Reasons For Giving Thanks!
Psalm 100

There are so many ways people show others how grateful they are; some people just say thank you; some send thank you cards, gifts are always a way to show others love and appreciation. (Giving gifts is known as one of the five love languages DR. Gary Chapman).  People bake goods.  People do all sorts of things to show others they are thankful.  At early age we want to implant this attitude in our kids, especially when they get gifts, so that they remember to be grateful.  Throughout the Bible, God’s kindness motivated people to praise him.  People composed songs to God, some brought offerings and sacrifices to God just to show the LORD how thankful they were for his loving kindness.

There are many songs written in the Bible, an entire book made of songs through which the writers express their emotions, attitudes and experiences in life.
King David wrote most of the Psalms we read in the Bible, here is one of those songs!
Psalm 100
Right from the get-go this Psalm invites us to worship the LORD
-Shout for joy (make a joyful noise to the LORD all the earth)
-Serve (worship) the LORD with joy, gladness
-Come before him with joyful songs
-Know (recognize, or acknowledge) that the LORD is God.
He is our Creator and our shepherd:  we belong to Him.  This alone should be a motivation to come before him with singing and gratitude in our hearts.
The sheep of his pasture (The LORD is my shepherd…. Ps.23) 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. v.4 (entering the temple, David remember how happy he was entering the city of Jerusalem as he brought the Ark of God from the Philistines.)

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

Why?  Verse 5 tells us the reason why we should shout for joy to the LORD, serve and come before him with singing.  Why we are to acknowledge that he is our God and Creator.  Why we are to enter the gates of a church building with thanksgiving and give thanks and praise his name.

For The LORD is good.  Goodness is one of God’s attributes.  His goodness doesn’t depend on our own understanding or opinions.  He is good.  David experienced God’s goodness in his life, even when he became a fugitive, when he lost a child and was mistreated by others.  Even when he got angry at God for killing Uzzah after touching the Ark of the Covenant.  David never thought of God as being unfair.  Here he said give thanks to the LORD for he is good.
Joseph in Egypt understood the goodness of God even when his brothers sold him as slave and he spent two years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  God never abandoned Joseph; he was just preparing him for something bigger.  When Joseph saw the bigger picture, then he told his brothers, you intended to do me harm and evil, but God used this for good, to save many lives. Gn.50:20     God is good.  Sometimes we don’t discover how good he truly is until we have gone through the storms and difficulties in life.

Come before the LORD with thanksgiving and praise because His love endures forever.
His love is never-ending.  His love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.  When the exiles returned home to rebuild their city and the temple.  They laid the foundation of another temple and they thanked God for his deeds.  Ezra.3:10-11
When Solomon dedicated the temple, the LORD descended in fire and smoke.
2 Chronicles 7:3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.”

David always acknowledged the love of the LORD.  Ps.103:10-13
Psalm 106// 107, and 118 begin the same way “Give thanks to the LORD for he is good, his love endures forever.”
Psalm 136 is all about God’s love enduring forever.

You should give thanks to God for his faithfulness is evident in every generation.
God’s faithfulness is everlasting, it continues to all generations.
Joshua acknowledged God’s faithfulness in bring his people to the land he promised.  Ezra and Nehemiah praised God for his faithfulness in bringing the exiles back to their land to rebuild their city.
Ps.108: 4 For Great is your love, higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Ps.117:2 For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Ps.119:90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth and it endures.
2 Tim.2:13 3 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.  Faithfulness is in the character of God.  He is always faithful even when we are not.
When we celebrated 45 years as SICC we celebrated and remembered God’s faithfulness in keeping this church going for 45 years.

Scripture is giving us ample evidence for us to be thankful to God.  You yourself can relate to some of the Bible characters in how God has been good and faithful to you.  He is Good, his love and faithfulness endures forever.  They won’t run out on you.  Spend some time thanking him today for who he is.