Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

By A. Serounian Keir

I love Thanksgiving.

True, the gathering of family and friends, the magnificent feast, and the overall fun of the day make Thanksgiving a joyful time, as it should be. But in recent years, Thanksgiving has taken on new meaning for me. The reason for this new meaning is my extensive time studying and writing about the Psalms. This study provokes this question: Do I love Thanksgiving, or do I love giving thanks?

Among the 150 Psalms, I have found 38 reasons we give thanks to God. Let me share three of them with you.

Steadfast Love

First, we thank God because of His steadfast love. This is the most prominent reason to give thanks to God in the Psalms. God’s steadfast love is mentioned 123 times through the Psalms — 123 times in 52 of the 150 psalms! Despite the frequent mention of God’s steadfast love for us, however, it’s easy for us to miss the point.

The Hebrew word translated “steadfast love” is translated in several other ways: mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, goodness, favor, and pity. If you take all the occurrences of “steadfast love” along with the occurrences of those other translations, you will see that this love is a major theme of the Psalms; indeed, it is a major theme of the whole Bible.

God’s steadfast love for us comes in two streams. The stream of His mercy comes when He doesn’t give us what we deserve; the stream of His grace comes when He gives us what we don’t deserve — two major streams of God’s steadfast love.

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“Why would God love sinners like us who are so small and seemingly inconsequential to Him?”

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This Thanksgiving, and throughout the year, may I suggest that you take some time to meditate on God’s steadfast love for you, for your family, indeed for the entire world. You might begin by meditating on His greatness and His holiness. God’s greatness reminds us of our smallness. His holiness reminds us of our own sinfulness, which leads to the question: “Why would God love sinners like us who are so small and seemingly inconsequential to Him?”

The answer is that we are not inconsequential to Him. Psalm 8 tells us that He has made us a little lower than Himself (Psalm 8:5 NRSV). We will never rejoice in His steadfast love if we do not see the special place humanity has in God’s creation.

And when we think about His holiness, we are amazed that He invites us to come into His presence as citizens of His kingdom and members of His family. How can that be? Because Christ has made us right with Him, and He has reconciled us to God through His cross. Martin Luther wrote, “God’s love does not love that which is worthy of being loved, but it creates that which is worthy of being loved.” God’s steadfast love never ceases (Lamentations 3:22).

Righteous Transformation

Here’s a second reason we give thanks to God. It’s found in Psalm 33, verses 1–4. Verses 1–3 of this Psalm tell us how to give thanks to God, and verse 4 tells us why we thank Him:

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does” (Psalm 33:1–4).

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“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” – Proverbs 30:5

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The words “righteous” and “right” in this passage come from the same Hebrew word. The difference is that we worshippers are righteous because God in His mercy has imputed His righteousness to us. But His words are righteous because that is His nature. Proverbs 30:5 tells us, “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

Two passages from the New Testament underscore this view of God’s Word:

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Because God’s Word is righteous, it is also active in transforming the believer into Christ’s likeness. For that we give thanks.

God Hears and Rescues

Here’s one more reason to give thanks to God. It’s found in the first two verses of Psalm 40: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

This Psalm is attributed to David, who wrote at least 73 of the psalms — almost half of them. No reason is given for its writing, and rightfully so since God rescued David many times throughout his life.

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“The God of the universe knew David, and He knows you, too.”

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The phrase “he turned to me” means that God bent down or stretched Himself toward David to hear His petition. David is not saying that God couldn’t hear David unless He bent His ear toward him. He is merely using figurative language to show that God gave David His personal attention. Get this: The God of the universe knew David, and He knows you, too.

God heard David’s cry for help. Because of his distress, David cried out for help to his God. Did David cry out to God as a last resort, or had he grown so in his faith that he instinctively turned to God when trouble came upon him? Whatever the case, God heard him. One of the names for God in the Old Testament is El Shema — “the God who hears.” His hearing is not merely an awareness of the sounds we make. Rather, He hears with interest in the one who cries. He hears not only with the ears, but also with the heart. He listens with compassion — intending to act favorably in wisdom and power toward the one who cries to Him.

Thus, God acted on behalf of His servant: “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Psalm 40:2).

Note the contrast between the “slimy pit” and “the mud and mire” on the one hand, and the “rock” on the other. The “slimy pit” denotes a well, cistern, or dungeon that is dark, damp, and roars with rushing water. One cannot gain footing in such a current. The victim struggles to grab hold of some small rock jutting out from the wall as the rushing water drags him further away from safety to his death. It is for this reason that the King James Version translates the word “slimy” as “horrible.”

The “mud and mire” denotes the picture of quicksand. The victim steps into it and, as he tries to pull one leg out of it, the other leg sinks deeper. Even if he stands still, his weight drags him ever deeper to his death. In either instance — a horrible pit or a miry bog — the predicament is hopeless … 

Unless someone comes to throw a lifeline and lift the victim to stand on solid rock. Imagine such a person’s emotions — passing from the treacherous, heart-pounding, exhausting fear of dying to fear’s alleviation to life’s enjoyment, safety, and hope. The rescue results in a torrent of grateful sobbing; the enjoyment of life, safety, and hope results in a fresh song of thanksgiving. That’s how God puts a new song of praise in David’s mouth… and ours.

We would be wise to review our lives periodically to remind ourselves of those times when God delivered us. We may not have been trapped in cisterns or quicksand. Our circumstances may have been far more benign. Yet, God has been no less real and merciful. We cried out to Him for help, and He rescued us.

We give thanks to Him because He hears our desperate cries and rescues us.

These are only three of the 38 reasons to give thanks to God found in the Psalms. Whether you are gathering around the table on Thanksgiving Day or meeting with God in early morning devotions, “pull out all the stops” and give Him heartfelt thanksgiving.

We love Thanksgiving. Let’s also love giving thanks.

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