Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the hubbub and bustle in the kitchen. I love the gathering of friends and family and the laughing and the lingering around the table.
There’s one part that can be a little awkward. You might know the moment – everyone goes around the table and says what they’re thankful for. It’s tough to come up with something original when you’re at the end of the line. And then there are those times when you look back over the year and don’t feel particularly grateful for your circumstances.
There’s a line in Psalm 66 we read recently that you probably won’t hear anyone saying around the Thanksgiving table – “Praise the Lord, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver” (Psalm 66:8-10).
Praise the Lord… for you tested us. This doesn’t normally make the list of things for which we’re grateful. In part because we generally don’t think we need much refinement. We tend to think of ourselves as pretty much ok. Certainly not perfect, but not all that bad. So we aren’t particularly grateful when the Lord sets about removing impurities and weakness from us.
Even when we know something’s no good, we’re often hesitant to seek a change because we’re pretty sure that it’s going to hurt. When silver is refined, something hard and solid is softened and liquefied. Molecular bonds are broken. It’s not a gentle process. Transformation rarely is.
Take another look at our verse – the Lord’s goal in all this is to preserve our lives. It’s not senseless or random. It has a very specific purpose. So He “sits like a refiner of silver, watching closely as the dross is burned away” (Malachi 3:3). He doesn’t toss us into the fire and wish us luck. Instead He promises “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20). It’s God Himself who is doing the refining – He will not let it go on too long or go too far because “He is good [and] His faithful love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).
It’s God’s love that lasts forever, not the refining process. Your circumstances will change. One day, His work in us will be finished (James 1:4). We will be able to say along with the psalmist, “We went through fire and flood. But you brought us to a place of great abundance” (Psalm 66:12).