Enter into His Gates with Thanksgiving

A few days ago America celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. But it would be difficult for a visitor to our country to determine for what we were thankful. He would probably conclude that we were thankful for turkeys, football, marching bands, Broadway shows, and flat screen televisions. But he would have a more difficult time determining WHO we were thanking.

The first national thanksgiving proclamation came from President Lincoln in the midst of our War Between the States. He urged the people 'in every part of the United States to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father.' He asked Americans to recognize 'the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.' He said 'we are ever prone to forget the source of [our] bounty.' Psalm 100 is a great psalm of thanksgiving, wonderful in its brevity, but glorious in its exaltation of God. It calls us out of our introverted stupor and exhorts us to thank and praise the giver of all good gifts.