"Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 106:1 ESV
This week being Thanksgiving Week has caused me to reflect upon gratitude. I am beginning to understand gratitude in deeper, more precious ways.
There is one kind of gratitude that can be found both inside and outside of Christianity. A drug addict might be thankful that he found some money to pay for his next fix. A thief may be thankful she did not get caught when she took some merchandise from a store. A worker may be thankful for a bonus received at Christmas from a boss he despises. A child might be thankful for the gift given at Christmas by a little known distant relative or grandmother.Sadly, there are times that we feel gratitude towards those to whom at the same time we may have a habitual bad feeling against them or perhaps have an indifferent to them as a person.
This gratitude is a mere natural thing, common to everyone. This common gratitude is spoken of by Jesus in both Luke 6:32-34 and Matthew 5:45-48,
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back…For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ”
Our Lord shows us that being human is sufficient to motivate gratitude in mankind, or to affect their hearts with thankfulness to others for kindnesses received. This gratitude is merely natural, and when persons are thankful towards God primarily for benefits received, their thankfulness is only the exercise of a natural gratitude. Natural gratitude has no virtue whatsoever in God’s world and view of things. This kind of gratitude is no more pleasing to God than all other emotions that the natural man has apart from Him.
But there is a gratitude that is peculiar. It differs from and is higher than all gratitude that natural men both experience and express. It is a “peculiar gratitude”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary.”. A peculiar gratitude is not primarily, an enjoyment in the gifts and benefits God gives; which are secondary. It is a gratitude rooted in something else that comes before it, namely as John Piper suggests, “a delight in the beauty and excellence of God’s character.”
We see a great example of this in Psalm 106:1, "Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!" . Notice that gratitude here is ultimately linked in who and what God is, not in what He gives. It does not say, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He gives good things." Now, there is a sense in which this is very true.Psalm 103:2 tells us to "Bless the Lord.. and forget not His benefits" and James tells us that "every good and perfect gift comes from above"(James 1:17). All good gifts are occasions for the gladness of gratitude. but they are NOT the ultimate focus of our gratitude and joy. Gratitude ascends up the ladder of God's generous gifts until it stops in the goodness of God Himself.
It is easy to be thankful for the gifts and the many benefits we receive from them, but never take God, Himself into the picture.What I am saying is that it is easy for us to be thankful for the pleasure we take in the gifts and graces, but never even take God into the picture at all. When that happens, the pleasure, the joy, and the gratitude is not pleasure, joy, and gratitude in Him and it is dishonoring to Him. When people have affections towards God only or primarily for benefits received, their affection is only the exercise of a natural gratitude.
Suppose you were given a gift for your birthday. You open it and love the gift. Then you go around showing everyone the gift and telling everyone about what it means to you, but never once even look at or speak of the one who gave it. You are totally enthralled with the gift. But what would we say about you? We’d call you an ingrate! That’s because your joy and affection over the gift has no reference toward the goodwill or person of the giver. Jonathan Edwards calls it the gratitude of hypocrites. Their affections towards God are raised from time to time, primarily on this foundation of self-love or a conceit of God's love to them. You cannot show a person is precious to you by simply being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude proves that the giver of gifts is not loved but gratitude for gifts does not prove that the one who bestowed a gift is precious to you.
We are exhorted by Paul to do all things including thanks to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Is God glorified if the essence of our gratitude is rooted in the worth of gift and not the excellency of the giver? Gratitude not rooted in the beauty and worth of God is nothing but brilliantly disguised idolatry.
Thew proper use use of God's gifts and pleasures is that they send our hearts upwards, or better yet, Godward, towards God with the joy of gratitude that finds its highest and firmest ground in the goodness of God Himself, not His gifts. This means that if these gifts are ever taken away, the deepest joy that we had through the gifts will not be taken away because God is still God and He is exceedingly good!
No wonder the Apostle Paul can make statements like this: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9).
Peculiar gratitude rises in cherishing the preciousness of Christ above every gift from God including life itself. It is very difficult to communicate with people a love for God when it is mixed with a lifestyle characterized by love for self and demonstrated with normal gratitude rooted in our own self-interest. “Peculiar” gratitude is not rooted in the perspective that God loves us (though He does) , and then we see that He is lovely, but instead we first see that God is lovely, and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and thus our hearts are first captivated with this view and we are peculiarly thankful.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The saint's affections begin with God; and the love and affection that arises out of God’s love for them and the graces and gifts that He bestows are consequentially, and secondarily only, to the higher love that is grounded in God himself.” Self-love is not excluded from a gracious gratitude; the saints love God for His kindness to them: Psalm. 116:1, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication." We thank Him for every gift that comes from above (1 Timothy 4:3). We forget not his benefits (Psalm 103:2). In everything we give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). But there is something deeper, something more precious, something infinitely more valuable, that lays the foundation for these grateful affections.
Jonathan Edwards says, “The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, viz., God's own excellence; and hence the affections are disposed to flow out on occasions of God's kindness. The saint, having seen the glory of God, and his heart being overcome by it, and captivated with love to Him on that account, his heart hereby becomes tender and easily affected with kindnesses received.”
In a “peculiar” gratitude men are affected with the attribute of God's goodness and free grace not only as they are concerned in it, or as it affects their interest, but as a part of the glory and beauty of God's nature. That wonderful and unparalleled grace of God, which is manifested in the work of redemption, and shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ, is infinitely glorious in itself, and appears so to the angels; it is a great part of the moral perfection and beauty and wonder and majesty of God's nature. This would be glorious, whether it was exercised towards us or no; and the saint who exercises a gracious thankfulness for it, sees it to be so, and delights in it.
No wonder why Paul can exhort us to “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18-19)
John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with him.” This is why a “peculiar” gratitude is not a duty, it is a delight. Gratitude to God without delight in Him dishonors God. That is why in God’s world, a peculiar gratitude is all that matters. May God give us a heart that delights in Him for who He is. May the gratitude we have this Thanksgiving Week for the gifts He gives us merely be an echo of our delight and happiness in the greatness and excellence of our wonderful, benevolent, and beautiful Giver.
Thanking God for God!
Pastor Bill
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