November 15 Featured Hymn: We Praise Thee, O God

What might be most interesting about this hymn is what it is not. It isn’t a song of praise and thanksgiving for the unending good gifts God gives us. It isn’t a naïve song about how beautiful life is all the time. On the flip side, it isn’t a hymn of appeasement, as if our song is the only thing that will keep God from smiting us. Rather, this is a hymn of thanksgiving that very honestly raises the question of suffering. In the second verse, we sing, “through life’s storm and tempest our guide you have been; when perils o’ertake us, you never forsake us, and with your help, O Lord, our battles we win.” We can’t say that life is all peaches and cream. We can’t gather together on a Sunday morning blissfully unaware of the sickness, death, sorrow, bullying, and famine that pervade our land. But we can gather together to praise the God who does not desert us in the midst of these heartaches. We can, and should, come with hearts and voices lifted up before the one who suffered much so that we could have, in the midst of our trials, the fullness of life.

View this Featured Hymn at Hymnary.org.