Thanksgiving # 1

Thanksgiving # 1

"Offer unto God thanksgiving!" (Psalm 50:14).

In the beginning of the Psalm, the Divine majesty and glory are exhibited. So glorious a Being is worthy of the highest homage, and the most ardent praise. But He will not be mocked with mere formal services. Sacrifices the most costly and splendid; offerings the most munificent and pompous, presented to Him without the heart - are an abomination in His sight. A charge of formality is brought against the Jews, "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens - for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it!" (Psalm 50:9-12).

In all praise, in all worship, the heart is demanded.

I. The Mercies of God Demand Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a part of Divine worship, which consists of acknowledging Him as the Source of all good, and rendering grateful homage to the power, wisdom, and goodness of God on that account.

1. Offer unto God, thanksgiving for TEMPORAL blessings.

Thank Him for your existence. You are fearfully and wonderfully made! You are made for a noble purpose - for your own personal happiness and dignity here and in eternity, to the glory of God the Father.

Thank Him for your preservation. God has preserved you in health, from sickness, from death, from evil courses, from damning crimes, degradation, and ruin.

Thank Him for the blessing of reason. What a calamity is the suspension of the soul's faculties! The man sinks below the level of the beasts - and becomes more helpless and miserable than those who are guided by the instincts of their nature!

See that man, once the learned philosopher, or the honorable statesman, or the eloquent advocate, or the brave general, or the clever theologian! O see him bereft of his reason, his faculties spoiled of their beauty, and the intellectual machinery of the soul in ruins! Hear the clanking of his chains, the hysteric laugh, the frantic cry, or the heavy groan - and then offer to God thanks for the blessing of reason!

Thank God for deliverances. You may have been sick and near unto death - but He has raised you up. You have been exposed to the deadly temptations and snares of the wicked one - yet God has delivered you. Had the temptation succeeded, what would you have been now? What would you have suffered? Then offer to God thanksgiving.

Thank God for Civil and Religious privileges. What blessings are here. "He has not dealt so with every nation." Compare our civil government with the despotic governments of the earth, forbidding the liberty of the press, and, in some cases, even the liberty of speech! Go, while your tongue is free, and offer unto God thanksgiving!

2. Offer unto God, thanksgiving for the GOSPEL dispensation and all its privileges.

Thank God for the mission of Christ to this world. The gospel is the grand remedy for man's woes, the life of the world, the salvation from perdition, and the mighty lever that exalts to Heaven.

Thank God that you are born in a land of Gospel light. Millions in benighted lands are worshiping idols, sticks and stones, reptiles, and devils! Think of their loathsome impurities, their dreadful sufferings and painful rites, their tragic destiny, perishing without vision.

Offer to the God of light, thanksgiving!

Offer praise to God for Gospel ordinances and privileges. The Sabbath day is appointed for sublime and merciful purposes; it is a day on which the richest blessings are received - a day of delicious enjoyment - a day which is the epitome of Heaven.

Then you have the preaching of the Gospel, and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. By the first, God immediately addresses sinful men, graciously offering terms of reconciliation. In the second, He allows His people to have intimate fellowship with Himself, and cheers their hearts by the whispers of His unchanging love.

~William Nicholson~

(continued with # 2)