Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Is there a difference between being thankful and thanksgiving? Well, think about it. Being thankful is something you are. Thanksgiving is something you give. Thankful means “I am full of thanks,” and thanksgiving is when I give that thanks. So, there is a difference. Now someone may think, “Well, if you are not saying thank you, then you are not thankful.” I think that is a plausible charge in some ways, yet I know in my own heart there are times when I am grateful to someone and for something but I’ve not taken the time to express that. Well, if there is gratitude in my heart, but no one hears it, is there really gratitude?
Notice what Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” We find the words “thankful” and “thanksgiving.” Notice that thanksgiving is when I am “thankful unto him.” It is not just that I am full of thanks; it is that I am “thankful unto him.” I express that thanks. It is a thanksgiving.
The bottom line is that if gratitude is something you have, it is something you should give. Gratitude closes the loop. If you look at Psalm 102, you find the prayer of someone in trouble, and God answered his prayer. God gave an answer. Well, obviously that demands a response. It demands gratitude. The psalmist essentially says, “I was distressed. I cried. God answered.” At such times, “Thank you, Lord!” should be my response.
Gratitude is a matter of memory. If you look at Psalm 103, you find we are to “bless the LORD… and forget not all of his benefits.” Gratitude is something to be expressed, but it is something that has to be remembered first. Take the time to think through that for which you are thankful.
Gratitude is a blessing to other people. Psalm 105 says, “Give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.” When I have a grateful heart, it is something that honors God, but it is also something that encourages other people.
At the end of the day, when I am grateful, it means that I will complain less, worry less, and be more pleasant to be around. “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” He is our God; He made us. We are His people. “Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” Psalm 107 says, “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD says so.”
You will find that the book of Psalms talks about gratitude a lot. I think that most of that gratitude is in the context, not merely of feeling thanks, but of giving it. Today, if gratitude is something you have, it is something you should give to God and to those He has used to bless you.