PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving – Psalm 69:30

Praise and thanksgiving are complementary. One is incomplete without the other. It is important not only to distinguish between the two, but to better appreciate, understand and practice them. Psalm 69:30 differentiates between praising God’s name with a song and magnifying Him with thanksgiving. The psalmist also exhorts: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” (Psa.100:4). He was obviously not referring to exactly the same thing. Thanksgiving grants access to God’s gates; praise ushers you into His inner courts – His Presence!

The psalms are filled with both thanksgiving and praise; they flow together like a seamless chord. Many of the psalms are devoid of requests or intercession. Rather, they are saturated with praise and thanksgiving. This is one distinction: Praise focuses on who God is, especially His Heart and Character. Thanksgiving focuses on what He’s done for us personally, congregationally, or historically, as a family, lineage, people, nation or generation. Thanksgiving is essentially an attitude of gratitude. On this side of eternity, we’ll always have cause for thanksgiving as we experience His gracious acts towards us.

Psalm 146: 7-9 states that God defends the oppressed; feeds the hungry; frees the prisoners; gives sight to the blind; raises the bowed; loves the righteous; preserves the strangers; and relieves the fatherless and widow. These are few among the innumerable reasons for thanksgiving. On the other hand, we will not only praise the Lord for who He is now, but continue to praise Him for the rest of eternity, as we grow in appreciating not only His loving actions, but the Great Heart behind them.

“The LORD shall reign forever – Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!” (v.10). Praise is acknowledging with all creation both visible and invisible, that our God reigns over everything and everyone, for all of time and eternity. When we gather together in corporate praise and worship, we are telling each other that despite the challenges we are encountering, our God reigns – He has the final say; He is always in charge; He is on His Throne!