Thanksgiving Prayers: Psalm 107 (cont.)

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow all focus on Psalm 107, which is an unfolding story of thankfulness told in several acts. Here's the second part of the story-prayer; go back and read the first part if you missed it:

10 Some sat in darkness and in gloom,

    prisoners in misery and in irons,

11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,

    and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

12 Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;

    they fell down, with no one to help.

13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

    and God saved them from their distress;

14 God brought them out of darkness and gloom,

    and broke their bonds asunder.

15 Let them thank the Lord for God’s steadfast love,

    for God’s wonderful works to humankind.

16 For God shatters the doors of bronze,

    and cuts in two the bars of iron.

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 107

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. The next three days will all focus on Psalm 107, which is an unfolding story of thankfulness told in several acts.

Psalm 107: Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Many Troubles

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good;

    for God’s steadfast love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,

    those God redeemed from trouble

3 and gathered in from the lands,

    from the east and from the west,

    from the north and from the south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastes,

    finding no way to an inhabited town;

5 hungry and thirsty,

    their soul fainted within them.

6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

    and God delivered them from their distress;

7 God led them by a straight way,

    until they reached an inhabited town.

8 Let them thank the Lord for God’s steadfast love,

    for God’s wonderful works to humankind.

9 For God satisfies the thirsty,

    and the hungry God fills with good things.

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 103

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Today, as you pray this, consider: how has God been good to you?

Psalm 103: Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness

Of David.

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and do not forget all God’s benefits—

3 who forgives all your iniquity,

    who heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the Pit,

    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works vindication

    and justice for all who are oppressed.

7 God made known God’s ways to Moses,

    God’s acts to the people of Israel.

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,

    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 God will not always accuse,

    nor will God keep God’s anger forever.

10 God does not deal with us according to our sins,

    nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God’s steadfast love toward those who fear God;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

    so far God removes our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion for God’s children,

    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear God.

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 100

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Today, as you pray this, imagine all the earth pausing and joining together in one voice to praise and thank God.

Psalm 100: All Lands Summoned to Praise God

A Psalm of thanksgiving.

1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

2     Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come into God’s presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

    It is God that made us, and we are God’s;

    we are God’s people, and the sheep of God’s pasture.

4 Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving,

    and God’s courts with praise.

    Give thanks to God, bless God’s name.

5 For the Lord is good;

    God’s steadfast love endures forever,

    and God’s faithfulness to all generations.

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 97

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Now that we're a week into these prayers, what are you noticing about them? What thoughts or prayers are they bringing up in you?

Psalm 97: The Glory of God’s Reign

1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;

    let the many coastlands be glad!

2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around God;

    righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne.

3 Fire goes before God,

    and consumes God’s adversaries on every side.

4 God’s lightnings light up the world;

    the earth sees and trembles.

5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,

    before the Lord of all the earth.

6 The heavens proclaim God’s righteousness;

    and all the peoples behold God’s glory.

7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,

    those who make their boast in worthless idols;

    all gods bow down before God.

8 Zion hears and is glad,

    and the towns of Judah rejoice,

    because of your judgments, O God.

9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;

    you are exalted far above all gods.

10 The Lord loves those who hate evil;

    God guards the lives of God’s faithful;

    God rescues them from the hand of the wicked.

11 Light dawns for the righteous,

    and joy for the upright in heart.

12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,

    and give thanks to God’s holy name!

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 95

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Now that we're a week into these prayers, what are you noticing about them? What thoughts or prayers are they bringing up in you?

Psalm 95: A Call to Worship and Obedience

1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;

    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2 Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving;

    let us make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise!

3 For the Lord is a great God,

    and a great King above all gods.

4 In God’s hand are the depths of the earth;

    the heights of the mountains are God’s also.

5 The sea is God’s, for God made it,

    and the dry land, which God’s hands have formed.

6 O come, let us worship and bow down,

    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

7 For God is our God,

    and we are the people of God’s pasture,

    and the sheep of God’s hand.

O that today you would listen to God’s voice!

Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 86

Last Sunday, at our Intergenerational Faith Formation Meal, we talked together about thankfulness, and each household received a sort of Thanksgiving devotional book to take home, with a different Psalm of Thanksgiving to read each day from now til Thanksgiving. For those of you who were unable to attend (or who just do better receiving things digitally!) those Psalms will also be sent out via the blog daily until Thanksgiving. Just a chance for you to stop and offer a prayer of thanks from the scriptures each day, developing deeper gratitude in your own lives. Now that we're a week into these prayers, what are you noticing about them? What thoughts or prayers are they bringing up in you?

Psalm 86: Supplication for Help against Enemies

A Prayer of David.

1 Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,

    for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;

    save your servant who trusts in you.

You are my God; 3 be gracious to me, O Lord,

    for to you do I cry all day long.

4 Gladden the soul of your servant,

    for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,

    abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;

    listen to my cry of supplication.

7 In the day of my trouble I call on you,

    for you will answer me.

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

    nor are there any works like yours.

9 All the nations you have made shall come

    and bow down before you, O Lord,

    and shall glorify your name.

10 For you are great and do wondrous things;

    you alone are God.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,

    that I may walk in your truth;

    give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.