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“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Psalm 106:1

Give thanks to the Lord! The Scriptures call us over and over to thank God. Why? I think the reason is twofold. First, gratitude to God is one of our greatest needs. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36). Second, thanklessness is one of our greatest problems; we all fail to give God proper thanks (see Romans 1:21). 

Why should we give thanks to the Lord? Give thanks to the Lord because He is good, truly good! He is the ultimate good. If it is good, it has its origin in Him. All the good that we take for granted owes its goodness to God.

What is the ultimate goodness of God? He is good because His steadfast love endures forever. This is the greatest good, the height of all God’s goods. His steadfast (loyal) love endures forever. We often take this good for granted. We assume we are worthy of God’s loyal love. But God’s love is an undeserved love, which is why we call His love grace (see Ephesians 2:1-8). And, God’s love is a gift, otherwise we could call it an earned wage (see Romans 6:23).

How has God loved you with such loyal love? He loved you in the cross of Jesus Christ. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [i.e. the payment] for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). Jesus is the loyal love of God for you, and His greatest act of love was his death for those who don’t deserve it. Jesus is the greatest display of God’s loyal love, so Jesus is the true reason for thankfulness. This is why you are called to give thanks “...always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). In other words, our thanks to God can be a reality because of Jesus. It is in Jesus, by entrusting our lives to Jesus by faith, that we can give thanks to God. 

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love, for you in Jesus Christ, endures forever.