The Reason for Giving Thanks
“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” At all times and under all circumstances the real reason for giving thanks unto the Lord is the same,—he is good. Goodness is an attribute of God alone. “There is none good but one, that is, God.” To thank him because he is good is to thank him because he is God, and to acknowledge him as God. “The Lord is good to all,” and therefore all ought to give thanks to him, and to acknowledge him as the only true and living God. It is because he is good that he is good to all. Goodness knows no partiality. Goodness treats all alike, not because they are all equally deserving, but because of the very nature of goodness. That kind of so-called goodness which prompts us to treat some better than others because we regard them as more worthy, is not goodness at all, but mere selfishness. There is no respect of persons with God. He does not confine his goodness to good people. “For a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It is easy for us to think the Lord is good and to give thanks when all outward circumstances are favorable, and our feelings are in harmony with the statement of the Scripture, but the test comes when outward appearances and the testimony of our own feelings do not harmonize with the testimony of the Bible that the Lord is good. It is then that we find out whether our confidence in the goodness of the Lord rests upon our own feelings and our own estimate of goodness, or whether we believe the Lord’s own statement concerning his own character. When once we have accepted as an eternal truth the assurance of the word that the Lord is good, then we always have a substantial reason for giving thanks, even when all things seems to be against us. It may be just then that the Lord is working out a victory for us whose value is beyond estimate. The loss of outward possessions, and even the endurance of suffering, may be the Lord’s channel for imparting to us a development of character which will enable us to come into closer fellowship with him. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” The Lord invites us to give thanks to him, not because he desires us to speak mere complimentary words to him, but to us because our thanksgiving opens the way upon world. for him to increase his blessings to us. Praise opens wider the channel of blessing. “Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God.” Let us who desire to see the salvation of God begin to praise him, not simply for what he does for us in bestowing those blessings which seem to us to be proof of goodness from our standpoint, but because he is good, and therefore all that he does must be good, “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, . . . for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good.” “The sun that keeps his trackless way,
And downward pours his golden flood,
Night’s sparkling hosts all seem to say,
In accents clear, that God is good. “The merry birds prolong the strain,
Their songs with every spring renewed;
And balmy air, and falling rain,
Each softly whispers, God is good. “We hear it in the rushing breeze;
The hills, that have for ages stood,
The echoing sky, and roaring seas,
All swell the chorus, God is good. “Yes; God is good, all nature says,
By God’s own hand with speech endued;
And we, in louder notes of praise,
Will sing for joy that God is good.”