“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” Psalm 136 is one of my favorites this time of year. With 26 occurrences, the refrain may seem repetitive to some, but to me it’s a solemn reminder of God’s interminable, faithful love for me and all His people: “His faithful love endures forever.” Verses 1-3 remind us who God is; He is “the Lord … the God of gods … the Lord of lords.” The following lyrics highlight God’s sovereign activity. In my eighth month as a South Carolina Baptist, I am reflecting on God’s goodness to us, with thanksgiving, “for He is good.”
HE IS THE GOD OF CREATION (vs. 4–9).
God’s creative skill is on full display throughout the Palmetto State. As Vanessa and I have traveled throughout the borders of our new homeland, we often have commented on the beautiful diversity in the trees, the waters, and the geographic regions. We’ve marveled at the white beaches of the Lowcountry, the Spanish moss draped from aged oaks in the wetlands, the arboreal assortments of the midlands, the majestic foothills in the Upstate, and the twists and turns of the waters’ edges that draw all 32,020 square miles together.
The words “It is so beautiful here” have fallen from my lips a thousand times on a thousand back roads. The Wolfes have lived in all geographic regions of Louisiana and Texas. God’s creative genius is on display everywhere, but here in the Palmetto State, His creative ingenuity is particularly arresting. I am thankful that the God of creation has entrusted our state with so much of His artistic handiwork.
HE IS THE GOD OF DELIVERANCE (vs. 10–22).
The Israelites owned a collective conscience that reminded them of God’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery and into their promised land. Through decisive acts of justice and omnipotence, God worked in and through His creation to deliver His people from oppression into promise. He is the promise-making, promise-keeping God, and when He sets His affection on His people, nothing (and no one) can stand against Him. I am still learning those stories of God’s activity among South Carolina Baptists that form our collective conscience and give us hope for the future. The EKG initiative under Carlisle Driggers changed the landscape of convention life and bolstered thousands of SCBaptist churches in its day. During the tenures of Harold Cole and Ray Rust, SCBaptists saw unprecedented development in convention organizational structure, missions mobilization, and church growth across the state.
But our collective conscience runs deeper still. From our inception, our purpose for existence has been precisely missional. When at our best, we stayed focused on the mission. When at our worst, we strayed from the mission. Through it all, the one decisive factor that has carried us out of countless failures and into repeated successes is that God is our great deliverer. I believe supernatural promises of God still lay ahead of us, so I am thankful that the God of deliverance is gracious and compassionate to SCBaptists today as He has been in our past.
HE IS THE GOD OF MERCY (vs. 23–26).
The Israelites did not deserve the blessings of God. In fact, most of their trouble was of their own doing. Instead of a heavy hand, God led them with a merciful heart. He is the same today.
Our state and our convention own a timeline full of both wins and sins. SCBaptists began the associational and conventional Baptist movements that are now replicated and celebrated as the greatest evangelical cooperative missional mechanisms in history. At the same time, we marginalized, oppressed, enslaved, and murdered our own people for racist motivation and economic gain. The very fact that we still exist to sing our song of thanksgiving to God is a testament to His infinite mercy toward us. I am thankful today that God still provides for our every need, rescues us from our enemies, and remembers us in our humiliation.
I believe that God has set His affection on us as SCBaptists, and Psalm 136 reminds me that the only thing in our past that defines our future is the faithful love of the God we worship and serve. So, with you, I lean into the future with grateful anticipation not because of who we are but because of who God is. This Thanksgiving, I invite you to join me in pausing to sing this song, giving “thanks to the God of heaven. For His faithful love endures forever.”