Thanksgiving: A Genre in Psalms

People often refer to Thanksgiving as a secular holiday. But the Calvinist Christians in seventeenth-century New England who established this harvest festival did not see it that way; the thanks they had in mind were rendered to God. And the very word thanksgiving abounds with religious connotations.

This word describes one of the three main types of prayer found in religions around the world: praise, supplication, and thanksgiving. For example, Maimonides argues that we are obligated to perform three types of prayer:

^{משנה תורה, הלכות תפילה וברכת כהנים א:ב} ...חִיּוּב מִצְוָה זוֹ כָּךְ הוּא שֶׁיְּהֵא אָדָם מִתְחַנֵּן וּמִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכָל יוֹם וּמַגִּיד שִׁבְחוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאַחַר כָּךְ שׁוֹאֵל צְרָכָיו שֶׁהוּא צָרִיךְ לָהֶם בְּבַקָּשָׁה וּבִתְחִנָּה וְאַחַר כָּךְ נוֹתֵן שֶׁבַח וְהוֹדָיָה לַה׳‎ עַל הַטּוֹבָה שֶׁהִשְׁפִּיעַ לוֹ כָּל אֶחָד לְפִי כֹּחוֹ.

^{Mishneh Torah, “Prayer and the Priestly Blessing” 1:2} ...This commandment [to pray] obligates each person to offer supplication and prayer every day and utter praises of the Holy One, blessed be He; then petition for all his needs with requests and supplications; and finally, give praise and thanks to God for the goodness that He has bestowed upon him, each one according to his own ability.^[1]

Biblical interpreters use different names to classify biblical prayers, but they work with similar categories. For example, the categories used by Protestant theologian Walter Brueggemann are:

1. Orientation, acknowledging that the world God created is balanced, orderly, and admirable;
2. Disorientation, complaining of a loss of orientation as the worshiper experiences chaos and injustice; and
3. Reorientation, celebrating the reversal of the chaos and injustice.^[2]

Thanksgiving as a Type of Psalm

The German Protestant scholar Hermann Gunkel (1862–1932) called attention to the literary categories, called genres or forms, found in the Book of Psalms, i.e., psalms that share a particular set of features, vocabulary.^[3] He further suggested that originally, psalms belonging to a particular genre tended to be used in specific settings in ancient Israel.^[4]

Among the biblical psalms belonging to the “thanksgiving” genre are Psalms 18, 30, 32, 34, 52, 116, and 118, along with Jonah 2:3–10 and Isaiah 38:10–12. Psalms of this type were probably recited in Israelite temples by individuals who had survived some crisis. Worshipers used them to thank YHWH publicly for saving them. We can imagine that people who wanted to acknowledge YHWH’s intervention on their behalf would go to a nearby temple (or, after the centralization of worship in Jerusalem, to the Jerusalem Temple), where Levites on the temple staff would help them express their gratitude in the presence of the many worshipers present that day.

Levites knew various thanksgiving psalms—probably by heart, but if they needed to, they could consult scrolls from a temple collection that served as an aid to memory and a resource for younger Levites learning these texts. Levites would select a psalm whose vocabulary, more or less, fit the person’s situation.^[5] Alternately, Levites knew the recurring elements and typical vocabulary of a proper thanksgiving psalm, so they might have improvised one that suited the difficulties worshipers described and the rescue they had experienced.

Thankful individuals often brought an offering to the altar to accompany their expression of gratitude—typically, we may surmise, the תּוֹדָה or “thanksgiving offering” described in Leviticus 7:12–15.^[6] The recitation of a thanksgiving psalm may have taken place right before an offering was brought to the altar, or perhaps as the ritual at the altar was conducted by a priest on behalf of the thankful person.

In cases where people did not bring an offering, they may instead have gone to some other public setting, such as a city gate, to give testimony about YHWH’s kindness and saving power. Because the city gate was a congregating place where official and semi-official business was conducted,^[7] scribes or Levites might have been present there, and they might have helped people recite an appropriate text. In addition, some people might have intuited the necessary elements of thanksgiving songs from hearing them over time, and they might have attempted to improvise a statement of gratitude to God on their own.

The Elements of a Thanksgiving Psalm

The worshiper who wants to express thanks for divine help often begins by stating an intention to praise YHWH for having rescued him or her.^[8] Both men and women recited prayers of this type at Israelite temples. In what follows, I avoid the clunky “he or she” and instead just use “she,” if only to remind readers that the individuals reciting these texts included females. Because most thanksgiving psalms are songs of individual worshipers, I avoid the plural term “they.”^[9]

The worshiper tells of the crisis she endured, frequently using the term צָרוֹת, “straits.” She reports that she called out to YHWH, pleading for help, often using the verbs קָרָא, “call out,” שִׁוֵּעַ, “cry for help,” and/or הִתְחַנֵּן, “plead.” Sometimes she even quotes part of the prayer of supplication she recited while in distress. Typically, she tells us that YHWH “heard” (שָׁמַע) and/or “answered” (עָנָה) her supplication, and that YHWH “saved” or “rescued” her (פָּדָה, הוֹשִׁיעַ, חִלֵּץ, and/or הִצִּיל; other verbs can occur as well).

In several cases, the worshiper announces that she is now bringing an offering to thank YHWH or to fulfill a promise she had made to YHWH during the crisis.^[10] Often the worshiper calls on her audience to acclaim YHWH. The thanksgiving sometimes concludes with a summary statement of praise and thanks.

Psalm 30, recited in the morning prayer service (שׁחרית),^[11] contains all the elements of the thanksgiving genre.^[12]

Introductory Praise

^{תהלים ל:ב} אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְ־הוָה כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי

^{Ps 30:2} I raise You up, YHWH, for You drew me out,

וְלֹא שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי.

And You did not delight my foes.^[13]

Description of the Crisis

The language emphasizes the danger the speaker faced.

^ל:ג יְ־הוָה אֱ־לֹהָי

^30:3 YHWH, my God,

שִׁוַּעְתִּי אֵלֶיךָ וַתִּרְפָּאֵנִי.

I called You, and You healed me.

^ל:ד יְ־הוָה הֶעֱלִיתָ מִן שְׁאוֹל נַפְשִׁי

^30:4 YHWH, You took me up from Sheol,

חִיִּיתַנִי מִיּוֹרְדֵי [מִיָּרְדִי] בוֹר.

You gave me life so I did not go down to the Pit.

Audience

Just after the speaker begins describing the crisis, she calls on the audience to recite a psalm of praise:

^ל:ה זַמְּרוּ לַי־הוָה חֲסִידָיו

^30:5 Hymn YHWH, O loyal ones,

וְהוֹדוּ לְזֵכֶר קָדְשׁוֹ.

Give thanks unto His holy name.

^ל:ו כִּי רֶגַע בְּאַפּוֹ

^30:6 Yes: His anger—a mere moment;

חַיִּים בִּרְצוֹנוֹ

Life—through His will!

בָּעֶרֶב יָלִין בֶּכִי

At night—He puts down while weeping,

וְלַבֹּקֶר רִנָּה.

And by morning—joy!

These lines read like the opening of a psalm of praise. In fact, the two plural imperative verbs—זַמְּרוּ...וְהוֹדוּ, “Sing!...Give thanks!”—appear in the opening lines of several such psalms (Pss 33:2 and 105:1–2 and Isaiah 12:4–6). Other plural imperative verbs of praise in such psalms include הַלְלוּ, “praise,” גַּדְּלוּ, “glorify,” רוֹמְמוּ, “exalt,” and שִׁירוּ, “sing.”

Why, we might wonder, does she not tell them to recite a psalm of thanksgiving? Because the thanksgiving psalm responds to a specific, recent act of YHWH’s rescue. The person reciting the thanksgiving cannot call on random people around her to sing a thanksgiving psalm, because most of them did not just recover from a crisis.

Thus, she tells them to acclaim YHWH in a more general way. That is precisely what psalms of praise do: They deal not with a particular event that just affected the worshiper but with YHWH’s great works in the cosmos or on behalf of the whole nation Israel.^[14]

The speaker then continues the crisis description:

^ל:ז וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי בְשַׁלְוִי

^30:7 I’d said, in my tranquility,

בַּל אֶמּוֹט לְעוֹלָם.

“Never shall I stumble.”

^ל:ח יְ־הוָה בִּרְצוֹנְךָ הֶעֱמַדְתָּה

^30:8 YHWH, You were pleased to stand me up

לְהַרְרִי עֹז

As a strong mountain.

הִסְתַּרְתָּ פָנֶיךָ

You hid Your face—

הָיִיתִי נִבְהָל.

I gasped for breath!

Quoting a Crisis Psalm

The speaker specifies that she had cried out to YHWH for help while she was in distress—in other words, that she had recited a psalm of crisis.^[15] Here, as in other cases, the thanksgiving psalm even quotes that crisis psalm.^[16]

^ל:ט אֵלֶיךָ יְ־הוָה אֶקְרָא

^30:9 To You, YHWH I called I called,

וְאֶל אֲ־דֹנָי אֶתְחַנָּן.

And to my Lord I pleaded:

^ל:י מַה בֶּצַע בְּדָמִי

^30:10 “What profit’s in my blood?

בְּרִדְתִּי אֶל שָׁחַת

My going down to nothingness?

הֲיוֹדְךָ עָפָר

Will dust acknowledge You?

הֲיַגִּיד אֲמִתֶּךָ.

Will it proclaim how You come through for us?

^ל:יא שְׁמַע יְ־הוָה וְחָנֵּנִי

^30:11 Listen, YHWH! Be gracious with me!

יְ־הוָה הֱיֵה עֹזֵר לִי.

YHWH, my helper be!”

This quotation of the psalms of crisis contains three of the five elements of that genre:

1. An explanation of why YHWH should respond favorably (v. 10)^[17]
2. A vocative or call for YHWH’s attention (v. 11)
3. A plea for divine rescue (also v. 11)

Our thanksgiving psalm also alludes to two other elements of the psalm of crisis outside the quotation in verses 9–11: A description of the crisis, which occurs earlier (v. 8b) and is implied by references to death (vv. 4 and 10); and a vow to praise YHWH in public upon being rescued, which is fulfilled by Psalm 30 as a whole.^[18]

Prayer Answered!

In addition to a brief statement near the beginning of the psalm—שִׁוַּעְתִּי אֵלֶיךָ וַתִּרְפָּאֵנִי, “I called You, and You healed me” (v. 3)—the speaker provides a more expansive announcement about her rescue near the end of the prayer:

^ל:יב הָפַכְתָּ מִסְפְּדִי לְמָחוֹל לִי

^30:12 You changed my grief to dancing;

פִּתַּחְתָּ שַׂקִּי

You loos’d my sackcloth,

וַתְּאַזְּרֵנִי שִׂמְחָה.

And made delight my cloak.

Concluding Thanks

^ל:יג לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד

^30:13 So that my body sings to You,

וְלֹא יִדֹּם

And will not be still;

יְ־הוָה אֱ־לֹהַי

YHWH, my God,

לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ.

I thank You always.

Form and Flexibility

Psalm 30 also provides an example of how psalm genres can overlap. This overlap allows worshipers to use them in multiple ways.^[19] For example, because a thanksgiving psalm quotes a psalm of crisis, a person in crisis might recite what we think of as a thanksgiving psalm, focusing her attention on the section that quotes the plea she recited earlier.^[20] This flexibility in the use of these psalms becomes possible because some Hebrew verbal forms have wide ranges of meaning, so it is not difficult to reinterpret some of them to fit the situation the worshiper has in mind.^[21]

Indeed, to imagine a person reciting Psalm 30 while still in distress only requires us to understand several verses in linguistically plausible ways that depart from the thanksgiving context. In a thanksgiving psalm, the verbs referring to the way the worshiper had called out to YHWH repeatedly in prayer during the crisis (v. 9) should be rendered: “I cried again and again” (אֶקְרָא) and “I pleaded and pleaded” (אֶתְחַנָּן). But other understandings are plausible, because in biblical Hebrew this prefixed verb form, which is created by adding a prefix letter to a verbal root, is used not only to denote repeated actions in the past, but also ongoing actions in the present and actions in the future.^[22] The verbs therefore could also constitute a plea recited in the present and into the near future by a person in crisis: “I am calling to You (right now!), I am pleading (at this very moment, and for as long as I am in these dire straits!).”

Similarly, since crisis psalms conventionally include elements of thanksgiving, we could regard the thanksgiving elements as an example of what the worshiper hopes to recite after being rescued. One could also interpret the report of salvation (vv. 3–4) as quoting what the worshiper hopes to be able to say soon.^[23] Once one follows these linguistically possible routes, this psalm fits a new setting. It can function as petition rather than thanks.^[24]

Thus, biblical psalms were, on the one hand, formulaic: They used traditional vocabulary and included elements that belonged to specific genres. But they were also flexible: Worshipers—or Levites helping worshipers—could adapt them for more than one type of situation. Without even changing their wording, they could invest formulaic texts with new meaning.^[25]

In their use of formulaic elements, thanksgiving psalms demonstrate the traditionalism or the communal nature of ancient Israelite liturgy. At the same, time, these psalms also evince the ways individuals could make inherited liturgies their own.

Multiple Meanings, Several Settings

Thinking about genre allows us to realize that more than most biblical texts, psalms are not only interpreted; they are experienced and performed. Further, formulaic, repeated elements in the psalms reveals the ways that conventional prayers seem designed to become deeply personal. Their phrasing, poetic language, and certain ambiguities of Biblical Hebrew verbs combine to afford a great deal of flexibility for a worshiper reciting a psalm.

At the end of the day, the speaker of any psalm is the individual reciting it. The “I” the psalm refers to is not an ancient Israelite author but a living person. That person—whether a worshiper today or one during biblical times—decides what she means by the words and can focus her attention on some phrases that seem especially meaningful while more or less ignoring the content of other lines that she sings aloud.^[26]

The flexibility of the biblical psalms, which is especially evident in psalms of thanksgiving, helps explain why these Iron-Age prayers from the western edge of Asia remain in use today throughout the globe.^[27]

Appendix

Jonah’s “Thanksgiving” Prayer

An example of the use of a thanksgiving psalm in a crisis prayer occurs when Jonah recites a thanksgiving psalm immediately after being swallowed by a giant fish. Some of the language of this psalm fits Jonah’s situation: מִבֶּטֶן שְׁאוֹל שִׁוַּעְתִּי “From the belly of Sheol I cried out” (v. 3) reflects Jonah’s location in the stomach of the fish, and the next verse—וַתַּשְׁלִיכֵנִי מְצוּלָה בִּלְבַב יַמִּים..., “You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the sea...” (v. 4)—describes the situation he was in after the sailors threw him overboard.

In other respects, however, this psalm does not match what has happened in the story of Jonah thus far: Unlike the sailors on the ship, Jonah did not “call out” to God (v. 3). Indeed, while they were praying, he went to below the deck to take a nap (1:5). Further, at this point in the story, Jonah has not yet been fully rescued, so the references to God having saved Jonah (vv. 3 and 7) are premature.

Yet Jonah begins his prayer by announcing that he had called out to YHWH, and YHWH answered him (2:3), and ends by declaring:

^{יונה ב:י} וַאֲנִי בְּקוֹל תּוֹדָה

^{Jonah 2:10} As for me, with the sound of todah

אֶזְבְּחָה לָּךְ

Let me make an offering to You

אֲשֶׁר נָדַרְתִּי אֲשַׁלֵּמָה

Let me pay what I vowed.

יְשׁוּעָתָה לַי־הוָה.

Deliverance is YHWH’s!

The language is consistent with other thanksgiving psalms in which the worshiper announces that she has brought an offering to the altar to thank YHWH or to fulfill a promise she had made during the crisis. The word todah here refers to the thanksgiving psalm itself, since it is something one hears,^[28] but it also alludes to the classification of offerings, since Jonah announces an intention of making an offering along with the thanksgiving psalm.^[29]

While this poem is a classic example of a thanksgiving psalm, this genre seems odd in its narrative context in the book of Jonah. Would a person who just entered a fish’s stomach want to express thanks for being saved? Death by digestion, after all, is not so very preferable to death by drowning. But we can understand Jonah as reciting this poem as much to petition YHWH for rescue from the fish’s belly as to express thanks for salvation from the watery depths.