Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving

This Thursday, we will celebrate the holiday Thanksgiving. As we gather with family and eat lots of good food, we will also remember to thank God for the many blessings that He has given us.

A psalm. For giving thanks.

^{1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.}

^{2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.}

^{3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.}

^{4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.}

^{5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.}

Psalm 100

In particular today, we are going to focus on verses 4 and 5. In this verse, we see the concepts of thanksgiving and praise coupled together twice. So let's look at those two concepts a little.

• What does it mean to give thanks? the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God
• What does it mean to give praise? the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation
• The Hebrew word for thanksgiving - towdah - means give praise to God or thanksgiving in songs of liturgical worship, hymn of praise
• The Hebrew word for praise - tĕhillah - means praise, song or hymn of praise or praise, adoration, thanksgiving (paid to God)
• The Hebrew words for give thanks - yadah (hiphil) - mean to give thanks. (Well, duh) But it's interesting to note that the verb here by itself can also mean to shoot as in shooting arrows. To me this implies that giving thanks is active not passive and that there is a target for giving thanks.
• The second word we see translated as praise - barak - means to praise or to bless.
• So from this verse we can see that thanksgiving and praise go together. The thanksgiving can be in song and it is active and directed towards God.
• What, here in this Psalm, is the Psalmist thankful for?
• God is good - in Hebrew towb - meaning good, pleasant, excellent, right
• His love - checed meaning goodness, kindness, faithfulness - endures forever
• His faithfulness - 'emuwnah meaning firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness - continues to all generations.
• What are you thankful for?