penned these words under the in spiration of the Holy Spirit, doesn’t ask for a single thing. The 22 verses seem to indicate that he had had sufficient experience in seeing his petitions answered so that he doesn’t even mention a request of any kind. He just tunes up his harp and gives thanks to the Lord. Isn’t it refresh ing to hear a song of thanksgiving devoid of any “gimmes” ? Certainly, while God wants to know our re quests, and invites us to offer them, yet it is still an attitude which should emanate from our hearts as we look to the Lord for His guidance. It is recorded in legend that origi nally there were two groups of angels who supposedly were divided into praise angels and petition angels. Everyone of the cherubs was given a basket and charged with the respon sibility of going throughout his des ignated section of the earth, gather ing either praise or petitions, depend ing on the respective designation. As the apocraphyl story has it, all of the angels wanted to be petition angels, for they came back with their baskets full. The praise angels on the other hand always returned empty. What a commentary on the fact that we are so ready to ask and so slow to give thanks! The old Methodist evangelist of many years ago, Billy Bray, used to say, “In my lifetime, the Lord has given me both vinegar and honey. I can readily praise His name that He’s always given me vinegar in a teaspoon and honey with a ladle.” If we would look at our difficulties the same way, we would readily agree that this is the way in which the Lord leads in our lives. Now the second verse of the 103rd Psalm declares, “Bless the Lord, O 3
F r e q u e n t l y a t T h a n k s g iv in g church services feature the sing ing of such hymns as the beautiful, “Now Thank We All Our God.” This anthem of praise to the Lord was written many years ago by Martin Rinkart who was a pastor in Eilen- berg, Saxony. He lived only three decades, from 1618 to 1648, dying at the age of 30. It was in his lifetime that the historic 30 years’ war swept through that area of the world. His torians declare that it was one of the most devastating conflicts and plagues to hit mankind. Entire popu lations of communities were decimat ed because of disease and pestilence. As an indication of their severity, this young preacher himself had to bury anywhere from 40 to 50 people a day in the city of Eilenberg. Over the course of those 30 years’ war, he conducted more than 4,480 funeral services, one of which was that of his own beloved wife. He indicated in his diary that either all the other pastors had died or else had previous ly fled from the walled city of Eilen berg. In the very midst of this ex perience, Martin Rinkart wrote the words, “Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices. Who wondrous things hath done, in Whom this world rejoices.” Should those discouraging and depressive experiences have been ours, would we have been able to turn our sadness and tragedy into rejoicing and song? Martin Rinkart did because he was personally acquainted with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and had experienced the love of God, our Heavenly Father. Considering thanksgiving, we note that Psalm 103 is one of the most beautiful of all the 150 Psalms given to us in the Word of God. David, who
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