Of all the things we have to be thankful for, there is one reality that stands out above all—the goodness of God. Personally, there are times where I can be a bit forgetful of just how all encompassing and amazing His goodness is. It’s so important to be reminded…and to give thanks for His goodness.
Psalm 107:8 says: Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men!
God’s goodness is His mercy, faithfulness, and loving-kindness. The Message translation refers to God’s goodness as his marvelous love and his miracle mercy. The cross is the ultimate statement of God’s goodness.
Why are we instructed to thank the Lord for his goodness? Because God wants us to experience His goodness on an even greater level. There is something supernatural that happens when we thank the Lord for his goodness. We begin to experience it. His goodness begins to flood the very atmosphere of our lives and become the environment that we live in all the time.
The last verse of Psalm 107 explains it this way: those wise people who observe this (give thanks to the Lord for His goodness) will understand His goodness. In other words, His goodness will become the very foundation that they are standing on and anchored in.
Much of the time we can be unaware or forgetful of how great God’s goodness is. The tendency of human nature is to wait for crisis to seek the Lord. Psalm 107 refers to at least 4 crisis situations where people cry out to the Lord, and the Lord intervenes, delivers them, and blesses them.
But this Psalm is also saying, God doesn’t just want to show you his goodness in crisis. The wise learn to thank God for his goodness when they are not in crisis. As a result, God’s goodness isn’t just manifested in desperate moments—it permeates the very atmosphere of their lives.
Thanksgiving is a great reminder about our need to be intentional about giving thanks the rest of the year. And ultimately, we don’t give thanks to the Lord Jesus just because we want to live lives that are blessed. We give him thanks because He deserves it!