Give Thanks to the Lord, Call Upon His Name

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples."
1 Chronicles 16:8

About 3 weeks ago I started to see again on Facebook a slew of people doing something that they are thankful for each day.  We get to Thanksgiving and we seem to be reminded and remember our need to give thanks.  We have praise services designed to give opportunity for giving thanks and we think about our thankfulness a lot more often. 

I have found in my life however that if I truly evaluate my thanksgiving it sounds more like an expectation than it does genuine gratitude.  If we leave the command as simply give thanks, we say, "Thank you." and seem to be done with our requirement.  Which is why I love this verse.   IN 1 Chronicles there is this glorious moment where the ark has been returned to Israel and David is making plans for it to be in Jerusalem.  He builds it a temporary home and begins a psalm of praise that is related in content to Psalm 105.  This is the first verse of that psalm in verse 8 and it contains more than just the command to give thanks.  In fact, it is three commands that I believe are related.
1. Give thanks
2. Call upon His name
3. Make known His deeds among the peoples.

We are certainly to give thanks to God for all that He does on our behalf, but we have two other responsibilities along with it. 

Call upon His name - this has the idea behind it of trust and reliance upon God.  It has the idea of devotion to God.  It carries the weight of our relationship with God and the realization that we are to place all of our lives into His capable hands.

Make His name known - this means that we are designed to tell others about all that God has done for us.  And the target of this, the peoples, means that for Israel they were to tell non-Israelites about the good things that God has done.  For us, this means that we are to use the things for which we are thankful as means of witness in the world around us.  We are to give glory to God.  So by all means, say what you are thankful for on Facebook, and then go out and trust God more, share God more with those around you.  And in so doing you will demonstrate true gratitude!