In this paper we present a homogeneous continuum mechanical model for the active behavior of the skeletal muscle under finite strains. The model differs from other skeletal muscle models in the way which the contractile force is introduced. Generally, the contractile force is postulated to be the isometric force multiplied by a set of experimentally motivated functions which account for the muscles active properties. Although both flexible and simple, this approach does not automatically guarantee a thermodynamically consistent behavior but this must be checked in each case. The model proposed herein is derived from fundamental principles in mechanics using a previously presented framework (Stålhand et al., Prog Biophys Molec Biol, 96, 2008) and implicitly guarantees a dissipative and thermodynamically consistent behavior. To show the performance of the model, it is specialized to a quick-release experiment for rabbit tabialis anterior muscle. The results show that the model is able to capture important characteristics like the bell-shaped force-length curve and hyperbolic force-velocity relation.