For what thanks can we render. — An apology for the enthusiastic expressions used in the three foregoing verses. “I may call it a gospel, a balm for all anxieties, a new life, for what mode of thanksgiving could be deemed extravagant in such a case of joy?”
Before our God. — As in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, the occasion on which the joy and thankfulness bursts out is “in prayer;” perhaps, in connection with thanksgiving, especially at the great Eucharistic Thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 14:16), when he “stood before the Lord in a special manner (Acts 13:2; comp. Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 1:11; Leviticus 3:1, et al).