Psalm 107:1: what does it say about thankfulness?

Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving psalm. It begins the fifth and final book of psalms (Psalms 107–150) by praising God for rescuing his people.

The previous psalm, 106, ended with a prayer to God to save his people from exile, and so now we see the response of praise that God does indeed answer his people’s prayers.

So the opening three verses of Psalm 107 introduce this theme of thanksgiving, before the psalmist goes into a series of stories of times when God rescued his people.

Here are those three verses together:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
 his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
 those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
 from east and west, from north and south.

– Psalm 107:1–3

When Psalm 107:1 tells us to give thanks to the Lord, it’s in the context of God having already shown his goodness and faithfulness. The psalmist is able to list off examples of times when God rescues his people, even from problems that they themselves created!

Stories of God’s goodness are powerful. When we share stories of what God has done – prayers he has answered or times he has provided what we needed – we are building faith both in ourselves and in others around us, that we can continue to trust in God’s unchanging goodness.

It’s an amazing thing to know that God’s love for you endures forever. It means he has always loved you and will always love you. That love isn’t shaken or reduced by anything you could do or say. It isn’t conditional on you never making mistakes. 

Paul spells out the endlessness of this love powerfully in his letter to the Romans:

Whatever else may change in your life, God’s love is secure and reliable in every situation.

Although we’ve chosen to focus on Psalm 107:1 here, you’ll actually find those same words ​‘give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever’ in a number of other songs in the Bible. (Have a look at 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 118:1&29, and Psalm 136:1.)

On top of being a repeated refrain that the psalmist comes back to again and again, you’ll also find the command to ​‘give thanks’ comes up many more times.

Saying thank you to God is an important part of the Christian faith. It’s a practice that acknowledges we’re not independent, self-reliant beings, but that we do in fact need God’s help.

For example, the harvest festival in autumn is a traditional time of thanksgiving in the Christian calendar for the UK and other countries. For centuries, people have gathered together to give thanks and not take for granted the essentials we all need to live.

And studies have shown that our brains are wired for this. Gratitude or thankfulness can have benefits for improved mental health. Giving thanks really does us a lot of good!

If Psalm 107:1 has you feeling inspired to build a habit of giving thanks to God regularly, here are some ideas to bring that into your day-to-day routine:

• Start a gratitude journal. Find a blank notebook and challenge yourself to write down three things every day that you want to thank God for.
• Teatime thanksgiving. When you sit down for your evening meal, encourage everyone at the table to name one thing that they feel thankful for today.
• Bedtime prayers. Before the end of each day, make space to pray and thank God for his goodness and his unending love.
• Thankfulness jar. Keep a stack of post-it notes next to an empty glass jar. Every time you think of something you’re thankful for, write it on a post-it note and put it in the jar. Watch the jar fill up over time. Then, at the end of the year, open the jar and read back over all the reasons you had to feel thankful this year!