Good morning. As we continue in our series that takes a look at several of the songs that we sing, today we come to a song that we usually only sing around this time of the year, however, we should sing it a lot more often than we do. With it being the Sunday before Thanksgiving, let me begin by asking a question. Just yell out your answers to the question. What are you thankful for? (Give some time for them to answer.)
Well, today I want to take a look at the meaning behind the song “For The Beauty Of The Earth.” This song is a great song to look at when we are talking about being thankful. Because it shows the gratitude of the author in a variety of areas.
But before we move on, let’s just open with a word of prayer.
The hymn, “For The Beauty Of The Earth” is about celebration and praise. It is about giving thanks to God for everything around us. So, are you feeling discouraged today? Do you not know what to be thankful about? “Take a walk among your blessings” was the good advice given years ago for such a predicament. “Count your many blessings, name them one by one…” is the Gospel song’s way of giving the same counsel. And in Psalm 103:2 it says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
Well, Folliot Pierpoint did just that when writing this hymn. His list of blessings includes the natural beauty of earth and skies, the amazing creation called the “human being” and the gift of time. But some of his warmest words are used to thank God for the joy that family and friends—living and departed—have given, and continue to give to our lives.
But, not all people can get as excited about the natural world as the writer of this hymn. This is especially true of those living in areas devastated by drought, fire, flood, and a whole lot of other disasters. And not all can be as enthusiastic about human relationships as he was. For example, those who have been neglected, abused, ignored, or even betrayed. For those people, we have to ask God to bless them, and then move in and be that blessing to them.
Why? Well, because of what it has to say in Matthew 25. “God has no hands but our hands to do His work today” begins an old poem that echoes Jesus’ beautiful words found in Matthew 25: “I was hungry and you gave me food… You invited me in… You visited me.”
The author of the hymn was 29 years old when he returned to the city of his birth, Bath, England. The beauty of the countryside in the late spring inspired him to write the words to the hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth.” He included thanks for God’s creation, social blessings, and also thanked God for his spiritual blessings. This hymn was originally written for the communion service.
And each stanza concluded with the words, “Christ our God, to thee we raise, this our sacrifice of praise” alluding to Hebrews 13:15 where it says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise…”
So, the author was taking a walk one late Spring day, in the lovely area surrounding his home in Bath, England. Overwhelmed with the beauty he saw, he sat down and wrote “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Not only does he thank God for His beautiful creation, but also for family, friends and other gifts that God has bestowed upon us.
This hymn was originally written to be a communion hymn in the Anglican Church. It was first published in 1864. The chorus was originally “Christ our God, to thee we raise, this our sacrifice of praise.” This is from the post-communion prayer in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins “O Lord and heavenly father, we thy humble servants entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.” However, over time, they changed the chorus to say, “Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our grateful hymn of praise.” Most versions now use “… this, our hymn of grateful praise.” There has been one other change to this hymn as well. Originally this hymn had 8 verses and not 4 as found in our hymnals.
So, what can be gained from a song that simply thanks God for all of His blessings? What type of things should we be thankful for? And what is the big deal about being thankful anyway?
It is so easy to take things for granted. We live in a wonderful, free country. Most are well fed. Most have shelter and money. We might not be as well off as some, but compared to most of the world we are rich. We are not only blessed materially, but we are blessed with friends, family, a beautiful creation, and a wonderful future as a Christian. In spite of all this, we are sometimes slow to acknowledge our blessings. Because we have grown so accustomed to them, we take them for granted. Occasionally, we need to be reminded of just what we have been taking for granted and what we have to be thankful for. And I think that a song like this in a way can do that for us.
At special times like Thanksgiving, we should focus our attention on the things that really count. This American holiday of Thanksgiving is a special time of the year. It is a time when we look back on the blessings God has given us, and a time when we look forward to the blessings we will enjoy in eternity. Additionally, we can focus in on the present and celebrate the greatest gift of all, the gift of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
First, let’s take a look at the Basis for being thankful.
What is the basis for true thanksgiving? For someone to be thankful, he or she must be grateful for something and to someone. The early Pilgrims had many difficult days in settling this new land. Governor Bradford of Massachusetts is believed to have made this first Thanksgiving proclamation 3 years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. Here is what he said:
“Inasmuch as the Great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, in the year of our Lord 1623, and the 3rd year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
You see, those early Pilgrims recognized that the provisions they had experienced came from God. They were thankful, and they did not hide the fact that they were thankful to the Almighty God. But the greatest gift ever given, by the greatest Person, was God's Son, Jesus Christ. He's the real basis for all thanksgiving. Now our key text for today can be found in II Corinthians 9:15. Here in this passage we can gain a great life practice. Here in II Corinthians 9:15 it says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
You know what, the greatest gift that anyone has ever given to humankind is God's gift of eternal life through His Son Jesus. God sent Jesus because He loved us and so He could do the greatest work for us that anyone has ever done. That work was dying on the Cross for our sins so that we could be set free.
Jesus paid the penalty for all of our sins. He died so that we would not have to die. He suffered so that the bondage of sin could be broken. He took our place on the Cross. He died for us. And He did it all because He loves us all. God responded to the greatest need, our sins, by giving the greatest Person, Jesus Christ, to make the greatest sacrifice, His death, so that He could give us the greatest gift, Eternal Life. God gave Jesus. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
Second, as we look at being thankful, there are also some Benefits to it as well.
There are over 550 references to thankfulness in the Bible. With such an emphasis on thanksgiving, there must be great benefits as well. Consider the benefits of cultivating this attitude of gratitude. Perhaps the greatest is that thanksgiving has a powerful effect on our lives. Thanksgiving makes us different. Look around you. Daily you will see people who are bitter. It's been said that “some people are bitter, not because they do not have anything, but because they do not have everything.”
We have been well taught to be greedy and ungrateful. We are bombarded by commercials that remind us of what we do not have. Christmas becomes a depressing time for many. We are led to believe that if we do not have things we will not experience happiness. So people go out and spend, spend, spend trying to satisfy themselves, only to realize that they are still unhappy. You see, we don’t need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful.
But, most unhappy people are unthankful people. At first glance, you may think them unthankful because they are unhappy. But the opposite is true: they are unhappy because they are unthankful. Thanksgiving has the power to transform us into different people. We will not only be different from the people around us, but we will also be different from the way we used to be. We will be transformed. We will be transformed in our thinking and in our attitude towards what God has blessed us with. As we seek to cultivate this attitude of gratitude, our thinking will be transformed.
The way of the world is to concentrate on the negative, but the way of Christ is to emphasize the positive. We are to look for the good in everything. Philippians 4:8 tells us, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.”
The greatest benefit of being thankful is that it changes your attitude to and attitude of gratitude. You will be a much happier person if you will just realize the blessings that God has provided for you.
Well, as we wrap things up, I have a selection from “Our Daily Bread” that I would like to read. Here is what it had to say about being thankful:
“For centuries, people in many countries have held harvest festivals to celebrate the bounty of the land and the blessings of life. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln established a national holiday in the United States as “a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father…” is what he said.
Washington Post communist Richard Cohen thinks that most holidays have been corrupted by commercialism, while Thanksgiving Day has retained its intended purpose. He said, “This us a very rare day. It is wholly and entirely about gratitude.”
No matter what others do, we as followers of Christ have the privilege and responsibility to extend the spirit of thankfulness to ever day of the year. Paul urged the Colossians to keep growing in Christ while overflowing with thankfulness. As it says in Colossians 3:17, we are to do everything, “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation also declared that all our blessings “are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
This is a fitting day to express gratitude toward God. And so is tomorrow, and ever day that follows. Because the joy for living, comes from a heart of thanksgiving.”
You see, Thanksgiving is something unique that we can give to God. When you think of it, all the material things we give to God were given to us by Him, but our thanksgiving is ours--a personal gift and an offering of praise to God. We should learn how to express our thanksgiving well, not only to God, but to one another. We're sometimes too much like a little boy I heard about. On his return from a birthday party, his mother asked, “Bobby, did you thank the lady for the party?” Bobby replied, “Well, I was going to. But a girl ahead of me said, “Thank you,” and the lady told her not to mention it. So I didn't.”
What kinds of attitudes characterize you? You can either take things for granted and be unthankful, which will probably lead you to being unhappy. Or you can look at things with gratitude, thanking God for His indescribable gifts.
Now, if I were to ask you again, “What are you thankful for?” would you be able to give more answers? Would you have a more grateful heart about the things that you are thanking God for? Well, let’s hope so.
As we close this morning, we are going to sing that song as our invitation song. Now I now that it is not the normal type of invitation song, but as we sing this song, meditate upon the words, understand that we have a great deal to be thankful for, if we will just look at all that God has blessed us with. When it comes time each day to have your prayer time, I would encourage you daily to be thankful to God for everything that He has blessed you with.
As we read the lyrics to the song, we find that we need to be thankful for the creation, for friends and family, for the church itself. How often do you thank God for this church, a place where you can come and worship Him with fellow believers?
So as you go through your day to day routine, I encourage you to take some time and thank God for all that He has given to you. All of you are alive, you have fiends and family, you have the wonderful creation of the earth around you, you have a church that cares about you, and allows you to worship with other believers. Think of some of the things that we have not mentioned yet. Things like a home to live in, or a meal on your table. God truly has blessed all of us in a number of ways, so give Him thanks.
Let's just remember through this Holiday season and all through the year to “give thanks with a grateful heart.” And let's remember Paul's prayer, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
Let’s Pray |
