The month of November ends with the national holiday of Thanksgiving.  It was originally celebrated as a religious observance to give thanks to God for his bountiful blessings.  The first Thanksgiving is traditionally traced back to the Plymouth Plantation in 1621 when the Pilgrims gathered to give thanks to God for bringing them through a harsh winter and providing a plentiful harvest.  From Preisdent Washington to President Lincoln, various presidents, off and on, declared a day of thanksgiving.  From Lincoln on, every president declared a special day of thanksgiving until 1941 when Congress declared the fourth Thursday of November as the national day of Thanksgiving.  Over the years, Thanksgiving has passed from being a religious observance of thanksgiving to God to a secular holiday of overeating.

This year it will be celebrated with turkey and all the trimmings followed by bountiful desserts.  We will stuff ourselves and nod off with full stomachs to awaken to the cheers of football and more eating.  In many homes, there will be little mention of God.

Perhaps this Thanksgiving we should read aloud Psalm 28:7, Psalm 68:4, Psalm 149:1-5 and Zephaniah 3:14.  In each these passages the Hebrew word "awlaz" appears.  It means to exalt, be exuberant, to jump with joy because of who God is and what He has done for us.  In all four passages, it is accompanied with singing; and in Zephaniah, it also involved shouting.

The reasons given in these passages for leaping with joy when we thank God is because He is our strength.  He is our shield.  He will protect us and defend us.  We can take refuge in him when the storms of life rage.  Psalm 28 declares that we can trust in him to do this for us.  When all else fails us, we can depend on God.  We can find him present with us even in the most desolate places (the desert, Psalm 68). 

Psalm 149 begins with a call to sing a new song to God in the "assembly of the godly".  We are to rejoice and praise him with dancing and playing musical instruments.  The reason is God takes pleasure in his people.  Therefore, we can jump for joy in glory and sing for joy in our beds (PSalm 149:5).  The spirit of thanksgiving we experience in worship on Sunday is to be taken home with us and continued to the end of the day as we prepare to go to sleep.  We are to worship Him in thanksgiving continually.

Finally, Habakkuk tells us that htis type of exuberant rejoicing is not just for the good times.  Habakkuk tells us "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce fo the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice ("awlaz", leap for joy) in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17-18 ESV).  The kind of joy "awlaz" expresses is the joy that can be ours even in the midst of disappointment.  It is the joy that is based not on happy circumstances, but on the God who enables us to stand in spite of any circumstances.  We can trust God with our well-being and rejoice even when things are falling apart around us.

This Thanksgiving let us throw the door open wide and declare that God is in charge of everything, and we can trust him.  Whatever our circumstances, our hearts can exalt and leap for joy as we sing and shout our thanksgiving praises to our lord; and if we have a tambourine, let's play it as well.  Than we can eat, watch football and take a nap.