We have just this week celebrated Father’s Day. Families have varied traditions about the celebration of this holiday. Some families go to the lake, or on a trip. Others plan special meals, have cookouts, or some other culinary adventure. Some families buy gifts for the father in home and others have we-do-what-you-want day. Regardless of how families celebrate this holiday, it is a day set aside to thank the father of the home.
This last Sunday, I challenged my church to spend the day thinking about their Heavenly Father. If we are not careful, we thank God often for what He provides for us but little time thanking
Him for Who He is. What do I mean by this? I am glad you asked!
Consider Psalm 97:
“The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; Let the many islands be glad Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him And burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; The earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory. Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, Who boast themselves of idols; Worship Him, all you gods. Zion heard this and was glad, And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced Because of Your judgments, O LORD. For You are the LORD Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown like seed for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart. Be glad in the LORD, you righteous ones, And give thanks to His holy name.” (Psalm 97, NASB95)
This Psalm reminds us of some of the attributes of God for which we ought to be thankful. First, we ought to thank God, our Father, that He reigns. Verse 1 proclaims that God reigns over all the earth. Since He reigns over all the earth, all the earth ought to rejoice and thank Him. From the islands to the mainlands, people from every tribe, tongue, and nation are one day going to be gathered around the throne (Revelation 7:9), so they ought to begin now. We should thank God that He reigns and is sovereign over all pretend gods and false religions so that the adherents need to repent and turn from those empty ways and turn and follow Jesus. Another attribute of our Father that we ought to thank Him for is related: He is real! The heavens declare His majesty and all the peoples have seen His glory. Psalm 19, Romans 1, and many other places confirm that God has put evidence of His existence throughout all creation so that all people are without excuse. None can claim not to know there is a God. Why? Because He is real! The problem for many of us is that we don’t think like He thinks, and our ways are not His ways, so we think that our ways must rule and for some, that must mean there is no God because that would mean they are not God. We who know Him through Jesus Christ, His Son, ought to thank our Father that He is real.
This Psalm also gives us a third attribute for which we can thank our Heavenly Father. We can be thankful that He is always right and wise. The Bible word for this is righteous. Two times in this Psalm we are told that He is righteous. There may be some times when it seems that He allows evil to prevail, but like Psalm 73 reminds us, evil may have some success in this life, but it will be eradicated on the Day of the Lord. There are times when we think He might not know what is going on, but He is always aware and never slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121). He knows what happens and always knows the right thing to do about it.
With all this to thank our Father for, this Psalm finishes with reminding us that He hears us and responds to our needs. This helps us to begin to think about all the things He has given us and the praise can keep on going.Regardless of whether Father’s Day was sad because your father is no longer with you, or even abused you, we can thank our Heavenly Father that He never does. If you have sweet memories of your father, than add that to your list for which you thank your Heavenly Father. And…we don’t have to make that just one day a year.