Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God, who reigns in highest heaven,
To Father and to Son and Spirit now be given.
The one eternal God, Whom heaven and earth adore,
The God who was, and is, and shall be evermore.

This is one of the most familiar Thanksgiving hymns, written almost 400 years ago by Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart. When Rinkart asked God to "guide us when perplexed and free us from all ills" it was from penned from harsh, real world experience. Cyberhymnal.org tells a little about his experience:

Martin Rinkart, a Lu­ther­an min­is­ter, was in Eil­en­burg, Sax­o­ny, dur­ing the Thir­ty Years’ War. The walled ci­ty of Eil­en­burg saw a stea­dy stream of re­fu­gees pour through its gates. The Swed­ish ar­my sur­round­ed the ci­ty, and fa­mine and plague were ramp­ant. Eight hund­red homes were de­stroyed, and the peo­ple be­gan to per­ish. There was a tre­men­dous strain on the pas­tors who had to con­duct do­zens of fun­er­als dai­ly. Fi­nal­ly, the pas­tors, too, suc­cumbed, and Rink­art was the on­ly one left—doing 50 fun­er­als a day. When the Swedes de­mand­ed a huge ran­som, Rink­art left the safe­ty of the walls to plead for mer­cy. The Swed­ish com­mand­er, im­pressed by his faith and cour­age, low­ered his de­mands. Soon af­ter­ward, the Thir­ty Years’ War end­ed, and Rinkart wrote this hymn for a grand cel­e­bra­tion ser­vice. It is a test­a­ment to his faith that, af­ter such mis­e­ry, he was able to write a hymn of abid­ing trust and gra­ti­tude to­ward God.

The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for You."

Sometimes that just plain hard to do. No doubt it must have been overwhelming for Martin Rinkart to conduct his 19th funeral of the day for grieving, hopeless people, knowing there were still 20 or 30 to do. And I'm sure as he buried fellow pastors and other people he loved it must have taxed his faith to the limit to be thankful or faithful. But you can see in the third stanza of the hymn where his source of strength lay: the eternal God, worthy of all glory and honor and praise.

God knows it is sometimes hard for us to focus on Him when life assaults us. But it's that focus that gives us the strength to endure and to be thankful even in the midst of trouble.

So be thankful with your heart and hand and voice. Focus on the "countless gifts of love" you've received and, more importantly, on the loving God who gives them.