Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays built entirely around saying thank you. Long before it was a national holiday, giving thanks was a habit God asked of his people. Israel kept harvest festivals, sang songs of thanks for meals and rescues, and wrote whole psalms to be sung on the way to worship.
The verses below are gathered for Thanksgiving week: some to read around the table, some to pray before the meal, and some for the quiet moment after everyone has gone home. Each one has a short note on what it means. You’ll also find Psalm 100 to read aloud, a blessing to pray, and a few ideas for making the day more than a meal.
When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
Moses gave Israel this instruction before they entered the promised land: when the meal is over and you’re full, remember who provided it. It may be the most fitting verse in the Bible for Thanksgiving dinner.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
Meat in the King James simply means food. God gives it in due season, at just the right time, and his open hand is a picture of generosity that never runs out.
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
Before Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, he gave thanks for what little there was. Thanksgiving doesn’t wait for plenty. It often comes before it.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
This is a harvest psalm. Thy paths drop fatness pictures God walking through the fields and leaving plenty in his footsteps. Every full table is the end of a long chain of his goodness.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
God made this promise to Noah after the flood. Every harvest since, including the one on your table, is a sign that he keeps his word.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
This verse opens a psalm in which one line repeats twenty-six times: for his mercy endureth for ever. It was likely sung with one voice reading each line and everyone answering with the refrain. Try it at your table.
I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
David chooses to praise with my whole heart, not half-heartedly. And he doesn’t keep it to himself. To shew forth is to tell others what God has done.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Thanksgiving is how we come into God’s presence. The joyful noise doesn’t have to be polished. It just has to be glad.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Notice the order. David trusted, he was helped, and then he sang. Gratitude is the song that follows help.
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
David wrote this psalm in deep trouble, yet near the end he promises to magnify God with thanksgiving. Giving thanks makes God look as big as he really is.
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
At all times includes the good days and the hard ones. David wrote this psalm after a narrow escape, so his praise had been tested.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
In every thing, not for every thing. Whatever this year has held, there is still something to thank God for in the middle of it.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Paul wants thanks to run through everything we do, from our words to our work. Even carving the turkey or washing the dishes can be done in Jesus’ name with a thankful heart.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Paul pictures a believer like a tree, rooted deep, and like a house, built up strong. The result is a life overflowing, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Thanksgiving is Paul’s cure for worry. Bring your requests to God, and mix in thanks for what he has already done.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Every good gift on your table and around it, from the food to the faces, came from above. The Giver doesn’t change, so neither does his goodness.
What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
A good question for Thanksgiving Day. The psalmist’s answer comes in the next verse: to call on the name of the LORD and keep trusting him.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
This line repeats four times in Psalm 107, after God rescues wanderers, prisoners, the sick and sailors in a storm. Whatever God carried you through this year belongs on that list.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus healed ten men with leprosy, and only one came back to say thank you, a Samaritan, the outsider of the group. Gratitude is rarer than blessing. Be the one who comes back.
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Paul ends a chapter about generous giving with this burst of thanks. God’s unspeakable gift, his Son, is a gift too great for words.
Psalm 100 was written for worshipers entering the temple with thanks, and the hymn tune called the Old Hundredth takes its name from it. It takes less than a minute to read aloud, which makes it a good way to begin the meal.
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Father, thank you for this food and for the hands that prepared it. Thank you for every person at this table, and for those we miss today. You have been faithful to us all year, in the good days and the hard ones. Make us grateful people, not just today but every day, and help us share what we have with others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thank you, God, for food to eat, for family and friends, and for loving us. Amen.