DEVELOPING THANKSLIVING

November 26 

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.  Psalm 100:4

Do you know the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God?” The hymn was translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth.  The author, Martin Rinkart, was a pastor in Eilenburg, Germany from 1617 to 1649.  Eilenburg was one of the many towns caught in the Thirty-Years-War.  In 1637, a massive plague swept across Europe which included Eilenburg.  Rinkart aided manfully at the beds of the sick and dying. He buried more than 4,000 persons of the 8,000 who died that year.  Four thousand into 365 days comes out to about 11 people per day.  Yet, the Lord kept him alive. The pestilence was followed by a famine so extreme that thirty or forty persons might be seen fighting in the streets for a dead cat or crow. Rinkart, with the burgomaster and one other citizen, did what could be done to organize assistance, and gave away everything but the barest rations for his own family, so that his door was surrounded by a crowd of poor starving wretches, who found it their only refuge.  During that time, he wrote the words of this hymn: 

Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices, 

Who wondrous things has done, in whom His world rejoices; 

Who from our mothers’ arms, has blessed us on our way 

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, 

With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, 

To keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed, 

And free us from all ills of this world in the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given, 

The Son, and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven, 

The one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore; 

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Take time right now to thank God for 5 things He has done for you.  

Ike Graham