Gratitude

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.

A short psalm for people bringing offerings into the temple courts. Its reason for thanks is not a recent stroke of luck but a standing claim: the LORD made this people and keeps faith with them across generations.

And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:

The words a farmer was to say aloud while setting down the first of his harvest at the sanctuary. Thanks here takes the form of a history recited in the first person: an ancestor near death, slavery in Egypt, a cry, a rescue, this land, this basket.

Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

The rules for the seven-day feast held once the year's crops were gathered in. People camped in shelters of branches through it, so that each generation would know their ancestors lived in such shelters coming out of Egypt. The harvest and the memory were kept together.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

Instruction for a settled people to bless God after eating their fill, paired immediately with a warning. Full barns, good houses and increasing herds are exactly the conditions in which, the passage says, a person forgets where any of it came from.

O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

A psalm of thanks sung by people who had been in trouble and are no longer. It opens with the temple refrain and then describes the first of four groups: travellers lost in desert country, hungry and thirsty, who cried out and were brought to a city.

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. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Ten men with a skin disease are sent to the priests and are healed on the way. One, a Samaritan and an outsider even to the other nine, turns back to say thanks. Jesus remarks on the nine who did not. The story counts gratitude as rare.

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Three short commands near the end of a letter to a young congregation under pressure. The wording is thanks in every circumstance, not thanks for every circumstance, and Paul's own circumstances at the time included beatings and being run out of towns.

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Job has lost his children, his servants and his livestock in one day. He tears his robe, shaves his head, and blesses God in the same breath in which he says what was given has been taken. The book does not treat this as the end of his grief; chapters of protest follow.

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

The closing lines of a prophet's prayer, set as a song. The thanks is offered on the assumption of total agricultural failure: no figs, no grapes, no olives, no grain, empty folds and empty stalls. Nothing in it says the failure will be reversed.