Day of Thanksgiving

Psalm 104

St. Luke 12:13–21 (Harvest Observance)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Introit this morning is drawn from Psalm 104, but whenever we sing snippets of a psalm, it is also good for us to think about the entire psalm. Psalm 104 is a psalm of thanks to God for the goodness of His creation that was made and given to us as an undeserved gift. 

The psalm begins: Bless the Lord, O my soul! We exhort ourselves to praise and bless God. To bless someone means to speak good words about them or to them. So, how do we bless God? Just as we do at the end of the Divine Service: Bless we the Lord. Thanks be to God. We speak good words of thanksgiving. We tell of what He has done and given for us. In this way, the psalmist begins His exuberant song about this world that is bursting with life, an absolutely wonderful riot of fruitfulness, a beautiful order in which every creature praises its Maker by doing what He has given it to do.

God’s work is good because it reflects His own goodness. He is clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Himself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. These heavens are the sky, even what we call “outer space”, which is not empty but full of the sparkling, blazing splendor and majesty of stars and planets, constellations and galaxies. 

He makes the clouds His chariot; He rides on the wings of the wind; He makes his messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire. Even the winds and storms of our atmosphere tell us something about His power and speed, and about the service of the holy angels, His ministers. The angels, these windy, fiery messengers serve their Lord by serving us. They are sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14).

He set the earth on its foundations… He set a boundary for the oceans that they may not pass… He makes springs gush forth in the valleys… they give drink to every beast of the field… the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His work. The Lord’s creation does His bidding and so is blessed. His creation is good because it reflects His own goodness. Or as another poet once said: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God…”

From the realms of stars and vast sweeping oceans, the psalmist descends into the lush liveliness of creaturely order: a world full of wild donkeys and roaring lions, the birds of the heavens and storks building their nests in great trees, while the wild goats and badgers make their fortresses in the mountains.

Also there is Man, that most unique of God’s creatures. Man—like the animals, he is flesh, and like the angels, he is spirit. Body and soul, he is created in the image of God. And since he is the crown of God’s creation, all of that creation is made for his benefit. The Lord causes the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart. The rich bounty of the Lord’s earth is put into the hands of men, so that we may be glad, refreshed, and strengthened for lives of service to our God and to His world.

            And yet, even the food we need to survive is not mere fuel. God could have arranged our bodies to be nourished by dirt. But the food He gives is also for our enjoyment, that we may taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). As Solomon wisely observed: Happy are you, O land, when… your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! … Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life (Ecclesiastes 10:17–19). Sin comes with over-indulgence, when we use our earthly goods for selfish purposes. But there is no sin in enjoying the good gifts of this creation: wine and beer, turkey, chocolate, or buttery mashed potatoes. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4).

The psalmist goes on to marvel at the orderliness of life. Far from this world being the mad, random rushing of atoms, the universe is held together by a design. God’s creation works together because it fits together, each creature finding his proper place at the proper time. He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. He makes darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. Even man and beast have their coordinated schedules, happily going to the work their Master has given them to do so that He might also fill them with His bounty.

And yet, life is not all work and no play. The psalmist sees how life’s labor and fun complement each other, making each more rewarding and more pleasurable. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which God formed to play in it. Can’t you hear the enthusiasm of a little boy? There go the ships! And Leviathan—a giant sea creature, what we might call a dinosaur, or better yet, a dragon!—splashing about in the waves.

O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all. All the many and various works of God are done in Christ, the true Wisdom of God. That Wisdom is not just a thought, but a Person—specifically the second Person of the Trinity—the Word who is God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:3). In Christ, this world was made. In Christ, this world was redeemed. And in Christ, the gifts of this world are still given to all His creatures, even though some of these human creatures do not believe in Him or thank Him.

Whether they know it or not these all look to You, O Lord, to give them their food at the proper time. When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are filled with good things. And without the Lord who created us, and died for us, and rose again, then all creation would cease to exist, crumbling, falling into the void of nothingness. When You hide Your face, they are dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. He is the Creator and Redeemer, and so He has the authority to judge and sentence to death.

But, when You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground. The Spirit of God, the Lord and Giver of Life, is always at work in His world. He is the Breath that carried the Word of the Father and brought all things into being. And He’s still doing it. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God… Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” The dawning of each new day is a reminder of God’s mercy and faithfulness.

The antiphon for our Introit comes from the end of the psalm. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works. This prayer flows from God’s declaration in Genesis 1: God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). His creation is good because it reflects His own goodness. He was pleased by His creation. And even though His creation rebelled against Him, He desired to rescue it so that He could rejoice in His work all the more. May the Lord continue to rejoice in His works, He who could unmake it with a touch, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! The psalm ends with a word of judgment: Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Evil, disobedience, ingratitude, pride, selfishness—all that must be eradicated so that only joyful praise is heard from God’s creation. 

This means that repentance is essential for true thanksgiving. You can’t really enjoy God’s gifts in creation when you’re unrepentant of your sin. God certainly gives daily bread to everyone… even to all evil people, so, if you don’t confess your sin, sure, you’ll still eat and you might have what you think is a good life, but you won’t really enjoy it. What is better? Buying dessert from the store or getting a piece of Grandma’s homemade pumpkin pie? The bought one might be perfectly fine, but you truly enjoy Grandma’s pie because of the good relationship you have with the one who made it and gave it to you out of love.

Likewise, the foolish but rich farmer had many earthly gifts from God, yet they were not good FOR him. He could not enjoy them and in the end they even condemned him because of his faithlessness. The fact that he turned the goods into idols made it even worse for him. So, to have a truly good life means repentance for sin and faith in Christ. Give thanks to God and give goods away to your neighbor. Then, even when it’s time to die, you don’t lose anything. In fact, you gain even more, because what was most important was your good relationship with God, the Giver of all those gifts.

And you do have a good relationship with the Creator, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Christ graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32). He sends forth His Spirit and we are created anew by faith. And the Lord Christ even gives His body for bread to strengthen you and His blood for wine to gladden your heart. So, we can call God our Father and confess His works in the Creed.

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.
He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. 

All this He does only out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.

For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true (SC, First Article).

Bless the Lord, O my soul! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Poem quoted: “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins