“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 50:23Thanksgiving is coming. There are so many things I love about Thanksgiving: the kids being home from school, time with family, preparing a big meal and then slowing down long enough to enjoy it. All of these things are good. There are scores of verses in the Bible about giving thanks. One of the verses that always makes me stop, pause and reflect is the verse above from Psalm 50, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me”. The giving of thanks brings glory to God. Being thankful honors God. Being thankful magnifies (makes much of) God. Why? Why does it honor God to be a thankful person? Because it puts God in the right place in out lives. Thanksgiving recognizes that God is the giver of good gifts. Thanksgiving brings glory to God because it shows God to be big! But there is a flip side to this reality and one that I believe strikes at the heart of the lack of gratitude so often present in our lives. To be thankful, I must be humbled. To be a thankful person, I must recognize I am not self-sufficient. Thanksgiving flows form a heart that has been humbled. This is at the heart of the second half of this verse; Salvation comes to the one who is thankful because thanksgiving is evidence of a life that has been properly ordered. Thanksgiving is evidence of someone who has acknowledged their need for God, their need for salvation, their need for a Savior. This is not a trite word of thanksgiving offered up to God one day of the year. This is the humbling reality of ordering my life rightly under the hand of an all mighty God whose salvation I desperately need. Offering thanksgiving is evidence of a heart that has been humbled by the reality of what Christ has done on the cross. Giving thanks is characteristic of a heart that brings glory to God because it has recognized its own insufficiency, its own weakness and has turned to the cross. To say “thank you” to God is profound, it is humbling and it brings Him glory.