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After the return of the Jews from captivity the liturgy of the temple service was rearranged, and this psalm was selected as the Sabbath psalm, and appointed to be sung in the morning service when, on the offering of the first lamb, the wine was poured out as a drink-offering unto the Lord. We must all feel the appropriateness of the selection. What more proper and profitable Sabbath employment than to sing praises unto the name of the Most High? This Sabbath, then, let us raise this Sabbath psalm. By our thanksgiving we shall worship God; through our thanksgiving God will bless us, and we shall prove, in our own experience, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."

I. THANKFULNESS IS THE BEST ANTIDOTE TO THE EVILS OF LIFE AND LIGHTENS LIFE'S BURDENS. The burdens of life are not equally distributed; but no life is without them. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards." The chief difference between us lies here — while one man gets him to his burden and carries it, another frets and murmurs and magnifies it. Now, thankfulness, perhaps more than anything else, helps us to keep our eye fixed upon the brighter side of life. If every night as we retired to rest we added up and recorded the mercies of the day, and started each following morning with the record in our hands, what a transfiguration of our life there soon would be! The gloom around us would be scattered, the trees would seem to clap their hands, the mountains and the hills to rejoice together, and the meadows to break out into song.

II. THANKFULNESS QUICKENS SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION AND ENLARGES SPIRITUAL CAPACITY. Take a son who accepts every attention and provision of his mother as a matter of course, regards all that she has done for him as her duty and his due, looks upon all her service as simply fulfilling her obligation to him — what will that son know of his mother's heart? She may make some great sacrifice for him, and he will greedily accept the gift without appreciating the cost at which it is given. But take a child whose tender heart is touched with every token of the mother's thoughtfulness and love, that child will understand something of the mother's heart; as it leaves the gift to fly into its mother's arms, it will feel something of the joy the mother feels in giving, and the mother's love will be more to it than the gift itself. It is precisely so with us in our relation to God — the thankful heart discerns and realizes God. The more we are thankful the more we know God as our Friend and our Father. Our thoughts will be nearer the truth and our hearts will be nearer to God because we accept His blessings with gratitude. And thankfulness enlarges spiritual capacity. There are some attitudes of mind and heart in which God cannot bless us. The thirsty man might as well lower a sealed bottle into the well as a man seek blessing from God with a sealed heart. Let us remember this when we think of unanswered prayers. Now, thankfulness opens the heart to God, and God's blessing fills the open heart as the fresh air rushes through the open window, and the light of heaven fills the unshuttered room. When the heart is thankful for past mercies, new mercies are not far away.

III. THANKFULNESS FOSTERS CONFIDENCE AND LOVE. The heart that registers mercy received knows there is mercy to follow. The milestones we reach on the King's highway become guide posts to the Royal City. The ungrateful heart keeps no record of the past, its memory furnishes no evidence of the eternal faithfulness, and every step in life is an untrodden path; but the thankful heart treasures up the record of the past, and travels along as though it had been that way before. That record becomes a guide. With that in our hand we feel no fear, shrink before no difficulty, cringe before no spectre, bow beneath no burden, but trudge along in the confident possession of a strength greater than our own. Soldiers march best to music. They go to face the fatal fire of the musketry, and encounter the keen edge of the sword, but the cheerful and triumphant strain of music quickens their spirit, strengthens their resolve, whets their energy, dissipates their fear, and inspires their courage. Christians live best to praise. It lifts their thoughts from the possibilities of the "awful unknown" and centres them in the faithfulness of their Father.

(F. Wells.)

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KJV: {A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.} It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

WEB: It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, Most High;