1 Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2 You who answer prayer, to you all people will come.
3 When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.
4 Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.
This is Thanksgiving season.
This past Saturday we had a family get together with our two sons, one daughter-in-law (the other was home with migraine) and our three granddaughters. We bought pizza. We discussed what we plan to do for Thanksgiving where a real holiday feast will be planned and prepared.
When preparing your Thanksgiving meal consider this: Women present for kitchen duty at Plymouth in 1621 numbered only four. They were all who remained of the 18 adult women who had arrived aboard the Mayflower the previous winter. With the help of 5 teenage girls, they fed about 50 Pilgrims plus the 90 Indians who showed up for the feast which extended over a 3-day period. They didn’t have microwaves, electric ovens, or burners on a stove either. It must have been some dinner because historically we remember it 378 years later. Wouldn’t you like to be remembered for that type of meal?
Thanksgiving is a time for us to step back and to consider how good we really have it, but one of the joys we have is to come together to remember our benefactor and to thank God together in the presence of this company for who He is and what He has done.
This week I want to reflect briefly on Psalm 65. Praise is expressed in three themes to God.
In the first four verses praise is expressed for God’s Salvation. I think of the chorus I used to teach kids when I was a high schooler in charge of children’s Church. “If you are saved and you know it, clap your hands. If you're saved and you know it then your life will surely show it, if you’re saved and you know it, clap your hands.”
One lady informed me she visited another church, but the pastor could not have clapped his hands during that song. He did not have a word of hope and confidence for his people. He declared to his congregation you don’t really know if you’re saved for sure. That is why it is important to do good work, be baptized and join a church because then your chances are better.
1 John 5:11–13: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life”.
This is Old Testament praise. They didn’t know Jesus Christ, they only had to have faith that God was going to provide for them a means of salvation. Now we celebrate when Jesus came into the world to seek and save that which is lost.
That faith in God saved them.
Application: Do you know Jesus, do you have the Holy Spirit in your heart? Do you have faith that God is going to provide salvation for you?
Prayer: I rejoice we can have assurance of salvation based on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and the promises in His word.
Dale
