By Michael Milton | President of the Charlotte campus of Reformed Theological Seminary, Contributing Editor of Preaching magazine
“… Giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:11- 26, NRSV).
On Thanksgiving 1988, in this very sanctuary, one young woman who is here today learned to thank God for salvation. After a life apart from God and with no thanksgiving on her lips, the Spirit of the Lord led a lonely young woman with no family around her to find a church, which was open on Thanksgiving. She was just about to give up, when she saw cars parked on the street beside our church. And she went in and heard the Word of God, heard ordinary people standing and giving testimonies of thanksgiving. Through a Thanksgiving service in 1988, she came to know the One who has given so much to us, the Lord Jesus Christ. And she was not only redeemed by Christ in this place, but she grew in the grace and knowledge of Christ here. Finally, this Thanksgiving girl would leave to find others in need of a place to call home and a Savior to thank. I am speaking of our missionary, Susan Sundeed (one of our missionaries serving now in Mexico with the PCA’s Mission to the World), who is with us today and who gave me permission to tell you this. Thanksgiving will always be a part of her testimony.
But the truth of Psalm 136 is that it should be that way, and can be that way, for all of us.
The refrain of our lives is to sing with Psalm 136, “thank you for your grace in my salvation.”
Now look at verses 23-26 and note the fourth and final theme of this great psalm:
4. We are encouraged to thank Him for His preservation of our very lives (read vv. 23-26 responsively).It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever; he who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.In this closing passage, the psalmist thanks God for remember our estate, delivering us from our adversaries and sustaining our lives with bread. He closes with a final “Give thanks unto (
El Sha-ma-yeem), the God of heaven. Over all and above all, the God of heaven looks down and preserves His people. David would write of this preserving God:
“Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast” (Ps. 36:6, NIV).
This is the God whom our forefathers in Plymouth worshiped as they endured so much that first year to found this “city on a hill.” This is the God of heaven to whom Washington looked and called a nation to confess sins to and to thank for His blessings. This is the God who not only saves us, but also preserves us, as a nation, as families, as a congregation, as believers. This is the God of whom Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6:
