The Psalmist gives simple yet profound advice: “Sing out your thanks to Him” (Psalm 147:7). He adds in Psalm 105:1, “Give thanks to the Lord and pray to Him.” Gratitude, it seems, belongs in both song and speech. Paul echoes this theme in Philippians 4:6 when he writes, “Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.” There is something profoundly healing in that combination—ask honestly, and thank freely. Yet our society has developed a curious allergy to public gratitude. I recently read about efforts in some southern states to reinstate the Ten Commandments in schools and even return prayer to classrooms. It reminded me of the 1963 Supreme Court case that banned prayer in public schools. The offending prayer, written by kindergarteners, was hardly controversial: “We thank you for the flowers so sweet; We thank you for the food we eat; We thank you for the birds that sing; We thank you, God, for everything.” One might think such a prayer could only offend birds or flowers. But Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who led the charge against school prayer, went so far as to object to astronauts praying in orbit. She said their prayer from space was a “tragic situation.” Evidently, even gratitude was too close to heaven for her liking.
Something happens to the heart when it forgets how to say “thank you.” Gratitude, like oxygen, sustains the soul. When we cut it off, everything starts to suffocate. Paul warned about this very thing in Romans 1:21: “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” A thankless spirit is not simply bad manners; it is spiritual decay. Dr. David Soper, in God Is Inescapable, once wrote that the difference between a prison and a monastery is the difference between griping and gratitude. If that’s true, then a person who complains in comfort is as bound as one who rejoices in chains. Gratitude transforms walls into windows.
Ultimately, gratitude finds its fullest expression in Jesus Christ. The night before His crucifixion, “He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it” (Luke 22:19). In His darkest hour, thanksgiving still flowed from His lips. Paul wrote that in the last days, people would become “lovers of self, lovers of money… ungrateful” (2 Timothy 3:2–5). Yet Christ shows us another way. Gratitude is not just good manners—it is the melody of redemption. When Jesus gave thanks in the face of death, He turned a cross into a doorway and despair into song.