Newsletter August 2025

Thanksgiving - Psalm 100

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

     This short and well-known psalm of praise and thanksgiving is often read at the start of a church service to encourage the congregation to come into God’s presence through worship.  It speaks of joy and gladness, about Him both in His power as the Creator and in His goodness and mercy towards us whom He created.  Unlike many of the psalms, it does not contain any laments or complaints, nor a cry for deliverance – it simply calls God’s people to focus on God and to give thanks, irrespective of the struggles we may be facing and the disappointments we may have experienced, and to celebrate the fact that we can know Him.

     Under the Law of Moses, the people of Israel brought sacrifices to the temple to thank God for His goodness, and in the New Testament, too, we are repeatedly called to give thanks to God.  Writing from prison, Paul exhorted the believers in Philippi, and us today, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)  In Colossians, again writing from prison (at a different time), he instructs the believers to abound with thanksgiving in their daily walk of faith (2:7) and to be vigilant in prayer with thanksgiving (4:2).  To the persecuted Thessalonian church, he writes, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

     It is evident from scripture that our thanksgiving to God is not limited to the ‘good times’; in fact, it is precisely when life is difficult and everything seems to be going against us that we are called to focus on God, on His power and on His goodness and mercy, and to give thanks that we can know Him for who He is.  He created us and He revealed Himself to us, reconciling us to Himself through the cross of Jesus.  It is because of His great gift of His Son, in whom we have received forgiveness and new life, that we can come before God with thanksgiving.  Let us therefore take our eyes off our problems and focus on the One who holds the universe in His hand.  Let us come before Him with praise and thanksgiving, trusting that He is in control, working things out even when we fail to see it.

     In the Book of Revelation (11:16-17), we see the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. One day we will join that heavenly choir in thanksgiving.  In that day, all struggles will have ceased, and we who have overcome the world through faith, in which we abound with thanksgiving (Col. 2:7), will bow at the throne of the almighty God in endless gratitude and worship.

Bishop Konrad