Have a Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

From our home garden to yours, we thank you for being our readers and gardeners. You are a blessing in our lives! We are grateful to grow a community of those who love to see the Lord and his wisdom in the land, ready to taste and see His goodness in gardening ways. Haven’t we had a blessed year?! Thank you, LORD, for all you have shown and reminded us of as we putter and play in our gardens.

God’s Word for Gardeners Bible celebrates Thanksgiving in a week-long series of devotions in the Garden Tools section, beginning on page a-39. Enjoy today’s excerpt from “Day 1” and have a treasured day of celebration (click here for lasts year’s blog featuring “Day 3”).

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1 NIV

Read: Psalm 136:1 – 26 (included below)
Oil & Sharpen with: Psalm 9:1 – 2; Psalm 100:4; Psalm 107:8 – 31

Gardeners love their “how to” books — so today we are in luck! Our psalm is a step-by-step guide leading us into thanksgiving. The first step: Begin with God — “the God of gods . . . the Lord of lords . . . who alone does great wonders” (Psalm 136:1 – 4). This psalm of praise is infused with reminders of God’s enduring love, chorus-style, embedding truthful proclamations in a song for our souls. The Words teach us to revere the Lord above all, to give thanks and to recount the wonderful deeds he has done, all growing out of God’s enduring love. The history of Israel is our own history; we are grafted into this family tree, if not direct descendants (Romans 11:17), with a heritage filled with story after story of God’s deliverance from enemies, oppression and the calamity that the nation experienced.

Yet we also have our own stories, reflecting the Lord’s hand in our good fortune and the many ways in which the Lord has rescued each of us from disaster.

The whole garden is singing this hymn of praise and thankfulness . . . how good it is to see the brilliant light of the blessed summer day, always brightest just after rain, and to see how every tree and plant is full of new life and abounding gladness; and to feel one’s own thankfulness of heart, and that it is good to live, and all the more good to live in a garden.
— Gertrude Jerkyll, Home and Garden, 1900

With thanksgiving, as do our own gardens, we must tell all of the Lord’s works, the things we know personally that he has done.

Prayer: O Lord, thank you for all the blessings you put in our lives. This marvelous psalm shows me exactly “how to” approach you, a tool to use in beginning my day, my work or my recovery from any setback. At any moment, I can give thanks for your goodness and praise your name, thereby entering your presence as if I were entering the courtyard before your throne (Psalm 100:4). You are teaching me to graciously greet you, holy Lord! How I pray to be immersed in your unfailing love, offering you joyful gratitude, learning how-to “ feel thankfulness of heart,” and praising you for how “good it is to live in a garden!”

Psalm 136

New International Version

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.
to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.
to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.
to him who divided the Red Sea asunder
His love endures forever.
and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.
to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.
to him who struck down great kings,
His love endures forever.
and killed mighty kings—
His love endures forever.
Sihon king of the Amorites
His love endures forever.
and Og king of Bashan—
His love endures forever.
and gave their land as an inheritance,
His love endures forever.
an inheritance to his servant Israel.
His love endures forever.
He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.