The Man Who Called for Thanksgiving in the Middle of a War

In 1863, the United States was tearing itself apart. Battlefield casualties mounted into the hundreds of thousands. Abraham Lincoln — a man who had lost elections, buried a beloved son in the White House, and faced daily ridicule in the press as unfit for office — did something no one expected. In the middle of the bloodiest conflict in American history, he issued a proclamation calling the nation to give thanks to the Almighty.

Lincoln had been dismissed for years. Newspapers called him a backwoods buffoon. Political insiders passed him over again and again. When he finally won the presidency, half the country refused to accept his leadership. He was, by nearly every measure, a stone the builders rejected.

Yet from that rejection came a presidency that held a fractured nation together and ended the evil of slavery. And in the darkest hour, Lincoln's instinct was not despair but gratitude — declaring that even amid sorrow, the mercies of the Most High "are so great and so continuous that they cannot be enumerated."

Psalm 118 knows this rhythm well. The psalmist had been pushed hard, nearly to the point of falling. But the Lord became his salvation. The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone. And the response was not a victory speech — it was a hymn of thanks. "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." True deliverance always ends in doxology.