Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving

Rob Kaczmarek
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.”
— Psalm 100:4-5 CSB

We are commanded in the Psalms to enter the gates of the Lord with words of thanks to God. Over Thanksgiving this year my family had to deal with Covid. In fact, as I write this, my wife and I are having to quarantine, both of us being positive for Covid. Our younger kids had to go get tested and my older daughter has had to pick up a lot of responsibilities around the house. It’s amazing to think that something as microscopic as a virus could upset the entire workings of a family bringing light suffering for some and great tragedy for others. 

And yet going back to our verse, the Psalmist says enter God’s courts with praise and thanksgiving. Being thankful to God in the midst of suffering or hardship can be difficult. But we are to do so anyway. I must admit, that it’s easy to focus on the circumstance and feel overwhelmed by the moment. King David was no exception to this feeling. 

In Psalm 31, David sings a lament to the Lord. One full of sorrow. 

“Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.” 

We read this psalm and can see how David understood the sorrows of life. His eye was wasted from grief, his soul and body as well. He spent his time in great sorrow with deep sighing because of what was happening in his life. He even goes as far as to say he has become like a broken piece of pottery. Suffering and sorrow are normal seasons that all people will go through. Indeed, in a fallen world that is anything but perfect, we will all have trials, suffering, grief, heartaches, disappointments, sadness, hardships, persecutions, accusations, betrayals, and more. 

Yet David still says come with thanksgiving to the Lord and bless his name! In the midst of our circumstance we need to be refocused. We need to remember that God is gracious to those who call on him. Christ has known our sorrows, suffered as we all do, and carried our guilt of sin to the cross! We have one we can turn to. Peter says to anyone who will look to Jesus, “Cast your cares on him for he cares for you.” 

So we do not need to look anywhere else to find true comfort, and to change our thoughts from sorrow and despair to thanksgiving and praise in the Lord. David again writes in the Psalms, ”I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.” 

God, who made all things, cares for us. He will not rest until all is done that needs to be accomplished for us. He is full of genuine compassion and as the Scriptures tell us, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so He will always express perfect compassion for us and it will not change, it will not waiver. It will always be perfect and it will always be the perfect amount! 

So now, no matter what you may be facing, lift your eyes to the Lord! He will help you, he will sustain you, and he will do so with perfect love. Knowing this, experiencing this, has helped me to enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. To enter his courts with praise. No matter what tomorrow may have for me or my family, today has a blessing to be spoken and faithfulness to be experienced!

 
Jeff Rybacki
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