Thanking the Lord

 Nehemiah 12

• Summary

The first half of this chapter records the names of the priests and Levites who returned to Jerusalem from exile.  It then describes the dedication of the newly built wall of Jerusalem. Lastly it gives us information about people appointed to take care of the firstfruits and tithe offerings being brought to the temple, those that kept watch in the temple and the portions that were given to these and the Levites.

• Thoughts - written June 2021

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I have been putting off my quiet time this morning.  Having read this chapter yesterday I knew that the subject on my mind was thanksgiving.  But being the end of the week, feeling tired and sluggish, I just didn't feel in the right mood to be thinking and writing about thankfulness.  And yet, as I lifted up my heart in prayer to the Lord, I was immediately given a little sense of thankfulness of the privilege of having a dear loving Lord to pray to.  How good he is!  How kind!  How close to us, although we hardly know it.  May his word speak to us as we have a look at this chapter...

As mentioned the subject that seems to stand out to me here is thanksgiving.  All through the chapter we read of it -

• In verse 8 we are given names of the Levites in charge of the thanksgiving in the temple;
• In verse 24 we have more names of Levites (perhaps the next generation) who were to 'praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God';
• In verse 27 we read of the active searching out of all the Levites living outside of Jerusalem to purposefully bring them to Jerusalem to 'keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps';
• In verses 31-39 we have the appointment of two large groups of those who were giving thanks and a description of how they went in two directions around the wall giving thanks;
• In verses 35, 36, 42 and 43 we have more details of how they gave thanks, using their instruments, singing loudly, offering great sacrifices and rejoicing - and their joy was so loud it was heard far away.

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What importance was given to the aspect of thanksgiving and praise in their worship!  We looked at this in an earlier post 'With rejoicing and with singing' when King David emphasized thanksgiving so much that he ordered 4000 Levites to perform the role of praising the LORD in the temple (1 Chronicles 23: 5).  This speaks to me of how conscious we should be of continually giving thanks to the Lord throughout our lives and when we go to worship him - it is so easy to speak to each other of all the things that are going wrong in our lives, but what of all the wonderful mercies the Lord is constantly showing us?

As with these people here, we want to be given a spirit of real thankfulness - we read in verse 43 that they 'rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy'.  All our true rejoicing surely comes from what the Lord does for us?  What he has done in sending the Lord Jesus to be a Saviour for his people, and what he has promised to do for us.  As we read in 2 Corinthians 1: 10, 'Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us'.

We may be in the middle of something awful, something that we cannot see a good end to.  It may seem unfeeling to suggest that in such circumstances we should rejoice and give thanks.  What does the Lord show us through his word?

Job 1: 21, 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD';

Habakkuk 3: 17-19, 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The LORD God is my strength...'

Acts 16: 24-25...'thrust' into an 'inner prison', their feet 'fast in the stocks', 'at midnight Paul and Silas prayed,and sang praises unto God'.

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What were Job, Habakkuk, Paul and Silas all doing?  They were looking out and away from their circumstances and up to God.  They were trusting him.   When God has put his Spirit in our hearts one of the fruits of his Spirit is joy.  Joy in the Lord will lift up our heart in thankfulness.  But when as mentioned above we are in difficult circumstances and we feel anything but joy, is there not just one thing we can think of to thank the Lord for?  And when we thank him and ask him to give us a right spirit he may bless us with such a sense of thanksgiving that our soul overflows towards him and we are comforted that he knows all things and is with us despite whatever we are in.  May we cultivate the habit of 'counting our blessings' and encouraging each other in the Lord, that we too might be enabled to give him the thanks and praise due to him.

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