Amazing Grace
Henry Alford, 1810–1871
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O most high. (Psalm 92:1 KJV)
Our early American leaders wisely realized the importance of having a special day each year in which people could recount their blessings and express gratitude to God for all of His goodness.
The first thanksgiving was decreed by Governor Bradford in 1621 to commemorate the Pilgrims’ harvest. Later George Washington proclaimed November 26, 1789, as a national day of thanksgiving, but the holiday was not repeated on a national basis until Abraham Lincoln named it a national Harvest Festival on November 26, 1861. After that time, the holiday was proclaimed annually by the President and the governors of each state. Finally in 1941, Congress passed a bill naming the fourth Thursday of each November as Thanksgiving Day.
The first stanza of this harvest hymn is an invitation and an exhortation to give thanks to God in His earthly temple—our local church—for the heavenly care and provision of our earthly need. The following two stanzas are an interesting commentary on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares as recorded in Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43. The final stanza is a prayer for the Lord’s return—“the final harvest home.”
Come, ye thankful people, come—raise the song of harvest home; all is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin. God, our Maker, doth provide for our wants to be supplied: Come to God’s own temple, come—raise the song of harvest home.
All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield: Wheat and tares together sown, unto joy or sorrow grown. First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear: Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.
For the Lord our God shall come and shall take His harvest home: From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away—give His angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast, but the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.
Even so, Lord, quickly come to Thy final harvest-home: gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin; there, forever purified, in Thy presence to abide: come, with all Thine angels, come—raise the glorious harvest-home.
For Today: 1 Chronicles 16:8, 9; Psalm 68:19; Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43; Hebrews 13:15
The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful heart. Carry this musical truth with you—
Osbeck, K. W.
- Praise the Lord and call upon his Name: declare his works among the people. Sing unto him, sing praise unto him, and talk of all his wonderful works. 1 Chronicles 16:8-9
- Praise be the Lord, even the God of our salvation, which ladeth us daily with benefits. Selah. Psalm 68:19
- Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, there came his enemy and sowed tares among the wheata, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. Then came the servants of the householder, and said unto him, Master, sowest thou not good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, Some envious man hath done this. Then the servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye go about the gather the tares, ye pluck up also with them the wheat. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in sheaves to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matthew 13:24–30
- Then sent Jesus the multitude away, and went into the house. And his disciples came unto him saying, Declare unto the us the parable of the tares of that field. Then answred he, and said to them, He that soweth the good seed, is the son of man, And the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the tares are the children of that wicked one. And the enemy that soweth them, is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers be the Angels. As then the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, And shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just men shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 13:36–43
- Let us therefore by him offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of the lips, which confess his Name. Hebrews 13:15
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