Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
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Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
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To him who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1-2, 4
At our family Thanksgiving dinner, we go around the table and share something from the past year that we’re grateful for (I know, creative, right?!). There’s something beautiful about a holiday built into our calendars to encourage us to take the time to stop, remember, and respond in gratitude to our God. And it helps to have friends, family, and some good Thanksgiving sides around, too. But thankfulness may be hard to come by this year. How can we be grateful in this season of what may feel like chaos or confusion? How can we be thankful in sorrows, hardship, or anger? How do we be thankful when we don’t see much to be grateful for?
Throughout the Bible, God continually reminds His people to remember who He is and what He has done. After all, we are a forgetful people, and our forgetfulness often leads to grumbling, not hearts of gratitude. But giving thanks isn’t reserved only for November, and it isn’t exclusively for what God has done in our own lives. If we want to grow in thanksgiving, we must recognize what God has done throughout our own story, but we also must know what He’s done throughout our Bible. If we want to grow in thankfulness, we must know the story of God.
Psalm 136 is a beautiful framework for giving thanks. The psalmist sings his thanks to the God of gods and Lord of lords and proclaims God’s story through creation, Exodus story, and the giving of the Promised Land to the Israelites. In other words, the author thanks God for who He is and what He’s done. But this isn’t the author’s own personal history with God; this is God’s history with His people from the beginning of time. The psalmist first looks back at the story of God to see God’s character and mighty acts and then gives thanks to God for how He acts in his day (verses 23-24). His thanksgiving is built upon a foundation of God’s mighty acts and character throughout all time. And, so, the psalmist repeats this truth over and over at the end of every verse in the psalm:
His steadfast love endures forever.
His steadfast love endures forever.
His steadfast love endures forever.
God has a long history of faithfulness towards His covenant people. Since He’s been faithful to His people throughout all time, why would we think His love towards us would be anything besides steadfast and enduring? Along with the psalmist, to give thanks in our current day, we must remember to look back to God’s previous displays of who He is and what He has done throughout the Scriptures and our stories. Because of His track record of faithful, loyal love, we can give thanks in all circumstances. Even when we don’t see much to be thankful for, we can rest in God’s character and thank Him, trusting that He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Heb. 13:8).
Yet, we have far more to be thankful for than the psalmist. We know even more clearly how God’s covenant love for His people has persevered from Creation, to the Exodus, to the Promised Land, to the psalmist, to the judges, kings, and prophets, to the cross, and to today. We have a far longer record of God’s enduring love and faithfulness and how it was on full display in Jesus. On the cross, Jesus became forsaken so that we who should have been forsaken might become the recipients of God’s loyal love forever. We have a more complete picture of God’s loyal, enduring love for His people (us!) in the gospel.
If you want to be thankful this season, reflect on what God has done in your life. Share around the table what God has done. Write it in your journal. Pray about His mighty acts while you’re driving or washing dishes. Be in the Scriptures because the Bible gives us a picture of who God is and what He’s done so that we can more clearly recognize Him and His mighty acts in our lives today. Together with the psalmist and all the household of faith, we remember God’s works of old, recognize His present wonders, and proclaim: His steadfast love endures forever! Now that is something to be truly grateful for.
