Day After Thanksgiving

​Meditation
Psalm 108:3-5—I will praise You, LORD, among the people; I will sing praises to You among the nations.  For Your faithful love is higher than the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  God, be exalted above the heavens, and let Your glory be over the whole earth.
 

​For two months I have endured chronic sinus congestion.  I’ll see a doctor in three days and God-willing find solution to a stuffed existence.  One of the definitions of the word chronic is “having long had a disease, habit, weakness.”[1]  Increasingly I believe our nation has a chronic disease—materialism. Yesterday the Oregonian delivered one of the largest newspapers we will see this year. It was not full of breaking news to read on Thanksgiving.  Nor was it replete with testimonies of people sharing their gratitude for God, for family, for community, for anything.  It was full of ads for special sales for every kind of product a human could imagine. Worse yet, countless stores could not wait until Friday to open their doors, choosing instead to work on the very night of a holiday.  Sacrilege is reducing gratitude to grabitude.
 
I wish the day after Thanksgiving was a day of praise. The logical extension of being thankful should be congratulating God.  Thankfulness exists because of His faithfulness.  If He was not faithful not only could we not be thankful, we wouldn’t exist.  Therefore, we praise Him!  So let the retailers wait until Monday.  I would rather see a four day season of Thankfulness-Praise-Singing-Joy.  
 
Ø   “I will praise You, LORD among the people!”  I don’t have to shout praise, You hear the glad whispers of my heart.  But I may just climb on my roof and bellow!  I want my neighbors, my community to know how awesome You are!
Ø   “I will sing praises to You among the nations.”  That’s right—why keep this holy noise confined to the city, let me sing to the nations.  Let the whole world hear the melody You made, the notes formed on the staff of Your faithfulness.
Ø   “For Your faithful love is higher than the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”  There is a deep theological truth to these words.  God’s love cannot be contained—it blows past gravity, pulsates beyond the unseen galaxies and resonates eternally.  The Father’s love knows no borders. Yet, His faithfulness reaches to the clouds—it is within the sight of us who need to see what He does so that our faith is nurtured, grown and inspired.  
Ø “God, be exalted above the heavens, and let Your glory be over the whole earth.”  Exalt means“toraiseinrank,honor,power,character,quality,etc.; elevate.”[2]  It is a verb of increase—I grow in thankfulness as I understand more of His faithfulness.  Let Your glory swell!  Cover the world.  Please Lord, cover the world.  
 
©2013 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)
 
[1]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chronic?s=t
[2]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exalt?s=t