Thanks to God

In a very few days we will celebrate Thanksgiving again.

“Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” Psalm 68:19

There are two words I looked up in the Hebrew that bring this scripture to life for me. One is loadeth and the other is benefits. Loadeth means “to impose a heavy burden on” and benefits means “treatment,service or rewards“ If we read these verses in the light of the Hebrew we could read it like this:

“Bless the Lord who daily who gives (loadeth) heavy burdens of rewards (benefits) to us.”

August Ludwig Storm lived most of his life in Stockholm, Sweden. As a young man he was converted to Christ in a Salvation Army meeting. Soon he joined the Salvation Army Corps and in time became one of its leading officers. He wrote a hymn called Thanks to God for the Army’s publication, The War Cry, on Dec 5, 1891. The original Swedish version had four stanzas, with each verse beginning with the word “thanks”, having a total of thirty-two “thanks” in all. Here are the words to this great hymn as we have them today:

Thanks, O God, for boundless mercy
from Thy gracious throne above;
thanks for ev’ry need provided
from the fullness of Thy love!

Thanks for daily toil and labor
and for rest when shadows fall;
thanks for love of friend and neighbor
and Thy goodness unto all!

Thanks for thorns as well as roses,
thanks for weakness and for health;
thanks for clouds as well as sunshine,
thanks for poverty and wealth!

Thanks for pain as well as pleasure-
all Thou sendest day by day;
and Thy Word, our dearest treasure,
shedding light upon our way.

Thanks, O God, for home and fireside,
here we share our daily bread;
thanks for hours of sweet communion,
when by Thee our souls are fed!

Thanks for grace in time of sorrow
and for joy and peace in Thee;
thanks for hope today, tomorrow,
and for all eternity!

This song sums up how I feel about Thanksgiving this year. I am so blessed!