National Day of Thanksgiving + Psalm 103 + November 22, 2017

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1)         “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” That’s the point of a National Day of Thanksgiving, that we bless the Lord for all His benefits which He graciously gives to us. As Thanksgiving rolls around and we begin thinking about the things for which we are thankful, our thoughts first go to the daily bread that God gives us. Daily Bread is everything that we need for this body and life. Luther defined daily bread in the Small Catechism as “Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

2)         Our thoughts immediately rush to daily bread, the physical blessings of this life, because we are physical, flesh and blood people. Although only one petition in the Lord’s Prayer, daily bread is the thing which takes up the most space in our personal prayers. There’s nothing wrong with giving thanks for our daily bread. “It is good to give thanks to the Lord,” (Psalm 92:1) for all these blessings and benefits. And although Christians ought to always be giving thanks to God for these things, it is good that we have set aside a day on our calendar that asks us what Paul asks the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). It’s a day for cataloging all the benefits the Lord blesses us with lest we forget all the temporal blessings He daily heaps upon us.

3)         But you have so much more for which to give thanks, dear saints. It is most certainly true that God gives us daily bread and for this we owe Him our thanks and praise. But we ought never to forget the greater gifts He has given to us, those gifts which are spiritual and not physical, not temporal but eternal and everlasting. David says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” David outlines those benefits throughout the rest of the one hundred and third psalm. Bless the Lord “who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”

4)         The chief benefit that God your heavenly Father has given you is the forgiveness of all your sins for the sake of Christ. God the Father sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world, in our human nature, to bear our sins in His body upon the cross. For by His death He has made satisfaction for the sins of the world. He died so that He might satisfy the wrath of God against sinners, standing in their place and their substitute, so that all who flee to Christ for mercy will find a God who is gracious and merciful to poor sinners. When we flee to Christ in faith, seeking forgiveness, God the Father does not impute our sins to us, but instead graciously gives us the righteousness of His Son, which He earned for you by living a perfectly righteous life, blameless in thought, word, and deed.  He forgives all your iniquities. He heals the disease of guilt. He redeems your life from the eternal destruction of Hell.

5)         Not only does He give you the gift of His Son in human flesh, to bear your sin and earn a perfect righteousness for you, He also graciously gives you the Holy Spirit so that you might believe the Gospel and flee to Christ for mercy. Jesus says, “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11-13). He graciously sends God the Holy Ghost into our hearts through the preached Word, so that He may create faith in our hearts, for faith is not your own work, but the work of God in you. St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

6)         Not only does He create faith in our hearts and make them new, He also defends us against temptations to sin and temptations to despair of God’s mercy. When sin oppresses us and guilt burdens us, the Holy Spirit reminds us that “The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” He graciously gives us the Holy Spirit to defend us against unbelief and sin and keep us ever mindful of the all the benefits God gives us.

7)         It is good to give thanks to the Lord. It is good to give Him thanks for all the temporal blessings which He gives: “meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” But forget not all His benefits. Daily Bread will continue everyday throughout your life, He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). But remember to give thanks for the greater gifts that He gives, for those will endure long after you no longer need daily bread. Give thanks to God for His grace. Give thanks to God for the merits of Christ He earned in His perfect life and innocent, bitter sufferings and death for your sake. Give thanks that He gives you the Holy Spirit so that you may believe, and continue to believe all these things unto life everlasting. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Amen.

May the peace of God which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.