5 Reasons to Give Thanks From Psalm 118

1.  He is good.


Goodness is an integral aspect of God's character.  He is never not good.  He sometimes allows bad things to happen--for an ultimate, greater good--which is inscrutable, baffling, and painfully frustrating at times.  Experiencing or witnessing badness can shake our faith in God's goodness.


Yet the psalmist bookends Psalm 118 with this assertion:  "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good."


It takes supernatural faith to thank God for His goodness when our experience is replete with badness.


Verse 17 gives us a helpful hint here.  "Tell of the works of the LORD."  Tell a friend; tell a crowd; tell yourself.  Tell of His works.  If you can't think of any in your own life, start reciting redemptive history:  God created man in His own good image.  Man fell, and God immediately foretold a Savior to come.  The perfect God-Man entered the world, lived sinlessly, died sacrificially, rose miraculously, called me irresistibly.  He is working a gradual process of growth of His church, and will eventually and suddenly return and make all things new and right.


He is good.



2.  His lovingkindness is everlasting.


The psalmist not only bookends this psalm with these words, but states them a total of five times.


"Give thanks to the LORD...
For His lovingkindness is everlasting."  Verse 1


"Let Israel say, 
'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'"  Verse 2


"Let the house of Aaron say, 
'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'"  Verse 3


"Let those who fear the LORD say, 
'His lovingkindness is everlasting.'"  Verse 4


"Give thanks to the LORD...
For His lovingkindness is everlasting."  Verse 29


Did we hear yet that His lovingkindness is everlasting?


Maybe God knows this is difficult for us to believe?


God doesn't love 'em and leave 'em.  His covenant compassion for His people is constant every day of the confusing time between first belief and final glory.   The psalmist is calling us to believe in God's everlasting and right-now mercy.


"The LORD is for me."  Verse 6


"It is better to take refuge in the LORD
Than to trust in princes."  Verse 9



3.  I shall enter through the gates of righteousness (verse 19).


"Enter through the narrow gate...For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life."  Matthew 7:13-14


"I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  John 14:6


"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved."  John 10:9


"By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us...righteousness."  1 Corinthians 1:30


Seeing Jesus, the Gate of Righteousness, opening wide the narrow way to heaven for us is reason for thanksgiving.



4.  He has answered me and become my salvation (verse 21).


"From my distress I called upon the LORD;
The LORD answered me and set me in a large place."  Verse 5


What about those times we call from our distress and He doesn't answer?  What if we feel hemmed in and smothered?


The most desperate plea the Lord's children will ever cry is for Jesus to take away their sins.  In this, the Lord has answered us and become our salvation.  He has given us freedom from the ancient curse, freedom from our old self, freedom from fear of this world.


"In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."  John 16:33


"I will not die, but live...
The LORD has disciplined me severely,
But He has not given me over to death."  Verses 17-18



5.  He is my God (verse 28).


He didn't have to reveal Himself in His Word.


He didn't have to extend friendship at infinitely great cost to Himself.


He didn't have to secure my salvation and make me His own.


He is my God.


Thanks be to God.