Glorifying God in Thanksgiving

Psalm 69:30-31
I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.


We see God’s power, wisdom, love, and other attributes every day. However they often go ignored—in one ear and out the other. We are forgetful. We are insensitive. We are sinful. So many reasons, but not one of them is acceptable. Paul says we are without excuse for our lack of thankfulness (Romans 1:20-21). How does thankfulness glorify God? And how do we change our sinful hearts to thank Him unceasingly? How do we glorify Him so that we please Him “better than an ox or bull”? 

How does thanksgiving glorify God? The answer is simple. Gratitude to God for something magnifies Him as the source of that blessing. He is the one who has given it to us. He is the one we are acknowledging as the benefactor. Therefore He is glorified.

It is so difficult for us to thank Him because it contradicts our own natural, sinful inclinations to glorify ourselves. We want to magnify ourselves. We want to acknowledge ourselves as our own benefactor. We want ourselves to be glorified.

Those who wish for eternal blessings must not look to themselves. We must look up, for it is from above that we receive all our blessings, and will receive eternally. We must look at ourselves as crippled, injured and sick; living on the life-giving medicine of God’s grace in Christ. It is the thankfulness that comes from humility that glorifies God:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

If we are sincere in our thanks, David says it is more pleasing than offering Him a bull or an ox. Asaph gives the reason for this in another psalm:

“I will not take a bull from your house,
Nor goats out of your folds.
For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the field are Mine” (Psalm 50:9-11).

Offering cattle to God is like giving Him something He already owns. God already owns everything on this earth. So when you’re thankful, give Him something He hasn’t got, but something you owe Him: your thankfulness.

So we know now how to glorify God in our thanks, and what is the right way to thank Him. But we so often forget to do so. How do we change our hearts so that we never cease to sing out of thanks to Him?

We aren’t the only ones who struggled with this. King David, one of the heroes of the faith (Hebrews 11:32), struggled with remembering all God’s blessings:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:1-2)

So David urged himself to focus on what God has done, and not to forget it. He preached to himself a list of blessings, which can be found in the rest of the psalm. So that’s David’s remedy. If you find yourself forgetting to praise and glorify God because of , preach His blessings and benefits to yourself. Soak yourself in His promises and meditate on them frequently.

Another solution is presented by Paul in Ephesians. In the first chapter of his epistle, he prays earnestly for God’s help in this matter:

“…That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17-19).

When our hearts are not stirred by God’s blessings, we must petition God to work in us so that we might know Him, and that our eyes may be enlightened.

So in order to remember the blessings from God, and in order to remember to thank Him for them, soak yourself in His Word, where all His blessings are revealed. Preach them to yourself, and echo Asaph’s words:

“I will remember the works of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds” (Psalm 77:11-12).

Get down on your knees. Humble yourself to the ground, and come before God as a God-dependant individual.

“Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
‘God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.’
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:5-6).

Saturate yourself also in prayer, asking God for help in thankfulness. Pray for the opening of your eyes, and the enlightening of your understanding. Echo the words of the psalmist: “Open my eyes, that I may see” (Psalm 119:18).

Psalm 34:3:

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.