Come, ye thankful people, come!

There is a certain worship song that is often sung on or around Thanksgiving that I have come to despise. It is sung like a dirge and I find the words simplistic to the point of being meaningless. Thankfulness is a powerful overwhelming emotion that makes you turn your face upward and weep or laugh. It makes you sing with your heart overflowing. Thanksgiving is also a command, given in Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God..." I would like to conclude this short missive on thanksgiving with a hymn written in the 1800s. Sing to the Lord of the harvest!


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.

(Henry Alford
George J. Elvey)