What is the Difference Between Praise and Thanksgiving?
Psalm 100
What is the difference between praise and thanksgiving?
Psalm 100 is a short, five verse song of praise. It sits within a group of psalms that focus on praise. Book Four of the Psalms (Psalm 90-106) is filled with various songs of praise. This a great collection of prayers that lead the people of God into praise and thanksgiving.
· It is good to give thanks to the Lord (Psalm 92.1).
· The Lord reigns (Psalm 93.1).
· Let us sing to the Lord (Psalm 95.1).
· Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised (Psalm 96.4).
· Rejoice in the Lord (Psalm 97.12).
· Sing to the Lord a new song (Psalm 98.1).
· Let them praise Your great and awesome name (Psalm 99.3).
· To You, O Lord, I will make music (Psalm 101.1).
· Bless the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 103.1).
Psalm 100 sits amidst these various praise songs with succinctness, simplicity, and power. In five short verses, the psalmist reminds us of who God is and how His people should respond.
God is described as the one true God (3), the Creator of each individual (3), good (5), full of steadfast love and faithfulness (5), and eternal. The natural response to this God is to make a joyful noise (1), to serve Him with gladness (2), to come into His presence with singing (2), to enter His gates with thanksgiving (4), and to bless His name (4).
In light of who God is described to be, good and loving and eternal, it would make sense to give Him praise. Afterall, praise is rightfully deserved. He IS the one true God. He IS eternal. He IS the Creator. He IS good and loving and faithful.
But if this short song of praise merely stopped there, at the beauty and greatness of who God is, but did not extend that beauty and greatness to those who live in relationship to Him, then praise would never spill over into thanksgiving.
Personally, I distinguish between praise and thanksgiving with this simple metric: praise delights in the beauty and greatness of who God is God while thanksgiving delights in how the beauty and greatness of God has impacted our lives personally.
Praise would respond to the one true God, the eternal God, the Creator of all things, the loving and faithful God. But thanksgiving responds joyfully to our personal experience with the Great God. And this is how this short psalm equips us to give thanks. Pay attention to verse 3:
It is He who made us, and we are His.
We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Psalm 100.3 ESV
Many of the psalms rejoice because God is the creator of all things, from the birds of the sky to the fish in the sea, from the stars in the heavens to the moon above, from nations near and nations far. But this psalm personalizes His creative work. He made us, and we are His. This is the personal, creative work of God. God formed our inward parts, knitted us together in our mother’s womb (see Psalm 139.15). We are not random, unplanned consequences of an evolutionary process. We are foreknown, created intentionally by the Creator.
But more than that, we can claim to be His people. We belong to Him. But we don’t belong to Him like a slave might belong to a slaveowner four hundred years ago. We belong to Him as a sheep in His pasture. He is our Good Shepherd. We are sheep in His pasture. The Lord is our Good Shepherd, which is why we don’t fear or worry for our Good Shepherd watches over us, leads us to green pastures, and guides and protects us through the dark shadows of life (see Psalm 23). We are His sheep! What a joy.
And this is where praise turns into thanksgiving. We praise Him for who He is, but we give thanks for who He is to us individually. And while millions of believers through thousands of years over a myriad of nations can give Him praise, only I can give Him my thanksgiving. And perhaps this unique thanksgiving is the way that I can bless His name (see Psalm 100.4).
If this is true, how can you bless the Lord today?
This article is part of a yet to be published work by Pastor Todd Pylant entitled, “Ancient Problems, Modern Prayers.”