Category: Thirty Days of Thanksgiving in Psalms

Psalm 106:1 – Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

God is good. Webster’s 1828 dictionary has over 40 definitions of the word “good.” Basically, God is perfect, and will act perfectly every single time.

Even in His judgment, we can see His goodness. That’s what Chapter 106 is about.

Repeatedly, God’s people forgot His goodness and works, and disobeyed God. They even learned the ways of the heathen around them, began to worship idols and ultimately began sacrificing their children to the idols.

Verse 40 says that God’s wrath (violent anger) was kindled against them so much that He abhorred (to hate extremely; to despise) His own people.

That’s when He let the heathen capture them, kill and torture them, raze their cities and destroy their temples.

But verse 44 tells us that He always heard their cry!

In verse 45 we find: “And he remembered FOR THEM his covenant, and REPENTED according to the multitude of HIS mercies.”

He literally had to remember His covenant FOR THEM, and feel sorrow and remorse FOR THEM when they were too far gone in their sin to remember or care!

It’s important to note that the covenant God made with Israel wasn’t sworn to Abraham. God put Abraham into a deep sleep while the covenant was being made. Hebrews 6:13 tells us “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,”

It wasn’t up to Abraham and his seed to keep their side of the covenant. It was up to God to keep the covenant with God. He swore to Himself to keep the covenant.

What a precious thought!

When I am so absorbed with my sin that I don’t even remember that I’m His, and when I forget the pit that He dug me out of, He will remember FOR ME and hear me when I cry out for help. He will be sorrowful FOR ME. He will save me according to the multitude of HIS mercies.

There will be sowing to do for my sin, but over and over again God provides the means of forgiveness and reconciliation for me.

That alone is enough to follow the instructions in verse 1 and give thanks and praise to God for His goodness and enduring mercies!

Psalm 105:1 – O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

God’s calling on the life of a Christian is always multifaceted; but He does make our purpose quite clear:  we are to make known His deeds among the people.

The most important of those deeds is, of course, His sacrificial death on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.

But since the Psalmist wrote this before Christ’s coming to earth, he was led by the Spirit of God to write of practical steps the children of God can follow to be a witness to those around them, and ways to encourage themselves in the Lord.

Verse 1 – The more we thank the Lord out loud, the more people will hear about His work in our life.

Verse 2 – The more we sing about Him and talk of His wondrous works, the more people become curious about our God.

Verse 3 – The more we “glory” in God’s name, the more we “exult with joy” and “rejoice” in His character, the more those around us learn about Who God is.

Verse 4 – The more we seek the Lord and His strength and His face, the more our lives reflect the mind of God.

Verse 5 – The more we reminisce on God’s marvelous works, His wonders and His judgment, the more we see that He is a God worthy of our thanksgiving.

It is an amazing upward spiral of thanksgiving leading to salvation of others and more thanksgiving in our own lives!

Start your journey today of thanking God for Who He is and for all He has done in your life. It not only helps your heart, but it will draw the hearts of others to your great God!

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.”