Your Turn for Thanksgiving Weekend, 11/23-26 - Psalm 100
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Seeds of Faith community!
This holiday weekend, I’d like to share again Psalm 100, a simple yet powerful expression of thanksgiving to God. If you’re up for sharing in the comments, I’d love to see what you come up with. If you share, please copy and paste the sentence or phrase you are reflecting on.
Brief guidelines for a good practice:
The Basic Method. Pick a sentence or phrase in the scripture passage that stands out to you. Write down something you observe going on in that sentence or phrase. Reflect on how that observation gives insight that might apply to your faith and life. Write a short prayer about that.
Observe Well. Think about what the sentences and phrases are saying and not saying. Take care also not to extrapolate more than is there.
Stay Balanced. Focus on the particular scripture while keeping the whole witness of scripture (as well as you know it) in mind. Isolating a verse or passage from the whole can lead us to heresies, but reading each verse or passage deeply and well makes for a robust understanding of the whole. This is one purpose of the early creeds (Apostles’ and Nicene)—they summarize the major points of Christian scripture and doctrine so as to help us read individual biblical passages faithfully.
Psalm 100
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
5 For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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5 For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
.....good.....love endures.....faithfulness......all generations
I often find myself caught up in the times, what is happening now, and it is easy to get discouraged. There is so much in the world that is troubling. This verse reminds me to step back and look at the bigger picture. Although I don’t understand what role God is playing in certain events, I can be assured that ultimately there is a plan. And in the meantime, God is with us, here and now, to walk us through whatever comes our way.
Thank you, Lord, that I can be confident in your love and faithfulness, no matter what. Help me to lean into that and to share that with others. Amen
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
We ask a lot of God don’t we? We go to Him daily with our petitions for ourselves and others to take away our hurt whether emotional or physical, to help others in need, the list goes on. This verse reminds us to first be thankful and tell our Father we are grateful for the life He has given us and the love and blessings He pours down upon us.
Gracious Father, on this Thanksgiving Day, thank you for the many blessings you have brought to my life and those around me. Amen