Songs of Thanksgiving

Songs of Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 28, 2021

I found a phrase in my Bible that caught my attention this week: songs of thanksgiving. It’s not surprising that my eyes and my mind would connect on that phrase this week. But the setting is somewhat surprising.

I found that phrase in Jeremiah 30: “‘From them will proceed thanksgiving, And the voice of those who celebrate; And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant.” (Jeremiah 30:19 NAS95)

The surprising thing is that this “song of thanksgiving” is not mentioned in a setting where people are of a mind to give thanks. They are selfish and idolatrous. Jeremiah has been prophesying that judgment is about to fall. But the people are not listening.

But Jeremiah, having established that judgment is in fact on the doorstep, is here prophesying that, after judgment, there will be restoration. The people will experience deliverance. They will be brought home. They will no longer be captives. They will have been disciplined, and their hurts will have been healed.

So yes, there will come a day when there will be “songs of thanksgiving,” many such songs, sung by all kinds of people as they experience the wonders of the “blessed hope” that we have as believers. That “song of thanksgiving” is being sung in heaven today by those who have gone before. And we know that, when we join them, it will be glorious.

But the text does not merely offer the hope of a future in which there will be “songs of thanksgiving.” Because God’s Word is true, by faith we take it to be true, even now, prospectively.. That is, we can sing “songs of thanksgiving” right now, even though there is much that pains us and concerns us - we sing “songs of thanksgiving” at the prospect of meeting Jesus, whether at His coming, or our going to Him. We sing, not just in the experience such blessedness, but at the prospect of this blessedness.

There is in this chapter a description of those in trouble: “Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale?” (Jer 30:6). This is real distress and trouble. And yet, in the midst of these things, if we will hear God’s Word and believe, we too can participate in the “songs of thanksgiving” of the people of God.