Thanksgiving
The offering of thanks, especially for gifts received. Scripture emphasises the importance of giving thanks to God for all his gifts and works, both as an expression of our dependence upon him and gratitude to him.
Introduction
I suppose there is many a little thing in your house that is of no great value in itself, but it was given to you by someone who was very dear to you. How much a child values that Bible that was given to her by her mother, who wrote her name in it! Many a man has, in his house, things that an auctioneer would appraise at a very small amount, but that the owner prizes very highly because they were given to him by someone whom he greatly esteemed, and who gave them to him as a token of his love.
In like manner, look at the bread on the table of a believer as a love token from God. The Lord gave it to him. If there were on his table nothing but that bread, it would be a token of God’s gracious condescension in providing for his needs.
Let us learn to look in this way at everything that we receive in this life, for such a view of it will sweeten it all. We will not then begin to calculate whether we have as much as others have, or as much as our own whims or wishes might crave, but we will recognize that all we have comes from the hand and heart of our heavenly Father, and that it all comes to us as a token of our Father’s love, and with our Father’s blessing resting on it.
Definition
THANKSGIVING (Heb. hiphil yḏh; Gk. eucharistéō).† In biblical usage the response due to God from his people. Specific grounds for thanksgiving to God are numerous and include God’s faithfulness to the covenant (Ps. 57:9–10 [MT 10–11]; 107:8; 138:2), and his protection and deliverance of his people from enemies (35:17–18; 44:7–8 [MT 8–9]; 54:6 [MT 8]), from prison (142:7 [MT 8]), from death (86:12–13); Isa. 38:18–19), and from those who would use the courts against them (Ps. 109:30). God is also thanked for the prospect of final judgment (Ps. 75), for his mercy toward sinners (Isa. 12:1), for miraculous healings (30:4–5 [MT 5–6]; Luke 17:16), and for his acts salvation (2:38). Reflection on God’s past acts of mercy lead to thanksgiving (Ps. 63:5–7 [MT 6–8]). The fundamental sin of the Gentiles is said to be their failure to “honor him as God or give thanks to him” Rom. 1:21).
Thanksgiving was the focus of Old Testament worship (cf. 1 Chr. 16:4; Ps. 42:4 [MT 5]), especially of pilgrimages to Jerusalem for feasts (100:4; 138:2). In the New Testament also thanksgiving is an activity that takes place in the community and with the focus of attention on the community (2 Cor. 1:11; Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:3). The thanksgivings of God’s people are one means by which knowledge of God is spread (Ps. 57:9 [MT 10]), and increased thanksgiving is the result of that proclamation (2 Cor. 4:15).
True thanksgiving does not consist primarily of deeds, but of the disposition of the heart, and it brings persons nearer to God and enables them to see God’s salvation (Ps. 50:23). If a person gives thanks merely for that possessed within himself, then that person expresses self-exaltation and self-deception rather than responding to the grace of God (Luke 18:11–14; cf.1 Cor. 4:7).
