“Make
a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve
the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.
Know
ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we
ourselves;
We
are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter
into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise:
be thankful unto Him and bless His name.
For
the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to
all generations.”
Psalm
100 (KJV)
I
memorized Psalm 100 when I was in third grade at Choestoe School. In
those days, it was not “against the law” to have Bible reading in
at the beginning of each school day, have the pledge of allegiance to
the flag (we learned these for both United States and Georgia flags),
and have quote the Lord’s Prayer in unison.
Furthermore,
my third grade teacher in our one-room country school, Mrs. Mert
Collins, was my teacher in public school and also in Sunday School at
Choestoe Baptist Church. At both places, she encouraged her pupils
to memorize verses from the Bible. Among those I memorized early was
Psalm 100. At a program for our parents and community citizens at
our school at Thanksgiving, the children stood on the raised platform
before our gathered guests and quoted Psalm 100. In those early
years, it became a favorite passage and I wanted early to live by the
precepts noted in the Psalm.
I
learned long after my wonderful seven years at Choestoe School when I
studied Bible in college that this Psalm was specifically “A Psalm
for Giving Thanks.” Although of Israelite origin, the Psalm
invites people “of all lands” to join in thanksgiving and to sing
praises to God. The Psalm makes it clear that we are “the sheep of
His pasture,” a metaphor used in several places in the Scriptures,
and noteworthy in “The Shepherd Psalm,” Psalm 23. A shepherd
gingerly and carefully looks after his sheep, leading them beside
still waters and to green pastures. In like manner, the Lord
provides for those who love Him. And for His care and provision, we
ought always to give thanks.
Besides
memorizing and quoting Scriptures in our country school, we also
learned songs of Thanksgiving. A favorite was “Come, Ye Thankful
People, Come,” with words written by Henry Alford (1810-1873) and
set to the music “St. George’s Windsor” by George J. Elvey
(1816-1893).
Since
we lived in a farming community, we could relate well to the words of
this Thanksgiving hymn. We loved to sing this song when our parents
and neighbors came to hear our Thanksgiving program at school. Mrs.
Mert Collins had to explain the meaning of some of the words in the
hymn to us, but when we learned the words and tune, you can imagine
that we sang it with gusto. She told us that to sing hymns like this
one was a good way to give thanks to God: “Come, ye thankful
people, come, Raise the song of harvest home!/All is safely gathered
in, Ere the winter storms begin; God, our Maker, doth provide For our
wants to be supplied;/Come to God’s own temple, come, Raise the
song of harvest home.”
What
is your favorite Thanksgiving Scripture? Your favorite Thanksgiving
hymn? Would it not be timely to share them as you gather this
Thanksgiving to celebrate? -Ethelene Dyer Jones 11.21.2015
