18 Bible verses about thanksgiving, for giving thanks out loud
Written by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Raphael Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
Thanksgiving, in the Bible, is an act of worship — not a feeling and not a date. Psalm 49:14 commands offering God the sacrifice of praise, Leviticus 7:12 describes the offering brought out of gratitude, and Hebrews 13:15 says that sacrifice is now what comes out of your lips.
You may have arrived here looking for something to read around a table in November. That works — but the Bible’s thanksgiving is not a date. It is an act: the service held after someone turns seventy, the prayer said out loud after an operation that went well, the sentence spoken in front of the family. It is gratitude that leaves the inside of your head and becomes something said.
That is exactly the line Scripture draws. There is a page on this site about gratitude, and it deals with the thankful heart. This one deals with what you do with it. In the Old Testament there was a specific offering for it, with a detailed recipe in Leviticus; in the New the offering changes material and remains an offering — the fruit of the lips, says Hebrews.
The verses below fall into three blocks: the ones that define thanksgiving as an offering, the ones that show it happening in public, and the ones that place it inside ordinary daily prayer.
All 18 verses, one by one
Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High.
The line that gives the whole thing its name. It sits in the middle of a psalm where God waves away animal sacrifices and asks for this one instead — which reorders the entire list of priorities.
Read the chapterThe sacrifice of praise will honor me. And in that place is the journey by which I will reveal to him the salvation of God.
Nine verses later the same psalm repeats the idea and adds the consequence. Giving thanks is described as a way of honouring God, not as good manners in his direction.
Read the chapterIf the oblation will be an act for giving thanks, they shall offer bread without leaven sprinkled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and fine wheat flour fried, and cakes sprinkled and mixed with oil,
The only text on this list with a cooking recipe in it. Worth reading for exactly that reason: thanksgiving had a procedure, a cost and some work behind it — it was not an impulse of the moment.
Read the chapterI will sacrifice to you the sacrifice of praise, and I will invoke the name of the Lord.
Written by someone who has just escaped death. It is the verse for the person leaving hospital who wants to do something with it beyond telling their friends.
Read the chapterBut I, with a voice of praise, will sacrifice to you. I will repay whatever I have vowed to the Lord, because of my salvation.”
Said from inside the fish, before any sign that the story ends well. Thanksgiving promised in the dark counts for more than thanksgiving paid once the problem is solved.
Read the chapterTherefore, through him, let us offer the sacrifice of continual praise to God, which is the fruit of lips confessing his name.
The bridge between the Testaments on this subject. The offering does not disappear: it changes material. And "continual" is the word that stops this from becoming an annual event.
Read the chapter31I will praise the name of God with a canticle, and I will magnify him with praise.
32And it will please God more than a new calf producing horns and hoofs.
A bold comparison from someone writing under the law of sacrifices: a song pleases God more than a young bull. It is not a dismissal of worship, it is a hierarchy inside it.
Read the chapter21Let his mercies confess to the Lord, and let his miracles confess to the sons of men.
22And let them offer sacrifice with the sacrifice of praise, and let them announce his works in exultation.
Two instructions together: sacrifice, and announce. The psalm repeats that pair four times, always after telling the story of people who were lost and were rescued.
Read the chapterAnd they sung together with hymns and confession to the Lord: “For he is good. For his mercy is over Israel unto eternity.” And likewise, all the people shouted with a great clamor in praise to the Lord, because the temple of the Lord had been founded.
Sung over the foundations of a temple that was still to be built. Giving thanks for the start of something, and not only for the result, is one of the hardest things on this list.
Read the chapterThen I caused the leaders of Judah to ascend the wall, and I appointed two great choirs to give praise. And they went to the right upon the wall, toward the dung gate.
Two great choirs walking in opposite directions along the rebuilt wall of the city. It is the most choreographed thanksgiving in the Bible — and it shows that the public format is not a modern invention.
Read the chapter“Confess to the Lord, and invoke his name. Make known his endeavors among the peoples.
Three verbs in sequence: confess, invoke, make known. The third is what separates thanksgiving from private gratitude — it has to reach somebody who was not there.
Read the chapter12You have turned my mourning into gladness for me. You have cut off my sackcloth, and you have surrounded me with joy.
13So then, may my glory sing to you, and may I not regret it. O Lord, my God, I will confess to you for eternity.
The best psalm for a service of thanks after a hard crossing. Notice that it does not erase the mourning: it says the mourning was turned into something else.
Read the chapter2It is good to confess to the Lord and to sing psalms to your name, O Most High:
3to announce your mercy in the morning, and your truth throughout the night,
Mercy in the morning, truth through the night. The verse splits the day into two shifts of thanksgiving, which is a very concrete way of turning it into a habit.
Read the chapterBe anxious about nothing. But in all things, with prayer and supplication, with acts of thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
Thanksgiving turns up here inside the request, not after it. Giving thanks before the answer arrives is what changes the tone of an anxious prayer.
Read the chapterPursue prayer. Be watchful in prayer with acts of thanksgiving.
A whole discipline in three words: pursue, watch, give thanks. It is the shortest version of everything this page says.
Read the chapterAnd so I beg you, first of all, to make supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings for all men,
Thanksgiving appears in a list of things to do on behalf of other people — including those in government. Giving thanks for someone you do not like is a hard exercise, and it is expressly asked for here.
Read the chapterAnd when he had said these things, taking bread, he gave thanks to God in the sight of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Paul gives thanks over a piece of bread on a ship about to break up, in front of two hundred and seventy-six terrified people. It is the scene that best explains why this is done in public.
Read the chaptersaying: “Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and strength to our God, forever and ever. Amen.”
It closes the list with thanksgiving in the middle of seven words said in chorus. This is the last biblical scene on the subject: giving thanks is still happening when there is nothing left to ask for.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What is thanksgiving in the Bible?
It is an act of worship, not a state of mind. The Old Testament had a specific thanksgiving offering, described in Leviticus 7:12, and Psalm 49:14 calls it the sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:15 keeps the same language of offering and transfers it to what is said out loud.
What is the difference between gratitude and thanksgiving?
Gratitude is the inward recognition; thanksgiving is what you do with it — said, sung or offered, almost always in front of other people. Psalm 106:22 asks for both in the same line: offer the sacrifice, and announce it.
Which verse should be read at a service of thanksgiving?
Psalm 29:12-13 fits best when the reason is a hard passage that ended well. Psalm 99 and Psalm 91:2-3 work for general thanks, and 1 Chronicles 16:8 opens a celebration nicely, because it calls on everyone present to say what the reason is.
Is biblical thanksgiving the same as the Thanksgiving holiday?
No. Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a civil date on the calendar. Biblical thanksgiving is an act of worship with no fixed date, offered after a birthday, a recovery, a wedding or anything else worth naming out loud. The holiday is a good occasion for it; it is not the thing itself.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, thank you — and out loud this time, because giving thanks only on the inside is far too easy. Receive what I have to offer today, which is small and is mine. And let whoever is nearby hear it and know where what I received came from. Amen.