Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Psalm 118:1)

“It is always well to trace our mercies to him who bestows them, and if we cannot give him anything else, let us at any rate give him our thanks. We must not stop short at the second agent, but rise at once to the first cause, and render all our praises unto the Lord himself. Have we been of a forgetful or murmuring spirit?

Let us hear the lively language of the text, and allow it to speak to our hearts: ‘Cease your complainings, cease from all self-glorification, and give thanks unto the Lord.’ ‘For he is good.’ This is reason enough for giving him thanks; goodness is his essence and nature, and therefore he is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from him or not. Those who only praise God because he does them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to him because he is good. 

In the truest sense he alone is good, ‘There is none good but one, that is God’; therefore in all gratitude the Lord should have the royal portion. If others seem to be good, he is good. If others are good in a measure, he is good beyond measure. When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because he is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless him that ‘he is good.’ 

We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; his dispensations may vary, but his nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that he was good, and will be good, but he is good; let his providence be what it may. Therefore let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto his name.”

– Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
taken from: The Treasury of David, Vol. 5, pg. 320.