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Thanksgiving Glorifies God by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous
Psalm 50 begins with a declaration that stands at the center of life: God exists and he is the mighty one. As a demonstration of his being and power, he “speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting” (50:1). We may awake in the morning and set our eyes on the earth and feel appreciative for what we see and verbally express the affections of our hearts, but we have no place or power to summon the earth with authority from dawn to dusk because we are but creatures and not the Creator. 

God, on the other hand, has all authority over all things, and therefore, as he summons the earth, he manifests his glory, he visits his people and speaks to them with great power, and he commands the heavens and the earth to witness his judgment of his people (50:2-5). In this case, his word to them was a word of rebuke because they had allowed themselves to drift away from him. For those who humbly received this word of rebuke, their instinct would likely have been to offer sacrifices to God or otherwise perform religious duties. But the Lord encouraged them in another direction, for he neither has need of our offerings nor joy in mere religious observances. 

So, instead of these things, the Lord said, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (50:14-15). In other words, the Lord wanted his people to seek him from the heart, to thank him with their lips, and to depend on him in every circumstance of life. Sadly, they were using their lips to lie and slander (50:19-20), but the Lord wanted them to learn a better way and so he concluded his call to his people with these words: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:14-15, 23). 

Clearly, in the mind and heart of God, thanksgiving ought to occupy a central place in our lives with him. But why does thanksgiving glorify him? To begin, in giving thanks to God, we acknowledge him as God and we demonstrate our dependence upon him, our gratefulness to him, and our humility before him. But mainly, in giving thanks to God, we express our heartfelt affection for him, and this is his desire for our lives. He has loved us with an everlasting love and commanded us to love him with all that’s in us. And as John Piper has famously said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” So, Beloved, let us give thanks to God.

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