A Thanksgiving Prayer
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." I say of the holy people who are in the land, "They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight." Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely, I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful1 one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Ps. 16)
Thanksgiving is a great holiday. If we lived in Old Testament times, we would call it a feast. Feasts were God-ordained occasions of worship and grateful celebration including…Food (Deut. 14:26)! They reminded the people that all the good things of life come from the Lord and that he wants us to enjoy them as an act of worship.
The Scripture exhorts us to give thanks to the Lord over 60 times. Material gratitude is a main ingredient in praise. And the gratitude the Lord commands has as much to do with this physical life as with what we call “spiritual” life (actually these overlap perfectly among the redeemed). Note that in this prayer David asks the Lord for physical safety and looks forward to material pleasure in God’s presence.
What? Pleasures? Absolutely! The Hebrew word means exactly what the English word means—material pleasure in a real body and a real world, shared with God Himself. That’s why he became one of us—to redeem us from death and give to us His Tangible Joy forever (see Eph. 2:7). Remember, the Lord’s first work as Messiah was not a sermon or a healing, but a miraculous extension of a wedding reception that had run out of wine (!). There is a huge party coming at the end of this age, a greater wedding reception, which He is looking forward to sharing with us. All our grateful meals here and now point to that Ultimate Table.
So… we should enjoy them thoroughly, thank Him deeply, and rest gratefully in His provision, now and in eternity.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Rick
