O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

Five times in the Bible we have these exact words; four times in the Psalms and once in 1 Chron (1Ch 16:34; Ps (100:5) 106:1, 107:1, 118:29, 136:1). The author of these words exhorts us to give thanks to God for two reasons: he is good, his mercy endures forever.

At Thanksgiving, we often think about all the things that God provides for which we are thankful. We thank God for our families, our homes, our health, our food, our church, etc. But we should also be thankful for God himself and for his character. God has many attributes or characteristics that we should be thankful for, but today we’ll focus on the two that these texts mention: God is good and God is merciful.

I think we would all agree that God is good and merciful, but we may not be able to define those terms very well. We may not understand the implications of these characteristics. “So what?”

Today we’ll consider what the Bible means when it says that God is good and merciful.