Thanksgiving Psalms: Psalm 65

Sunday night, 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. How do these ancient prayers of Thanksgiving compare to your own prayers? Which parts of these Thanksgiving prayers connect with your life?

Psalm 65: Thanksgiving for Earth’s Bounty

A Psalm of David. A Song.

1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion;

and to you shall vows be performed,

2  O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.

3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,

    you forgive our transgressions.

4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near

    to live in your courts.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,

    your holy temple.

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,

    O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

6 By your strength you established the mountains;

    you are girded with might.

7 You silence the roaring of the seas,

    the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.

8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;  you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.

9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly,

    settling its ridges, softening it with showers,

    and blessing its growth.