We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!  For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near. (Psalm 75:1, NKJV)

Enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday can be so much more than food, friends, or football.  As believers, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to revive the habit of gratitude.  Psalm 75 may not make the top 5 list of Bible verses on giving thanks, but these simple lines can go a long way in growing our exercise of gratitude.

Giving thanks with direction

Several years ago, I had the privilege of leading a group of elementary kids in weekly worship.  Before we sang songs and got into the Bible story for the day, I would ask the kids a simple question, "What are you thankful for this week?"  For those young minds, their responses included anything that brought happiness to their hearts -- pets, new toys, playdates, even video games.  While all good things, mostly anyway, I decided to reshape the question to encourage thought toward God's activity in their lives:  "What can you thank God for this week?"  I realized quickly that there's difference between merely feeling thankful and giving thanks to God. Psalm 75:1 invites us to ascribe a heavenly direction and focus to our gratitude.  Yes, we give thanks, but more than that "we give thanks to You, O God," and in doing so we acknowledge God behind the blessings we feel.  It moves us from just receiving good gifts to recognizing God as the Giver of those good gifts.

Giving thanks and God's presence

The rest of Psalm 75:1 highlights some realities about God that stir our gratitude.  First, when we experience blessings it's because God is working wonderfully.   The Hebrew term here refers to things that are beyond our power to do, that fill us with wonder because they are so extraordinary.  Whether we realize it or not, God is constantly working for us in ways we could never work or provide for ourselves -- materially and spiritually, in the big things and even in the small.  Furthermore, all these wonderful works announce that God's "name is near," which is really a metaphor for His very presence.  One version puts it like this:  "God, we thank you.  We thank you because you are near.  We tell about the wonderful things you do" (Ps. 75:1, ICB).  In other words, when acknowledge the ways God works in our lives, we realize that all that divine activity assures us of God's divine presence.  Gratitude has a way of opening my eyes not just to how good God is but how close God is.

Giving thanks for God's judgment

Yes, you read that right.  When was the last time you gave thanks for the wonderful work of God's judgment and appreciated His nearness as a result of it?  As we've been studying Daniel's prophecies lately, we're starting to see that God's judgment is meant for our deliverance and salvation.  But more than the fact that God will judge, the wave of gratitude shared in Psalm 75 is moved by the fact that God will judge at the right time:  

When I choose the proper time,

I will judge uprightly. (Ps. 75:2)

Maybe you've discovered as I have that things are more likely to get done when they're put on my calendar.  Otherwise long-awaited phone calls or high-priority to-dos tend to get overshadowed by other things.  The psalmist realizes that God has put judgment on His divine calendar.  He'll do it, and He'll do it at the proper time, the set time.  "How long?" is the question of those who bear the burden of sin's curse and oppression throughout the ages (cf. Ps. 6:3; Rev. 6:10).  It's a question communicates a sense of desperate waiting, and in Daniel's prophecies God provides a certain, definite response (cf. Dan. 8:13-14).  God won't forget.  Judgment, restoration, the righting of all that's wrong -- it's important to Him, and that's why He set up an appointment.  We can give thanks that God's pledge to set things right is not just wishful thinking or some generic way to patronize us as our hearts hurt beneath the woe of this world.  God is not going to let judgment slide or leave it to chance.

In this Thanksgiving season and beyond, I pray we'll grow in our gratitude.  May we learn more and more to acknowledge God hand, embrace God's presence, and appreciate God's good plans and time, even God's judgment.