“For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100:5 (NKJV)

It would be virtually impossible to contain the thanks, honor, and appreciation that we should have for God into one day marked on the calendar. We have been the benefactors of His grace, mercy, and His loving-kindness. His grace is great, His mercy is matchless, and His loving-kindness has been lavishly bestowed upon the lives of His children. When we consider thanksgiving and what it should mean we will immediately understand that true expressions of thanksgiving flow from an appreciation of all that God has done in Christ. It is not until we have dealt with our sins and ourselves that we can truly worship and give thanks as we ought. It was once said that when we think of all of the things that God has done, we will instantaneously thank Him for all that He is doing and will do on our behalf.

This particular psalm is extremely familiar to most of us if not all as a poetic gem that sets forth a song of praise for the Lord’s faithfulness. Even when we are unfaithful and faithless, God remains faithful. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny himself. II Timothy 2:13 (NKJV) This is merely one reason among millions why we should give thanks. However, for the purpose of our devotional passage and because time nor space will allow a comprehensive listing, there are three things that we can always be thankful for in spite of our circumstances, situations, trials, troubles, doubts, despair, confusion, conflicts, and a host of other life changing and altering events.

First of all, there is the established fact that God is good. Here the idea of good is “well-pleasing, morally correct, and proper.” The creation narrative in Genesis 1 best embodies all of the various elements of the meaning when the Lord declares each aspect of His handiwork as “good.” As a result, God never withholds anything from us that is good and that addresses our best interests. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11 (NKJV) Secondly, there is the eternal fact that His mercy is everlasting. Mercy can be simply defined in a contemporary sense as “missing what we rightfully deserve.” A guilty man will go before the judge and throw himself on the mercy of the court. His desire is to receive a lesser penalty than what the crime would call for. How often have we been guilty, caught red handed, dead to right, but God who is rich in mercy deals with us in a manner far less than we deserve. He grants us mercy to give us grace.

Then finally there is the enduring fact that His truth endures to all generations. In the midst of a world of change where nothing really appears to be what it intends to be any more. In a generation where there is a lack of trust and faith in government, society, and even the church, God’s truth endures. “For the word of the Lord is right, and all of His work is done in truth.” Psalm 33:4 (NKJV) Another inherent reason to be thankful apart from the trilogy in our devotional passage is quite clear. If you are able to read this message today, you have every reason to be thankful. If God were to discontinue His blessings towards us at any given time, we would still have to spend the rest of our lives being thankful for what He has already done.