Learning to Give Thanks Forever

It’s common during the season of Thanksgiving to talk about the importance of being thankful, grateful people and the necessity of giving thanks to God. Yet, one of the things I don’t hear very often is talk about giving thanks rightly. There is a right way and a wrong way to give thanks. One leads to life and the other leads to death. You may think I’m being dramatic when I say that, but this Psalm paints the picture that starkly.

I want to look at one of Jesus’ parables to help us understand the wrong way to give thanks. Jesus told this parable: “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16–21, ESV).

Take a moment to think about this picture. The man has a great harvest, more than he can handle. And guess what? He’s thankful for it. It doesn’t say that explicitly, but think about it for a moment. The man is very thankful for this great harvest. He’s so thankful for this harvest that he’s going to build bigger barns to store it up. He’s thankful that he will be able to  spend the rest of his days relaxing, taking it easy, eating, drinking, and being merry. He is extremely thankful for the abundance he has. Yet, God still calls him a fool. He’s thankful in all the wrong ways. He’s thankful in ways that lead to death because he’s thankful for his things, but not actually thankful to God for those things. There’s a big difference.

We see that same temptation by David in our Psalm. He says, “As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”” (Psalm 30:6, ESV). Doesn’t that sound similar to the parable? David looked at all his prosperity and said, “I’m good. I have nothing to worry about. I have nothing to fear. I can spend the rest of my days eating, drinking, and being merry. Nothing can happen to me.” He was thankful for his prosperity, not to the God who gave him that prosperity. On the outside, this looks like true thankfulness, but in reality it is not true thankfulness. It’s a false thankfulness that leads to death.

It’s a false thankfulness because it points our gaze in the wrong direction. This type of thankfulness brings us to the point of relying on ourselves and no longer relying on God. That’s why the man in the parable said, “I’ll build bigger barns,” because he would no longer have to rely on God, he could rely on himself and his things. In many ways, this man was THANKFUL for no longer having to rely on God. THAT is why this is a false thankfulness that leads to death. And it was the same thing with David. He was thankful that his prosperity allowed him to no longer rely on God. NOW, he could rely on himself. That’s not true thankfulness.

True thankfulness requires a recognition of our frailty and weakness. True thankfulness understands that we bring nothing to the table and nothing to the equation. True thankfulness knows the answer to the Apostle Paul’s question, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:17, ESV). The answer is, NOTHING. Unless I understand that answer, I can never truly, fully give thanks. I will constantly find myself “giving thanks” for my prosperity—“giving thanks” that I no longer have to rely on God. That’s why God says, “Fool!”

In God’s grace, he doesn’t let David remain in this position of false thanksgiving. We read, “You hid your face; I was dismayed.” (Psalm 30:7, ESV). This is God’s response to David’s false thankfulness. It’s almost as if God says to David, “If you think you no longer need to rely on me, I’ll show you what that looks like. I’ll take a step back for a moment so that you get a little taste of reality.” When God takes a teeny, tiny step back—actually he doesn’t even take a step back, he simply hides his face—David is completely dismayed. He’s totally overwhelmed. I mean, the moment God hides his face from David, David thinks he’s going to die. That’s why David cries out, “To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!”” (Psalm 30:8–10, ESV). David immediately recognizes that everything he has—every breath, every heartbeat, every molecule of his body—has come from God. So, he cries to God for help.

Here’s the beautiful response, “O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.” (Psalm 30:2–3, ESV). The moment he cries to God for help, God heals him and restores him and pulls him out of the pit. We even see here that David says that God brought him up from Sheol—the place of death. The moment David admits and recognizes that everything he has comes from God—that he has NOTHING apart from God—he cries out to God for help and the Lord delivers him. The Lord continues to provide for him.

Notice David’s response to God’s salvation and provision in his life. Things change. Remember, at first, David had said that he was trusting in his prosperity—thankful for his things. Yet he ends by saying, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” (Psalm 30:11–12, ESV). Notice the “that” in the middle. It’s explaining something very important. David is explaining WHY God has turned his mourning into dancing. He’s done it “SO THAT” he would bring praise to God and thank him forever.

THAT is the reason for God’s salvation and blessing and provision in our lives. If we take those things and give thanks only for them, but not to the God who has given them to us—we find ourselves in a position that will lead to self-reliance, which leads us away from God, and leads us into death. If we become thankful that our prosperity and our blessings put us in a position that we no longer have to rely on or trust God, we are on the path toward death.

And, on top of that, we are acting like a fool. In the bible, the fool is someone who refuses to live in line with reality. That’s basically the entire book of Proverbs summed up in one sentence. That’s also why God calls the rich farmer a fool. He THOUGHT he no longer needed to rely on God because he had so much prosperity. Yet, the reality is, it doesn’t matter how prosperous you are, you ALWAYS have to rely on God and trust him—apart from him you have nothing. That is reality. So, if you try to live outside that reality, you are acting like a fool.

And this is not just true of the here and now. This will continue to be true for the rest of eternity. There will never be a point in time when we don’t have to fully rely on our God. Not in this life. Not in the next life. That’s also why David says, “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” (Psalm 30:12, ESV). He will continue to give thanks to God forever, because he will always—for the rest of eternity—have to rely on his God for EVERYTHING. So, he will continue to rely on his God and give him thanks because he knows that apart from him, he has NOTHING.