Thanksgiving Day: What Does it Mean?

 From the Desk of
Mihran Kulhanjian
President and Founder

 

 

 

 

Let us Pray to The Lord and Thank Him on This Day of Thanksgiving

 

 

November 23, 2023

 

 

My dearly beloved in Christ,

Every year in late November we sit at a dinner table with family and friends to celebrate in giving thanks to our Lord and the great blessings and gifts He has provided for us. For He is our God and we are His people, His children in Christ.  As the children of God, we know who to thank and who we are grateful for the blessings He has graciously and generously bestowed on us.  But many people do not know who to thank, for they do not know God of the Bible. Sadly, many are deceived and thank a god that does not exist. Some thank the universe, friends or some spirit, which they have no knowledge of. People who do not know God say things like "I am thankful to have a job," or I am thankful I have good friends or a reliable car."  But this is not what the day of Thanksgiving is about, at least not to true Christians. Thanksgiving Day is a day in which we thank the Lord.  We thank the Lord for a good friend. We thank the Lord for a good job. And we thank for Lord for the car we drive and the food on the table. And we thank the Lord for revealing truth to us in His Word. We thank Him for His faithfulness, for Jesus and our salvation and lovingkindness.

 

Now, as Christians we ought to be thanking and praising God every day, many times a day, if Christ is indeed in us and we realize what He did for us.  But to people who do not know God, Thanksgiving Day may simply be a day when people get off work, eat turkey with family and friends and watch football or parades on T.V. 

 

The founding fathers of our great nation, the United States of America, feared God, and because of their intimacy with God, God has, from the beginning of our nation, blessed America. Whether we are blessed by God today is another question.  

 

It wasn't easy, but the pilgrims of 1620 persevered. They did not give up because they loved God and even if they lost everything of this world, they could never lose God.  Man and the devil can take everything of this world from us, even our earthly life. But man or the devil cannot take God from us. He is ours as we abide in Him. He loved us first.

 

The pilgrims, setting foot on Plymouth Rock, celebrated with a meal of a fine fall harvest in the new land . They thanked God Almighty, thanking Him for the bounty He presented to them and for the Indians who befriended them.  The first (presumed) Thanksgiving was in 1621 with 53 pilgrims and 90  Wampanoag Indian men.  But prior to 1621, a colony in Berkeley, Virginia gave thanks to God in 1619, to celebrate "the day of our ship's arrival" and proclaimed the date would be "yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to the Almighty God."

 

Many of the pilgrims were Puritans, godly men and women who worshiped God and thanked Him for all they received. For it was God who gave them a new land, a land of abundance and hope and peace and freedom to worship God as He was meant to be worshiped, without restrictions.

 

The National Thanksgiving Proclamation was the first presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving in the United States. President George Washington declared Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.

 
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
                                                                                                    — George Washington

 

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln presented a proclamation of Thanksgiving recognizing the Union armies victory in the Battle of Gettysburg and remembering the fifty-thousand lives that were lost.  The day was marked to praise and thank God for a speedy end to the war.

 

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
 
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
 
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
 
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
 
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
 
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

 

The two greatest Presidents of the United States proclaimed a day set aside for thanking and praising God; for without God, they knew we would have no nation.  And let's not forget our pledge:

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1954, added the words "under God" to the pledge of allegiance. When I was in school we always said the pledge with "under God."

 

On this Thanksgiving Day I have chosen Psalm 100 "A Song of Praise for the Lord's Faithfulness to His People:  A Psalm of Thanksgiving. When together this day of Thanksgiving, let us recite this Psalm, and let all at God's table know who it is we are thanking. Let's give credit to where credit is due:  To the Lord himself who is wonderful.

 

Psalm 100

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
 
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

 

My Short Commentary on Psalm 100

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! 

Don't be silent. Shout for the Lord,  make a joyous noise for Him. Let your joy for the Lord not be stifled.  Make a loud noise and show the world who you love and be joyful that His face shine upon you. We should be thrilled that we are saved.


Serve the Lord with gladness;

We are here to serve the Lord.  Let's serve Him, the one who has offered us life eternal and all the blessings of the saints and the inheritance of the Son are gifted to us, His true children.  He came to serve and now we serve Him with gladness and joy. God does not want us to be depressed believers. He wants us joyful in our salvation.

 

Come before His presence with singing.

When we pray let's come to Him with singing.  Fill our heart with Him. A filled heart sings and sings powerfully and with confidence. Let's sing boldly and proclaim His works. This Sunday when you are in church, sing out powerfully. Even if you do not have a great voice for song, sing, and sing with great verve.


Know that the Lord, He is God;

To know the Lord is to be intimate with the Lord. This is a similar intimacy a husband and wife have in marriage. To know the Lord is also to have the mind of God, affirming the Lord is God, the Creator Almighty.


It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

God made us. We did not evolve from a fish or any other creature.  We did not create ourselves.


We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

In Psalm 23, David wrote this great Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd."  The Lord is the shepherd of His people. I am a sheep are you?  I am in the habit of taking afternoon hikes. Many times on my hikes I would see a truck with a large sticker on the back window that said: "I'm a lion not a sheep."  Well, I am a sheep and Jesus is my Lion--the Lion of Judah. I belong in His pasture because I am His and He is mine, and He leads me. Does Jesus lead you?  I hope He is the center of your life.

 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

This  is entering into the gates of the temple. When we enter church, passing over the threshold, let's do it with thanksgiving.  Let's put self aside and enter with all thanksgiving to the Lord.  This is a command. We come to God with thanks.


And into His courts with praise.

Again, we are commanded when we approach Him, coming to Him in praise.  As believers we should have a great desire to worship and praise the Lord our God.  In Psalm 84:2,4, the psalmist had this desire to worship the Lord:

My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

 

In the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) we begin with thanksgiving and praise, and we end with thanksgiving. We start by addressing God "Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name." Then we end with "thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."  We thank God and we bless His name.


For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

 

God is the only one who is good. He is perfect. And He saves us because He is good and merciful.  His mercy is forever. God loves us; it is His nature. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)." God's nature is love.

 

God's word is truth. "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17). God does not change, His word does not change and His truth does not change. God is not outdated. He endures forever--through all generations. " The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). God's Word endures forever.

 

On this Thanksgiving day let's give thanks to the Lord for all He has provided for us. Let's not  forget all His benefits. He forgives all our iniquities. He heals all our diseases. He redeems our life from destruction. And He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies. He also satisfies our mouth with good things [Psalm103:2-4].

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Faithfully yours in Christ Jesus,

Mihran Kulhanjian

President

Christian Revival Mission, Inc.