Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV)
What the Rescue Was For
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Those words come from the day David brought the ark into Jerusalem, out of a song he gave to Asaph and the singers to be sung in front of it from then on.
Two grounds are given and both are about God. He is good, and his love endures forever.
The same song asks him for a great deal. Save us, God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations. And the people say what they want the rescue for: that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise. They’re asking to be brought back to the place where they can say the thing they’re already saying.
A woman in her seventies runs a lambing crew of four. She’s up at the barn from January on, she decides which ewes get moved and when, and she swears at the gate latch that’s been sticking since the winter it was fixed wrong. At noon she says the same short blessing over the crew’s lunch, eleven words, and she said it on the morning they lost four lambs before breakfast.
The singers give thanks while nothing has changed yet, and they name it as what they want the change for. Their job was to sing it according to each day’s requirements, whatever each day turned out to be.
The ewe that had been down since first light was up by dark. One of the crew drove into town after the last feed and came back with a new latch, and the woman held the gate steady in the cold while he put it on.
A Prayer to Remember
Most of my thanks this year has gone to the things that went my way, God, and I skipped the rest. Teach me to say you’re good on a morning when nothing has improved, and to mean it as a statement about you.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
