BTR Weekly eNewsletter: "Come, You Thankful People, Come!"

Issue #663 ~ May 10, 2021

Dear Friends,

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Come, You Thankful People, Come!

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Psalm 95:2

Verse 2: "Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Doesn't the verse this morning remind you of Thanksgiving time? And how we, during that special celebration, will sing "Come, Ye Thankful People": "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.

Thanksgiving is something is scheduled once a year. To be obedient believers, we say thanks on that day and every day.

Thanksgiving is to be a way of life.

1 Thessalonians 5:18: "in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (NASB).

You will remember the experience in the life of the Lord Jesus when He healed the 10 lepers and only one returned to say thank you. Jesus asked, "Where are the 9?"

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."

Peterson paraphrases verse 2: "Let's march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns!"

In verse 1 we had: (1) "let us sing for joy to the Lord" and (2) "let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation."

Now in verse 2 we have: (3) "Let us come before him with thanksgiving" and (4) "Let us...extol him with music and song."

Whereas the words "sing for joy" and "shout aloud" were the key words in verse 1, the key words here in verse 2 are "come before him." We are to "come before him with": (1) "thanksgiving"; (2) "music"; and (3) "song."

Henry Blackaby says: "Praise is rooted not in circumstances of the moment but in the nature and trustworthiness of God." (Experiencing God Day-By-Day, 90)

Jack Hayford says: "Sing happily, rejoice openly, cry humbly, shout triumphantly, praise unreservedly. Let us come before His throne with a full sense of His worthiness and a judicious sense of our happy privilege to be invited." (Praise in the Presence of God, 31)

Kay Arthur says: "It is crucial to understand, however, that the command to rejoice does not mean rejoicing in your circumstances; it means rejoicing in your Savior, who is Lord over every circumstance of life". (Search My Heart, O God 55)

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Praises & Prayer Requests

1. Pray: There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 1 Samuel 2:2 (NIV)

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2. Pray: He said: "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior - from violent men you save me. 2 Samuel 22:2,3 (NIV)

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3. Praise: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 (NIV)

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4. Praise: ...just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." Romans 9:33 (NASB)

5. Pray: Request from prison inmates continue to come in for Bibles and related study material. If God directs you, please give to purchase Bibles and send to prison inmates.

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Let's conclude our worship today by singing joyfully that wonderful hymn "Ring the Bells of Heaven":

Ring the bells of heaven - there is joy today

For a soul returning from the wild!

See, the Father meets him out upon the way.

Welcoming His weary, wand'ring child.

Ring the bells of heaven - spread the feast today!

Angels, swell the glad triumphant strain!

Tell the joyful tidings; bear them far away,

For a precious soul is born again.

Glory! glory! how the angels sing!

Glory! glory! how the loud harps ring!