“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92.1-2).
My simple question is this: Why? Why is it good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to His name and to declare His steadfast love? Of course it is good for God the receiver, to be on the receiving end of thanksgiving, praise and declaration, but the idea here is that it is also good for the giver. So again, I ask, why?
I think Charles Spurgeon sums it up nicely. He writes in his commentary on the Psalms, “It is good ethically, for it is the Lord’s right; it is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart; it is good practically, for it leads to others to render the same homage.”
Take each one of those.
The Lord’s Right
It is good because it is the Lord’s right, or to say it another way, He is worthy of it. When something is worthy of praise, it is an offence to not give it the praise it is due. To talk to your neighbour while the New York Philharmonic plays Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; to make jokes in front Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son; it is borderline blasphemy. How much more blasphemous to not give praise to the God of the universe; the good, omniscient, omnipresent, all wise, all satisfying, reigning, ruling King; the one so glorious that no human can see His face without crumpling up like a piece of paper and dying; the one so magnificent that His very presence sent the prophet Isaiah into calling down judgment upon himself, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6.5)?
It is good to give Him thanks, to praise Him, to declare His goodness, because it is good to give God what God is due. We ought to praise Him night and day because He is worthy of praise, because He just is that great. Really the question should be, how could we not give Him praise?
As the multitudes in Revelation sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5.12)
Pleasant to the Heart
It is good because it is pleasant to the heart. In other words, it is good to do because it is good to do what we were created to do.
Since He is worthy of all adoration, of all praise, thanksgiving, and declaration, and since we are the creations of a God who is worthy of all of that, it is no surprise that we were created to give it. We were created to glorify God. Isaiah 43.7 puts it like this, “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.” Now everyone knows how good it feels to do things that you were created to do. Humans were created to run, that’s why it feels good to run. We were created to enjoy food, and that is why it feels good to enjoy good food. If we were created first and foremost for the glory of God, then it is going to feel simply incredible to give glory to the God who created us. At the same time, it is going to feel empty and wanting to live a life that does not give Him glory, that does not live in the role we were created to fill. And isn’t that something we have all experienced at some point? The emptiness of self glorification?
All that to say, our hearts rejoice when we give glory and honour to God because it is what our hearts were made for. It is sweet to give glory to God.
Practically Good
And it is good because it leads others to do the same thing.
Hopefully as Christians we desire for all men and women everywhere to honour and rejoice in God. Well, the simple truth is that most people are followers. They tend to wait to do things until they see others doing them too. That doesn’t necessarily take away from the genuineness of the action, its just how humans usually operate. There might be a whole swath of people who know deep down that God deserves their praise, their thanksgiving and their declaration, but it is not until they see and hear others directing it all to God that they are driven to turn and to do it as well.
That should be enough reason in itself to want to praise God, to want to direct all our thanks to Him and declare His goodness, because we know that as we do it that others will do it as well. This one raises the question though of where. Where do we do this so that others are exposed to it? Are we supposed to stand in the streets and praise Him? Based on Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount, I don’t think so. Instead I think it takes place as we speak in ways and live our lives in ways that give all glory and honour and power to God. As our lives direct all praise to Him then people around us will take notice, and, God willing, will direct their praise to Him as well.
I am sure the reasons could go on, but Spurgeon gives us a good place to start. For at least these three reasons, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92.1-2).