Psalm 150:1-2
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
According to author Douglas Murray, we are living in an era of ingratitude. He sights activists in our society who no longer view gratitude as a virtue, but as a vice. They claim gratitude excuses complacency. We should be focusing on all our past cultural sins of injustice rather than being thankful for blessings others might not enjoy. In other words, being grateful is a cop-out.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that thankfulness poses a threat to society. But these days it seems the unthinkable becomes thinkable almost overnight. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to embrace a world where saying thanks is taboo. Where praising God offends people.
I saw a sign the other day on my morning walk that said Praise opens the door to hearing. A slew of troubling circumstances were weighing heavy on my mind. But those words redirected my thoughts. Right then, I started praising God and thanking him for his many mercies and specific goodnesses to me. As gratitude undergirded my prayers, the heaviness began to lift. And interestingly, I even received clarity in how to deal with a specific situation.
A world without gratitude would not only make it impossible to hear God, but it would wipe out humility, kindness, and all forms of civility. Everything that makes a society work. Yes, we need to repent of past and present sins, but the One who wraps himself in light intends his children to wear garments of praise, not sackcloth and ashes.
Throughout Scripture we find encouragement to give thanks, and to praise God. Psalm 150 serves as the grand finale to the book of Psalms. And what does it direct us to do? It tells us why, where and how to praise God! In the New Testament, Paul says God wills for us to thank him in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18).
So this Thanksgiving I pray you run counter to the culture. In fact, I pray you double down on giving thanks. Drown out the voices of negativity and praise the Lord. Give thanks while we still can.