It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night.

Psalm 92:1-2

Good means good.

Good means beneficial and having advantage for us. As in, Eat your fruits and vegetables—they’re good for you. And exercise is good too. Giving thanks to God benefits us. For starters, it frees us from the prison of self pre-occupation.

Giving thanks is good.

But good means more. It also means fitting and appropriate. As in, it would be good to be on time to the wedding and not to wear dirty jeans. As in, it would be good to thank the friend who gave you tickets to the game on the 50-yard line and the neighbor who shoveled you out.

It is also good to bookend our days with praise.

Duplicate Deliciousness

The psalmist calls us t

In the morning implies eagerness and promptness and by night, unflagging diligence and devotion. Bookending can be as simple as thanking God for three things before you let yourself roll out of bed each morning and thanking him for three more when you lie down at night.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord.

C.H. Spurgeon stretches out “morning” in Psalm 92:2 to mean the happy seasons of our lives. He called them “the bright days of unsullied sweetness.”

And the bright morning-like periods of our life-these, too, should be seasons for showing forth God’s lovingkindness… Do not, as some do, who, if they are prospering, make a point of not owning to it. We talk as if, really, we were to be pitied for living, as if we were little better off than toads under a hallow, or snails in a tub of salt. We often whine as if our lives were martyrdoms, and every breath a woe, thus slandering the good Lord.

There are bright days like the morning, and in them we ought to render praise. What is to be the subject of our praise—God’s lovingkindness. Was there ever such a word in any language as this word lovingkindness? It is a duplicate deliciousness. There are within it linked sweetnesses long drawn out…A Christian ought to be the most cheerful of men. Let the joy of the Lord be our strength.

Do we declare his lovingkindness each morning of the bright days of our lives? Are we the most cheerful of women and men?

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. 

If There Be Any One Topic…

But we are to give thanks in all circumstances (for this is God’s will for you). We are not only to thank Him on the bright days, but thank him always, even the in the dark nights and grim days. Spurgeon urges us on in this too—to declare God’s faithfulness by night. 

We have a day’s more experience than we had in the morning; therefore we have more power to sing of God’s faithfulness. Notice that the text says “every night,” the dark, drear, cold nights as well as others. Let the old who are nearing the night of life show forth the Lord’s faithfulness. And let us all publish it abroad. If there be any one topic on which Christians should speak, it is this, and they should speak of it bravely, continuously, thankfully and positively. Satan makes a dead set upon it in the minds of many tempted ones, and therefore all the more should you bring the strength of your testimony that God doth not forsake His people.  

So central is this call to bookend our days with God’s praise, that the Psalmist closes Psalm 92 with an astonishing purpose statement for the righteous, who still bear fruit in old age. Here’s the purpose statement: to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him (Psalm 92:14-15). 

Did you catch that that causal link? The reason we’re here is to declare that the Lord is upright.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. 

Here to Declare

You older saints, who are ever full of sap and green, you’re here for at least this one reason: to declare God’s praise.

But how exactly does a seasoned believer do that?

Charles Spurgeon offered a clear answer.

Why, [he] shows that God has kept his promise. He has promised that he will never leave them nor forsake them. There you see it. He has promised that when they are weak they shall be strong. There you see it. He has promised that if they seek him they shall not lack any good thing. There you see it.

We see it when others declare it. Nothing girds up my weary soul more than to hear a seasoned saint testify to the faithfulness of God. More than once their words were exactly the encouragement I needed when my middle-aged life responsibilities bore down on me. We count blessings together.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. 

It Is Good To Give Thanks

Words from you older saints have weight. They bring home the goodness of God home to us when we might not feel it. They declare that following God’s ways is wise and that he has been faithful to all his promises and that not one word of them has ever fallen to the ground.

So please declare and keep declaring this to us, you fruit-bearing seasoned saints.

Yes, giving thanks to God is beneficial and advantageous and appropriate and right.

It really is good to give thanks to the Lord.

Thou that has given so much to me,

Give me one thing more—a grateful heart…

…I cry and cry again; 

And in no quiet canst Thou be,

Till I a thankful heart obtain 

Of Thee.

Not thankful when it pleases me, 

As if Thy blessings had spare days;

But such a heart, whose pulse may be

Thy praise.

—George Herbert

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4 Comments

  1. It’s easy to give thanks when we see/experience the goodness of God. And when things are difficult, when we experience pain, we are drawn closer to God. We are drawn into a deeper relationship that we wouldn’t otherwise experience. We share in the suffering of Christ.

    My struggle? To find God and be grateful for every moment of my day. All these other moments. I long to see God in all these other moments.

    1. Beautifully stated. Thank you. “In everything give thanks” is my challenge too. I cling promises like Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it,” and 1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” There IS more than meets the eye. For that I give thanks.

  2. After a difficult time learning just how dark the dark is, and crying out for God’s justice, this psalm 92 you posted on here reminded me how much I can rejoice that God IS upright, and that his enemies will be destroyed even though right now they seem to flourish. When there is terrible dark in the world that is unimaginable, psalm 92 reminds us “there is no unrighteousness in Him”
    So joyful and grateful for that! Felt led to read your article and glad I did because it answered my prayer to God tonight.

    1. Amen! Thanks Paige for sharing that. It’s an encouragement. And thank you Lord for meeting Paige in this present darkness. Keep reminding us that you are upright always and forever. You are light and in your light we see light. Help us walk in it, in you.

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