Now Thank We All Our God

Now Thank We All Our God

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Isaiah 12:4

Today’s hymn was written by a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, during the Thirty Year’s War. Rinkart faithfully served the Lord during those difficult times and in 1637, when hunger and plague were chronic problems, he conducted funerals for five thousand residents, including his wife. He penned these awesome words:

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom this world rejoices;

Who, from our mother’s arms,

Have 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;

And keep us in His grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills,

In this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God

The Father now be given,

The Son, and Him who reigns

With them in highest heaven,

The one eternal God.

Whom heaven and earth adore;

For thus it was, is now,

And shall be evermore. Amen

A great hymn to prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving!

On Sunday afternoon, a dear friend of our family went home to be with the Lord. Rev. Len Chanoux, former director of the Boardwalk Chapel, died at age 80. Rev. Chanoux played a significant role in our lives during my parent’s involvement at the Boardwalk Chapel in Wildwood, NJ for over 30 years. He also served as an Elder in the OPC and was often preaching in churches filling the pulpit. During his years at the Boardwalk Chapel many young men who were seminary students served as interns. One of those young men was Dr. Tim  Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  Thank You, Lord, for the impact of Rev. Chanoux’s life. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 23; Ezekiel 20-21; James 5

Dig This Quote: The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.
A. W. Tozer

Determined Digging: Level 1: John 14:6; Level 2: Matthew 5:10-16

Determined Praying: Prayer is a swift messenger, which in the twinkling of an eye can go and return with an answer from heaven. William S. Plumer