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Most people looking for verses about thankfulness in November need one for a card, a place setting or a short reading before the meal. This page has those. It also has the part the greeting-card versions leave out.
The Bible's best-known instructions to give thanks were mostly written to people in hard circumstances. Paul wrote "give thanks in every circumstance" to a church under persecution, and Habakkuk wrote his song of thanks while waiting for an invasion. Gratitude in Scripture is not the feeling you get when things go well. It is something you do on purpose, and it holds up when things don't.
Short enough to read aloud before the meal. Deuteronomy 8:10 is the oldest instruction in Scripture to bless God for a meal, and Luther's Small Catechism uses Psalm 145:15-16 as a grace.
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
Psalm 107:1
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.
Psalm 100:4-5
15 The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
16 You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Psalm 145:15-16
When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:10
Read the preposition in 1 Thessalonians carefully. Nobody is asked to be grateful for the diagnosis. They are asked to keep thanking God while they are in it, and Philippians 4 puts thanksgiving right in the middle of an anxious prayer.
16 Rejoice at all times.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Colossians 3:15-17
Habakkuk lists everything that has failed (the fig tree, the vines, the olives, the flocks) and then says he will rejoice anyway. Job blesses the name of the LORD with the loss still fresh. Neither of them is pretending.
17 Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,
18 yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
Habakkuk 3:17-18
saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Job 1:21
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.
Psalm 42:5
22 Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:22-23
Jesus noticed who returned, and He asked out loud where the other nine were. Thanks is what turns a gift into a relationship with the One who gave it.
11 While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.
12 As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance
13 and raised their voices, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.
15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice.
16 He fell facedown at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving to Him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 “Were not all ten cleansed?” Jesus asked. “Where then are the other nine?
18 Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”
19 Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!”
Luke 17:11-19
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
James 1:17
1 Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds—
3 He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion,
5 who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1-5
Daniel learns that praying will get him thrown to the lions, goes home, opens his windows and gives thanks three times a day, just as he had done before. The habit was older than the crisis, which is why it held.
Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
Daniel 6:10
Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
Psalm 34:1
1 A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is good to praise the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High,
2 to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night
Psalm 92:1-2
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.
Hebrews 13:15
Most Thanksgiving tables already go around and name one thing each person is thankful for. Keep that, and add a second round: one hard thing from this year that God carried you through. The first round is easy. The second is where 1 Thessalonians 5:18 actually lives, and it tends to be the one people remember.
A prayer you can borrow
Father, every good thing on this table came from You, and so did the people around it. Thank You for what You gave this year, including the things I did not notice at the time. Where this year has been hard, help me thank You in it, even when I cannot thank You for it. Make me the one who comes back to say thank you. Amen.
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1 Thessalonians 5:18, which tells Christians to give thanks in every circumstance because this is God's will for them in Christ Jesus. At a Thanksgiving table the verse most families read is Psalm 107:1: give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.
Near enough. English Bibles mostly say thanks or thanksgiving rather than gratitude, which is why a search for gratitude verses can turn up fewer results. The Greek word behind most New Testament thanksgiving is eucharistia, the same word the church later used for communion.
That it is possible without pretending. Habakkuk 3:17-18 and Job 1:21 both give thanks with the loss in plain view, and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 asks for thanks in every circumstance rather than for every circumstance. Scripture also makes room for lament. Many of the psalms that end in praise begin in complaint, and the two belong together.
Psalm 145:15-16 has been prayed as a grace before meals for centuries, and Psalm 100:4-5 reads well aloud. If you would rather have a written prayer, there are several on our Thanksgiving prayers page, including a short one and one for a hard year.
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is free of copyright restrictions for use on websites. Read the full Bible on Great Faith.