Now Thank We All Our God

One of the most destructive conflicts in European history was the Thirty Years’ War, fought from 1618 to 1648. By 1637, all the pastors of Eilenberg, Germany, had either abandoned the city or died of disease, leaving a Lutheran deacon named Martin Rinkart to care for its spiritual needs. In the years that followed, he performed 4,480 funerals—including that of his own wife. In 1637 alone, 5,000 people in Eilenberg died of starvation and disease, and Rinkart was officiating 40–50 funerals a day.

Rinkart was also a prolific writer of poems and hymns. Amid this great suffering and deprivation, he wrote a hymn that reveals the depth of his faith in God.

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,Who wondrous things hath done, in whom His world rejoices,Who from our mother’s arms hath blessed us on our wayWith 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 blessed 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, the Father now be given,The Son and Holy Ghost, with Him in highest heaven;The one Eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore;For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Think for a moment about the backdrop against which this hymn of thanksgiving was written: the brutalities of war, disease, starvation, and every imaginable privation. Now compare that to the backdrop against which your life is presently being lived.

Scripture exhorts us to “give thanks to the Lord and bless His name,” to “…always give thanks for all things…,” and to “…in everything give thanks….”

When, as Christians, we come to understand that our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), we also understand that nothing can touch the life of a believer without God’s permission—whether the thrilling mountaintops of life or the deepest valleys. In His infinite wisdom, God allows these things for our growth and His glory. As Romans 8:28 reminds us, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Giving thanks in everything and for every circumstance is not lunacy; it is a statement of faith that our sovereign Lord is in control and that He indeed knows what He is doing.

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. For the believer, everyday ought to be a Thanksgiving Day. And though it is right and proper to set aside special times to reflect on our blessings and to offer thanks to God together, the significance of Thanksgiving Day is greatly increased when it grows out of a life permeated with gratitude.

As you gather with family and friends this week, may you—thankful individuals—lift your hearts, hands, and voices in praise to the sovereign Lord who holds you and keeps you, clothes you and feeds you, and sustains you by His grace and mercy on both the mountaintops and in the valleys of this life.