Give Thanks to God
Spend much time on social media and you might think we’re a thankless people. Maybe it’s because we too often compare ourselves with others, and the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence. Or perhaps we just haven’t lifted our eyes quite high enough to see the Giver of all good things whom we should be thanking for all we have. That’s the perspective we hope to bring this week!
In this special focus study, we’ll see how to thank God, and we’ll learn why we should worship Him and offer Him praise. Psalm 100 reminds us who God is, what He has done, and why we should thank Him continually. We’ll see that we are to serve Him, acknowledge Him, and bless His name.
Let’s look beyond the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday to the reason we should offer thanks every day. When we see what God has done, we respond to Him with thanksgiving and praise. We enter His gates not because we’ve worked up enough gratitude to do so, but because we’ve seen enough of God that we can’t help but do so!
Question 1:
What are some things you just don’t want to do without at Thanksgiving?
THE POINT
Our thanks and worship belong to God.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
When Americans hear the word Thanksgiving, it’s tough to think about anything but the holiday. We look forward to gathering together with family (well, maybe not that crazy uncle), playing games, and consuming tasty foods.
But what if all those things were stripped away? Our family experienced that for almost a decade living in Central Asia. The fourth Thursday of November still appeared on the calendar, and it remained important to us, but things were definitely not the same. No fall. No football. No extended family.
We still celebrated Thanksgiving. A small turkey was ordered months ahead. Family members mailed us non-perishables. And near the top of our list of things for which to be thankful were the sad little pumpkins found in the local market.
Thanksgiving really happens because the giving of thanks is what brings satisfaction to our souls. We give thanks not so much because of the things we receive, but because of the One who gives. Psalm 100 reminds us who that One is, what He has done, and why we should thank Him continually.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Psalm 100:1-2
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Like many of the psalms, Psalm 100 is a hymn of descriptive praise. Notice the inscription under the heading of this psalm: “A psalm of thanksgiving.” Psalm 100 is the only psalm explicitly identified as a psalm of thanks. How are we to give thanks? The opening verses suggest three ways:
- We can shout. The Hebrew word for shout referred to a glad noise, such as when loyal subjects cry out when the king appears among them. The people of God are to praise God loudly because we are happy that He is our God.
One of our children was born in Thailand, so we lived there for a few months to get good quality health care for what would be a high-risk pregnancy. Though we had been living in Asia for a while, each new culture brings its own unique curiosities. For example, when we went to a movie at a local theater, we were pleasantly surprised by the nice, plush, reclining chairs, but another eye-opener awaited. Just before the movie started, a loud orchestra began playing and everyone jumped to their feet. We responded likewise as quickly as we could, but we could still see that many eyes were on us for our brief hesitation. It didn’t take long to understand why we were all standing and why it was so important. A brief biography of the king of Thailand began playing on the screen, and many around us literally wept. It turned out this was a regular part of going to the movies in Thailand. They loved their king!
In this psalm, we see a call not just to the people of one country, but to all the peoples of the world to offer praise to the One who is the rightful King of all the earth. One day the whole earth will indeed worship the Lord, though for now the breadth of this command seems more hopeful and aspirational.
Question 2:
What are some ways we can serve the Lord with gladness?
- We can worship. The word worship is sometimes translated serve. As Wiersbe reminds us: “Worship leads to service, and true service is worship.”1 We should worship and serve the Lord simply because He is worthy of our service and worship. But we also find important practical implications for our worship. This is one of the chief ways that the church carries out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20): we serve to see every nation, tribe, people, and language gathered before God’s throne.
- We can come. This refers to public worship since the psalm overall describes God’s people coming to God’s temple. We gather together to worship, serve, and collectively express our thanks to God. It’s certainly true that you can worship God by yourself, but when we come together, we encourage each other. As I hear you express your thanks to God, it gives me yet another reason to thank and praise Him—and vice versa. In the mutual sharing of thanks, our praise to Him only grows!
Obeying these three commands—shout, worship, and come—leads to a life of thanksgiving, one that embraces personal evangelism, community service, and a vibrant church life—all of which are essential aspects of the Christian life.
Question 3:
What are some obstacles to serving the Lord with gladness?
Psalm 100:3
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
The next command in this psalm is “know.” Nothing in life is more important for us than to know or acknowledge God. By including this word, the psalmist reminded us that our thanksgiving to God must engage our minds and hearts; we must know the One to whom we give thanks. When Paul stood on the Areopagus to address the people of Athens, he said, “So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). We can neither thank nor worship a God we don’t consciously embrace. Like Paul, we should help others acknowledge God as well. What is it about God we should know or acknowledge? We see two aspects of God’s identity in verse 3:
- God is our Creator. If we fail to acknowledge God as our Creator, we get in all kinds of trouble! Some people think we have no creator and choose to rely on science alone to explain our existence. Various theories seek to explain away the need for God. In doing so, though, everything becomes cold and mechanical. Any notion of purpose in life is lost. We lose our sense of beauty, majesty, and wonder—and with that we also lose our propensity to be thankful. If we got where we are by ourselves, we have no one but ourselves to thank for anything.
- God is our Shepherd. Acknowledging God only as Creator can make Him seem distant and uninvolved in our day-to-day lives, but God is also our Shepherd. Describing us as “his people, the sheep of his pasture” makes God personal and close to us. God as our Shepherd is a very personal expression, one that’s repeated often in Scripture.
As we acknowledge and thank God as our Creator and our Shepherd, let’s remember this beautiful phrase: “We are his.” Regardless of what may come our way, we are still His. Circumstances will not always be kind. Troubles inevitably will come our way. Life will happen. But no matter what, because we have acknowledged Him, we are His.
Question 4:
Why is it so important that we acknowledge that God made us?
GIVE THANKS
Individually, rate yourself from 1 to 5 of how thankful to God you are in each of these life situations (1 = not thankful at all, 5 = very thankful). Then come back together as a group to compare your ratings.
___When I achieve something I worked hard for.
___When my “coincidences” are favorable.
___When I make it through a terrifying moment/situation (like barely avoiding a car accident).
___When I worship at church.
___When I fail.
___When I celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
___When I’m stuck in a desperate situation.
What common trends do you see about your gratitude? Together, read 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and discuss what it means to live it out.
“God has promised to supply all our needs. What we don’t have now, we don’t need now.”
ELIZABETH ELLIOT
Psalm 100:4-5
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. 5 For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
The psalmist continued with his invitation to thank God. He used three strong imperatives in his invitation: “enter,” “give thanks,” and “praise.” We saw in verse 2 that our service to others is an act of worship to God, but when we get to verse 4, the emphasis turns to the corporate gathering of God’s people. Applied to Christians, this can be seen as an exhortation for us to gather as a church. The people of God are strengthened, and God is blessed when we gather together for thanks and praise.
This invitation to worship was based upon the character of God. Verse 5 points to three specific traits of God:
- God is good. The gods other nations worshiped were not good. They were perceived as being selfish and capricious. But the God of the Bible is always good.
- God is love. Because He Himself is love (1 John 4:8), God’s faithful love endures forever. God has many attributes, but nothing demonstrates the heart of God for us like His love.
- God is faithful. The same God who was there for the saints of old is there for us in our time of need as well. We can look back to times of God’s faithfulness in our past for courage as we look to our future.
While we were in the missionary selection process, the paperwork for our job request was lost and our contact on the field could not be reached. As a result, we were encouraged to seek another place of ministry. At the same time, my wife and I discovered we had lost our next child through miscarriage. We were just a few short weeks from giving birth. Had our confidence been placed in our circumstances or our own wisdom, we would have reconsidered our plan to move overseas. Instead, God gave us such a sense of peace that He had things under control. In fact, my wife came through this period of testing with a renewed confidence that our children belonged to God and their lives were in His hands. Since He was the One calling us to the mission field, we could rest in His faithfulness. Consequently, we had the faith to work among Muslims in a pioneer area we had not even considered before.
God is good. He is love. He is faithful. As a result, every generation can “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” His goodness, love, and faithfulness lead us to “give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Question 5:
How have you seen God’s faithfulness affect generations of people?
LIVE IT OUT
We have many opportunities to offer thanks and worship to God. Choose one of the following applications:
- Shout. Consider a short sentence of praise for the Lord and look for every opportunity to share it with others this week. “God is good.” “I’ve been more blessed than I deserve.” “Thank the Lord for ____________ !” are some examples.
- Serve. Whether it is service in the church or in the community, our service can be an act of worship. Find a ministry in your church or even a community organization where you can serve others and demonstrate the love of Christ.
- Start. Begin a neighborhood Bible study for adults or a backyard Bible club for kids in your home or in a safe neutral location nearby (playground, field, clubhouse, etc.). Help others learn the joy of gathering together to worship God.
We all love to enjoy one another’s company over a good meal, at the athletic field, or playing a game together. We have much to be thankful for, especially when we’re together. But we must remember that there is a Giver of all good things and He should be the focus of our thanks and praise.
Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone
