devotion this morning I would like us to
come to a Scriptural understanding of what is meant by the concept of being
“thankful” to the Lord. In our text the
word “thank” is translated from a Hebrew word that means “to hold out the
hand”. Scripturally, when we give thanks
we are doing several things…
1. we are
acknowledging our need of Him (much like a baby holds out their hands to their
mother asking to be picked up and carried.)
Scriptural thanksgiving involves in recognition and proclamation of our
great need of Him in every area of our life… “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28)
2. we are
pointing the attention to Him (much like a person holds out their hand pointing
to an object that they want others to notice)
Much like John the Baptist directing the attention of His followers to
Christ by saying “Behold the lamb of God
who taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
3. we are
sending out our message of His goodness to us (much like we are handing over an
object to someone by extending our hand.) This is much like the role of the
Apostle Paul who handed the message of what Christ had done on his behalf to a
lost and dying world. “…I declare unto you the
gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received,..” (1Cor
15:1)
To summarize the above,
to give thanks to our Lord involves… being submitted to His will, recognizing
our need of His blessings and motivated by appreciation and love, we tell
others about what He has done for us, and how badly we need Him in our
lives.
As we enter into this
“Month of Thankfulness” and we study all of the many blessings that He has
given to us… let’s keep in mind our responsibility…. to love our Lord,
appreciate Him, recognize our constant need of Him and thank Him through our
speech and actions for all He has done for us!
(For an in-depth look at
the entire text of 1 Chron 29:10-14, please see my posting entitled “Thanksgiving Devotion: Therefore O God, We Thank Thee”)
May the
Lord bless us as we “Think On These Things”.
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