Thankful for the Foundation

And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.  And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

Ezra 3:11

After dealing with God’s judgment, the Israelites are thrilled to have the opportunity to rebuild the house of the Lord.  They are, in this verse, thanking and praising the Lord for a couple of different things.  And the things that they thanked Him for are things that we can all thank Him for.

The first thing they were thankful for is the fact that “His mercy endureth for ever…”  If we have any reason to be thankful, it would be that He has been merciful to us.  The Israelites had rejected God over and over and had brought down judgment upon themselves.  But even in the midst of God’s judgment, He still had mercy on them.  He never forgot them.  It is the same with us: there are times when we reject the Lord and find ourselves being chastened and judged by Him.  But, even during those times, He is still merciful and longsuffering toward us.  That should give us reason to be thankful.

The second thing they were thankful for was the fact that “the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”  I Corinthians 3:11 tells us that “…other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  He is, as the song says, “our Rock; our hope of eternal salvation.”  The fact that we know the Foundation and the fact that we are building on the true Foundation should give us a great reason to thank Him and praise Him.