Bible Verses About Gratitude: 14 Verses for Thanksgiving Week

Bible verses for the Thanksgiving table

Every verse in this guide is quoted from the World English Bible, with a line about where it comes from. These four are short enough to read before a meal.

• Psalm 107:1. “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.” The opening line of a song about people brought out of the desert, out of prison, through sickness and through a storm at sea.
• Psalm 100:4. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, and bless his name.” This is the only psalm titled “A Psalm of thanksgiving”. It pictures a crowd walking into the temple courts.
• Deuteronomy 8:10. “You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.” Moses said this before Israel had seen a single harvest in the new land. His next words warn that a full table can make you forget who set it.
• Psalm 145:15–16. “The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” David’s words, used by Christians as a grace before meals for centuries.

A line for the Thanksgiving table

Psalm 136 gives you a grace that needs no speech. Each of its 26 verses ends with the same words, and Ezra 3:11 describes God’s people singing them “to one another”. You can do the same before the meal.

1. One person says, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,” and everyone answers, “for his loving kindness endures forever.”
2. Go around the table, and let each person name one thing from this year, even a small one.
3. After each one, everyone answers again: “for his loving kindness endures forever.”

If someone at the table is grieving, let them pass, or let them name the person they miss. That belongs in the prayer too.

Bible verses about gratitude when life is good

Plenty has its own risk: you stop noticing it. These verses trace good things back to where they came from.

• James 1:17. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow.” James’s picture of a God who doesn’t change, while the sun moves and shadows shift.
• Psalm 103:2. “Praise the LORD, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits,” David tells himself. Then he lists them: forgiveness, healing, rescue, mercy and good things.
• Psalm 16:6. “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.” David is picturing the boundary lines of a plot of land. He looks at his own share and calls it good, without checking the neighbor’s.
• Nehemiah 8:10. “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared”, the crowd was told on a holy day after the return from exile. A feast, and a plate for anyone who has none.

Bible verses about gratitude after a hard year

Thanksgiving can make what’s missing feel louder: an empty chair, a lost job, a family that doesn’t get along. Much of the Bible’s thanks comes from people in that place, so you don’t have to feel cheerful to read these.

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.” Paul wrote this to new Christians who were suffering for their faith.
• Habakkuk 3:17–18. “For even though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food, the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” A harvest song with no harvest, from a prophet waiting for an invasion.
• Psalm 34:1. “I will bless the LORD at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.” The title says David wrote this after pretending to be insane to get away from a king.
• Philippians 4:6. “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Paul, writing from prison, puts thanks and asking in one sentence. You can be grateful and still need something.

Bible verses for keeping gratitude going

• Psalm 92:2. “to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,” says a song for the Sabbath. Thanks at both ends of the day.
• Colossians 3:17. “Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Paul’s instruction for ordinary days: work, meals and conversations.

What does the Bible say about gratitude?

In the Bible, gratitude is something you do, often before you feel it. People thank God out loud, by name, for specific things, and they do it in front of others. That is the point of “Let the redeemed by the LORD say so” (Psalm 107:2): if God has helped you, say it.

Thanks also keeps you honest about where things come from. Moses warned that a full table can lead to the thought, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:17). Gratitude tells the truth: you didn’t make your own life, and you aren’t holding it up alone.

A gratitude practice for Thanksgiving week

This takes a few minutes a day, from Monday to the meal on Thursday.

1. On Monday, read Psalm 100 and write down three things from this year. Be specific: name the friend who called every week.
2. On Tuesday, read Psalm 103 slowly and thank God for something you had stopped noticing.
3. On Wednesday, read Psalm 107 and thank one person by name, with a call or a note.
4. On Thursday, use the line above at the table, and send a plate to someone who would otherwise eat alone.

If thanks feels out of reach this year, our list of encouraging Bible verses for hard days may be a better place to start. To keep a small practice going after the holiday, see our guide to building a daily Bible reading habit.

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