How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?
For He Is Good
A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Gave Thanks and Broke It
Give Thanks in Every Circumstance
Overflowing with Thankfulness
The Psalms give the reason plainly: “for He is good.” Everything comes from his hand, David says over the gifts for the temple, “and from Your own hand we have given to You.” Paul traces the first turn away from God to a missing thanks: they knew him, but they “neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him.” In Israel thanks was an offering you brought. The psalmist asks how he can repay the Lord for all his goodness, and his answer is to lift the cup of salvation. Jonah offers his thanksgiving from inside the fish. Jesus gives thanks over five loaves, thanks the Father at Lazarus’s tomb before Lazarus has come out, and on the night he was betrayed gives thanks over the bread and the cup of the new covenant. Of ten men cleansed, one comes back, a Samaritan, and falls at his feet in thanksgiving. Paul, two weeks into a storm at sea, takes bread and gives thanks in front of them all. So thanks is not kept for good days. Job blesses the name of the Lord with everything gone, Jehoshaphat sends singers out ahead of the army, and Daniel, knowing the decree is signed, kneels and gives thanks three times a day, just as before. Paul’s word for a life rooted in Christ is “overflowing with thankfulness,” and the angels around the throne end the same way: blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks be to our God forever.
The Psalms give the reason plainly: “for He is good.” Everything comes from his hand, David says over the gifts for the temple, “and from Your own hand we have given to You.” Paul traces the first turn away from God to a missing thanks: they knew him, but they “neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him.” In Israel thanks was an offering you brought. The psalmist asks how he can repay the Lord for all his goodness, and his answer is to lift the cup of salvation. Jonah offers his thanksgiving from inside the fish. Jesus gives thanks over five loaves, thanks the Father at Lazarus’s tomb before Lazarus has come out, and on the night he was betrayed gives thanks over the bread and the cup of the new covenant. Of ten men cleansed, one comes back, a Samaritan, and falls at his feet in thanksgiving. Paul, two weeks into a storm at sea, takes bread and gives thanks in front of them all. So thanks is not kept for good days. Job blesses the name of the Lord with everything gone, Jehoshaphat sends singers out ahead of the army, and Daniel, knowing the decree is signed, kneels and gives thanks three times a day, just as before. Paul’s word for a life rooted in Christ is “overflowing with thankfulness,” and the angels around the throne end the same way: blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks be to our God forever.