Author: ObtainingMercy

Psalm 100:4 – Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

I remember Psalm 100 being the very first chapter of Scripture that I ever memorized in full. It is as indelibly written on my heart as is the song “Jesus Loves Me.”

I have an incredible legacy of love for the Lord and love for His Word. Not of my own choosing, but due to the wisdom of those who taught me – my parents, Pastor, Sunday School teachers, school teachers, junior church workers and youth pastors.

So many people poured into me the Word of God, the appreciation of God’s goodness and salvation, and the importance of obedience and thanksgiving.

But if I’m honest, thanksgiving has not always been a way of life for me. There are too many years that were marked by selfishness, anger, bitterness and resentment. Those emotions do not cohabitate with gratitude. They tend to push it aside and actually erase it from the heart and mind.

But as soon as we choose to begin being thankful, God starts erasing those other emotions and starts to show us even more reasons to thank Him.

Today marks 59 years of life on this earth for me. I believe that I can say that thankfulness and gratitude play a much larger role in my heart than they used to. I trust that thanksgiving has become my way of life.

I try to make my first and last thoughts each day those of thanks to the Lord. He has been SO good to me! I can never repay that. I can never serve Him enough to make it up to Him. I could never have deserved His grace and mercy.

But I can come before Him every day with thanksgiving, praise, thankfulness and blessing.

Psalm 100:5 – “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 97:12 – Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Holiness – the state of being holy; perfect purity; integrity of moral character; freedom from sin.

Every time the idea of God’s perfect purity, integrity and lack of sin comes to us, we should give thanks for it.

I know – that isn’t an easy thing, is it? When I remember God’s holiness, gratitude isn’t usually my first emotion. I usually feel guilt. Or sorrow. Or remorse.

I tend to spontaneously think of God’s holiness when I have violated that holiness, when I have acted directly the opposite of holy and pure, or without integrity.

But God’s holiness should not be remembered with sadness or shame. It should be remembered with thankfulness!

Scripture uses words like “glorious” and “beautiful” to describe holiness (Exodus 15:1; II Chronicles 20:21)

We must remember that if God the Father was not holy, if Jesus His son was not perfectly pure, we would have no forgiveness for our sin. Only a spotless sacrifice could make atonement for our sin. Hebrews 9:11, 14 remind us that Jesus was the perfect tabernacle and he offered Himself “without spot to God” to be the sacrifice for our sin.

Rather than trembling before God’s holiness, or rebelling against it, we should give thanks for it!

You will notice that this verse is a direct address to the “righteous”. And how do we become righteous? Through the shedding of the holy blood of Jesus Christ!

Thank God for His holiness every time it comes to your mind. It is the only way to salvation for us.

Psalm 95:2 – Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Verse 1 of this chapter extends to us an invitation: Come praise the Lord with me! And verse 2 adds a little more explanation: Let’s go right into God’s presence and say “Thank you!”

Presence – In company before the face of another; approach face to face.

The Psalmist gives the idea that our singing, joyful noise and thanksgiving usher us right into the throne room of Heaven! And there is no doubt about it that our thanks gives us the ear of our God.

I love that the Psalmist asks us to make some noise!

Noise is described as “a sound of any kind.” Further explanation is “a loud sound of clamor or outcry.” Then the definition is continued as “frequent talk, much public conversation.”

Sometimes, when we give God our thanks, it’s a loud and noisy: “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!!!” Those times are so exuberant and joyous and memorable. We love it when God shows up in a big way and we can just shout “Thank you so much, Lord!” from the rooftops.

Then there are times of rich conversation, when we’re with one or more people and our words of thanks just go back and forth. We share an experience of God’s goodness, then our neighbor shares one of his own. Before you know it, there’s a wonderful session of thanksgiving going on in the middle of the store, on the sidewalk, in the salon or in the church house.

I think of our church’s Wednesday night service before Thanksgiving, when the pastor opens the floor to anyone who wants to share what the Lord has been doing for them. It’s always a powerful time of giving thanks to our Lord God.

But there are also times, when we’re so moved by the goodness of God that our words nearly fail us. Our spirits and minds are so overwhelmed by His mercy and love that we can’t find the right words to say. Maybe we can’t find even one little word of thanks. But from the depths of our soul breathes up an exhale of utter delight and thanks and adoration, and we literally just make “a sound of any kind.” This is thanksgiving too.

Whatever way our thanks comes out today, let’s just go on into His presence with it! Don’t worry that it’s not the right kind, or that the words are not churchy-sounding. Simply offer Him a “thank You”, sincerely from your heart, in words that you understand.

I guarantee you that you will be heard, you will be ushered into His presence, and the Lord will meet with you in that moment of thanksgiving.

Psalm 92:1 – It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

First things first:  Giving thanks to God is a GOOD thing! This verse is pretty clear about that. One of the reasons that it’s a good thing is that when we give our thanks to the Lord, it causes us to sing God’s praises.

Praise – a commendation bestowed for virtue or worthy action; expression of gratitude.

Secondly, giving thanks to God is a DAILY thing. Verse 2 says that we are to focus on God’s lovingkindness (tender regard, mercy and favor) in the morning. What a great way to start the day! And then the Psalmist says we should end our day by recounting God’s faithfulness. The best way to drift off to sleep at night is to be counting your many blessings as you think back over your day.

Third, we see that giving thanks to God is a SERIOUS thing. Verse 3 says we are to play our instruments with a solemn sound.

Solemn – serious, grave, devout; reverential attention to God.

Serious – Really intending what is said; being in earnest; not jesting or making false pretense.

Our expression of thanks should bring a reverential attention to our God. We should be in earnest, and really mean what we say and sing. We should not be joking, and should be respectful about how moved we are by God’s goodness to us.

Verses 4 and 5 of this chapter remind us that being thankful moves us to sincere happiness and make us feel triumphant about God’s work in our lives. We realize just how great His work is, and how deep His thoughts are about our lives.

Giving thanks is good. We need to be giving thanks daily. And our thanks should be solemn and respectful to our God.

Just these three steps will bring about praise, motivation, rest, music, gladness, victory, and peace. What a wonderful formula for the Christian life!

Psalm 79:13 – So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.  

This Psalm is a heart-breaking reminder of the destruction of Jerusalem, led by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

Asaph describes the defilement, death and derision brought about by God’s judgment on His people, due to their sin of idolatry.

The Psalmist begs God for an end to His anger, and for retribution against those who had destroyed the city, killed the multitudes and imprisoned or took hostage almost all the other Israelites.

He asks for forgiveness and mercy. He asks for God to help them for His own Name’s sake. He asks for deliverance.

He ends this cry for help with verse 13, a promise of praise. After all they’d been through, God’s people knew the way through the trial was to turn back to their God. They needed to begin to praise Him again.

My dear friend, life is sometimes devastating; sometimes through no fault of our own, but more often due to our own rebellion, sinful nature and stubborn willfulness.

As soon as we come to our senses, we need to turn in repentance back to our God. As a sheep follows his shepherd, we need to submit in obedience. We need to fill our minds and hearts with gratitude for all God has done for us.

Even in our destruction, we can see the thread of God’s mercy and forgiveness. We need to praise the Lord, even through the pain of correction.

Psalm 103:9-13 “He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.  

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”

Psalm 75:1 – Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous work declare.

This Psalm of Asaph focuses on demotion and promotion. He’s reminding us that both come from God. He controls who is set up and who is brought low.

It is easy to be discouraged when we feel our effort is not being noticed or appreciated. But our goal in life should not be for earthly honor or acknowledgment.

Our life, service and ministry should be focused on our audience of One – the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that’s why Asaph repeats the first phrase in this chapter “unto thee do we give thanks.” He wants to emphasize the truth of Who deserves our thanks. God is the One who gives us our family, position in life, place of service, ministry, job, strength, intellect and physical capabilities. He alone is the source of any glory or honor we receive.

God alone stands Judge over our lives. He has shown us His power in His wondrous works since the first day of creation and He has continued those wondrous works in our own lives.

In fact, we can sometimes see His wondrous work even when we are demoted. God knows the future, and knows when we need to be made “to lie down in green pastures”, whether we need a time a healing or rest or spiritual restoration.

We need to be mindful that our praise goes to God alone, not to others, not to self, not to the universe, or to “karma”.

God alone deserves our thanksgiving for everything that happens in our lives.

Psalm 69:30 – I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

On Day 5 we talked about singing our thanks to God. This verse focuses on singing praise for the names of God.

One of my professors in college challenged us to be creative when looking for the names of God in Scripture. He believed that when we see the acts of God, we recognize the character of God and then we can apply that name to God.

It helps us to identify these names and understand Who God is because of what He does.

In Chapter 69, there are really so many names we can find, so I’ll just do a sampling of them. I encourage you to dig in and find some names for yourself.

• Verse 1 – The Saver
• Verse 3 – My God
• Verse 5 – The Knower of my foolishness
• Verse 5 – The Sin See-er
• Verse 6 – O LORD GOD of hosts
• Verse 6 – O God of Israel
• Verse 9 – The Reproached One
• Verse 13 – O Lord
• Verse 13 – Merciful
• Verse 13 – The Hearer
• Verse 13 – The Truth
• Verse 13 – Salvation
• Verse 14 – The Deliverer
• Verse 14 – Unsinkable
• Verse 16 – The Loving and Kind One
• Verse 16 – The Tender One
• Verse 17 – The Unhidden Face
• Verse 17 – The Hasty Hearer
• Verse 18 – The Draw-er Nigh-er
• Verse 18 – The Redeemer
• Verse 19 – The Knower

And truly, the list grows much larger as you read through the chapter!

When we begin to see these names of God, we learn how God works. We start to know His character.  

David asks the Lord to “draw nigh unto my soul” because he knows that it’s the character of God to do so. It’s the nature of God is to draw us (to pull along; to cause to move forward by force) nigh (near; not distant or remote; easy to be obtained or learned; ready to support, to forgive, to aid or defend) to Himself.

Now that is certainly a name of God that I can sing about! Songs like the following one magnify (make great by representation) God by thanking Him for Who He is:

“I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord; no tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou near by; temptations lose their pow’r when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour, most holy One; O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

I need Thee, O I need Thee; every hour I need Thee! O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!”

I Need Thee Every Hour by Annie S. Hawks