Thanksgiving…Now

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts (His place of worship) with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Psalm 100:4)

Obviously, this was written when the Tabernacle was a place to worship. And the gates were an entrance to the grounds of that Tabernacle and the court was the open space spaces which surrounded the Temple or Tabernacle. This is a call to worship God in His House.

The kind of worship is with a thankful spirit. A

To fail to be thankful to God is a grievous sin. Remember in Romans 1, Paul says “Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom 1:21).

Or remember the healing of the 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19) when 10 men who had been “outcasted” from society were healed by Jesus? After they went before the priest to be restored socially and publicly, how many returned to Jesus to thank Him? One! We are too often like those 9 lepers.

In everything we are to give thanks (I Thess 5:18). We should give thanks for our salvation, our spiritual growth, fellowship, church instruction, ministry opportunities, godly parents or spouses, children who know Christ, health, prosperity, freedom or liberty, material needs met, etc. But we also should thank Him for trials, pains, defeats in the workplace, financial challenges, etc. In everything, we are to be thankful.

Or as one commentator puts it, “It is fitting that we render thanks to God, in our loving recognition of what he has done for us. It is fitting that we should bless his Name as we recognize what he must be, who has done for us such good and gracious things.”

Just because it’s not Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be thankful.

The Pulpit Commentary, pg. 358