Sing Thankfully

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you. --1 Thes. 5:18

The sermon this last Sunday was all about how to have a meaningful quiet time.  Our Pastor said when he was in his quiet time one day, he felt the Lord encouraging him to sing.  The first thought that came into his mind was, "Lord, have you heard me sing?"  God seemed to be saying, Yes, and I love it.  The second thought that came into the Preacher's mind was, "Well, what do you want me to sing?"  The answer was Sing the Song I put in your Heart this Morning.

I often have a song on my heart in the morning.  Last week, it was the old hymn Be Thou My Vision. You might remember that I put it in one of my blog posts.  So this week I have paid more attention to the first song on my mind in the morning.  I don't sing in the shower, but I do pray.  Many, many times a song pops into my head.  Lately it has been the old hymns.  Yesterday it was Come Thou Fount.  For those who don't know it, here is the text:

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
call for songs of loudest praise. 
Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
sung by flaming tongues above. 
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
mount of thy redeeming love. 

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
hither by thy help I'm come; 
and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
safely to arrive at home. 
Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
wandering from the fold of God; 
he, to rescue me from danger, 
interposed his precious blood. 

3. O to grace how great a debtor 
daily I'm constrained to be! 
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
bind my wandering heart to thee. 
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
prone to leave the God I love; 
here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
seal it for thy courts above. 

Meditate on those lyrics for a moment.  Think of the Psalms, where David describes the blessings of God as streams.  Think of the little shepherd boy with his harp, tuning the strings so that he could learn to play so beautifully that King Saul summonned him to the palace to play his music. (See 1 Samuel 16:23).  Then think of the songs the angels sing in Revelation 5.  Exodus 24 talks about Moses going up on Mount Sinai, which was called the Mount of God, and staying there in the presence of God for forty days.  Wouldn't you like to be in God's presence that long, fixed in one place while He teaches and feeds and blesses you?  And that's just the first verse of the hymn!

The second verse begins with a reference to 1 Samuel 7:12.  Here it is in the New Living Translation: "Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah.  He named it Ebenezer (which means "the stone of help"), for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us."  The hymn writer immediately goes to Luke 15, where Jesus compared His mission to leaving the 99 sheep and searching for the one that was lost. (You could also make the case for the Prodigal Son being the inspiration for the text in verse 2).

The last verse points to the grace of God, in that He freely gave up His Son for us, and how we owe him our lives and our fortunes forever.  We should willingly yoke ourselves to Him, because in Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus invites us to be paired with Him, because "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Even as our hearts tend to wander away from Him, yet we wear the seal of God on our foreheads (Revelation 9:4) which will mark us as His own at the end.

Today, the first song I thought of was Now Thank We All Our God, which I thought was appropriate with Thanksgiving Day just two days away.  If you haven't heard it, here is are the words:

1. Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices; who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today. 
2. O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us; and keep us still in grace, and guide us when perplexed; and free us from all ills, in this world and the next. 
3. All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given; the Son, and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven; the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. 

 We must thank God always, because this is His will for us (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  Not just with our mouths, but with our hearts and our hands also.  We all know the phrase "heartfelt thanks".  This is how we know it is sincere.  But the hymnwriter goes even further than that, and tells us to Thank God with our hands, as well.  Whatever you set your hands to do, do it with all your might, as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23).  Why?  Because of all the works He has done for us, from the time of our youth until now. "Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds." (Psalm 71:17).

The second verse is one of the hardest texts set to music I have ever sung.  The musicians among you will understand: there is a half-note above the rhyming words "Perplexed" and "Next", but there is no way to hold those words out on pitch and then cut off at the same time as everyone else in the choir or congregation.  Yet the verse is so deep, it could be borrowed as a prayer to recite over your Thanksgiving meal.  God is near to those who are near to Him.  That thought should give us everlasting joy, to think of the grace He so richly bestows on us.  And yes, we do sometimes get perplexed, and need His wisdom to guide us.

The last verse teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.  So many of the old hymns were used to teach the truths of Scripture in such a way that people (many of whom were illiterate) could remember.  God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all in one.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the One who was and is and is to come (Revelation 1:8).  No wonder we praise Him so!