Praise and Giving Thanks

The First Thanksgiving, by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1914

Praise and Giving Thanks, A Biblical Study

Halal (St 1984 Hb) to praise Aineo (St 134 Gk) to praise Yadah (St 3034 Hb) to give thanks Eucharisteo (St 2168 Gk) to give thanks

Before exploring this area further, it would be worthwhile clarifying what is covered by "praising" and "giving thanks". In hebrew, two verbs translated "to praise" are yadah (St 3034 heb) and halal (St 1984 heb). The greek equivalent of halal seems to be aineo (St 134 Gk), and this can be concluded from the fact that Psalm 117 v 1 ("Praise (heb halal) the Lord") is quoted in Romans 15 v 11. In this instance, the greek equivalent of halal is aineo.

Yadah is also translated "to give thanks" in the Old Testament and, by a process of elimination, the greek equivalent of it would seem to be eucharisteo (St 2168 Gk) (a link between the two words will be explored later on). Yadah also seems to be represented in the New Testament by homologeo (St 3670 Gk) and is usually translated "profess" or "confess".

Although halal is used in expressions like "Praise the Lord" and "I will praise you (if something happens)", it does does not seem to be used in expressions like "I praise you because you ....". So praising does not seem to be directed at God in terms of expressions like "I praise you ...", but seems to be limited to statements spoken about what God is, or to promises to praise God in the future. For example, Psalms 146 - 150 are psalms which contain many praise statements (heb halal), and say things about God and not things to him.

(Psalm 145 is called "David's psalm of praise". The hebrew word translated "praise" here is tehillah, which is related to halal. This psalm contains statements made to God, e.g. v1 "I will extol thee my God, O king", as well as statements about him, e.g. v 14 "The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down". The references to praising (heb halal) in the psalm are in verses 2 and 3 ("I will praise thy name for ever and ever" and "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised"). The expression in verse 3 "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised" is what previous observations have led us to expect from a "praise" statement (i.e. a statement about God). So the psalm can be termed a tehillah because it contains praise statements, the fact that it contains other expressions as well like the self judgements found in a tephillah does not invalidate this.)

Aineo, the greek equivalent of halal, is used in a similar way, i.e. in making statements about God (e.g. Luke 2 v 14 "Glory (gk aineo) to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men").

The verb yadah mostly seems to be used in a similar way to halal, in that it is either used in statements which are spoken about God, e.g. "O give thanks unto Yahweh" (Psalm 105 v 1), or it is used in statements which promise to thank him, e.g. "I will greatly praise (heb yadah - give thanks) Yahweh with my mouth" (Psalm 109 v 30). However, there does seem to be one instance where the verb yadah is used in an expression of the form "I thank you Lord ...". Psalm 75 v 1 says

"We give thanks (heb yadah) to you God, we give thanks (heb yadah) and your name is near, your wonderful works declare" (suggested translation).

There are a couple of similar expressions to Psalm 75 in the New Testament, where "to thank" is represented in the greek by the verb eucharisteo. So in John 11 v 41 Jesus says, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me", and in Revelation 11 v 17 the twenty four elders say "we give thee thanks , O Lord God Almighty ... because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned".

(Some uses of yadah, which are picked up in the New Testament by the word homologeo, seem to fall firmly into the "talk about" rather than the "talk to" category.

Confession and Giving Thanks

Looking closer at the hebrew word yadah, it is clear that we need to be a bit more specific about what form of the verb we are considering. Just like the verb palal, we need to make a distinction between the Hithpa`el form of the verb and the other forms.

The Hithpa`el form of the verb (the "I do something to myself" form) is used in prayers and describes the confession of sins (for example Daniel's prayer in chapter 9 includes this sort of confession (v 4)). The other form of the verb which we are interested in (the Hiph`il form) has the idea of confessing God's works or thanking him.

The uses of the Hithpa`el and Hiph`il forms of the verb are instructive. When we confess ourselves (Hithpa`el form) we have nothing to commend ourselves with, but we are only able to relate our sins. However when we confess God, there is nothing bad to be said about him, just good things. One reason why we confess/give thanks to God is because "he is good, for his mercy is for ever" (e.g. Psalm 107 v 1 and other places).

From an examination of the use of the hebrew word yadah (to give thanks), palal/tephillah (to pray/prayer) and their related words, the possibility emerges that prayer and thanksgiving are separate, i.e. it may not be possible in scriptural terms to offer "a prayer (tephillah) of thanks". Where there is some overlap, like when the psalmist refers to giving thanks in Psalm 86 v 12 (Psalm 86 is a tephillah or prayer - title), it seems to be more in the context of what the Psalmist would do if his prayer was answered. In other passages where giving thanks/confessing is used in the same context as prayer, it is likely that giving thanks is something separate to prayer (for example in 1 Kings 8 v 33 it speaks of people "Confessing (or giving thanks - heb yadah - Hiph`il form), praying and making supplication").

If giving thanks to Yahweh is not prayer in the sense of a tephillah, how does this fit in with what has been discovered about the meaning of prayer? The likelihood is that scripture separates between the two to emphasize the "before and after" relationship that can exist between them.
It has been seen that prayer (heb tephillah) can contain supplication or requests for God to be gracious. The following quotations indicate that thanksgiving is a response to God being gracious, i.e. it is something that comes after prayer is offered to God and has been answered.

Psalm 6 v 2, 5:
"Have mercy upon me (lit "be gracious to me") Yahweh ... for in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?".
Psalm 30 v 4 - 12:
"Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness ... Hear O Lord and be gracious (AV have mercy) upon me ... O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever".
Psalm 111 v 1 - 4:
"I will give thanks to (AV praise) the Lord with my whole heart ... he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion".
Psalm 145 v 8 - 10:
"The Lord is gracious and merciful (AV full of mercy - heb rachum) ... The Lord is good to all: and his mercies (AV tender mercies - heb rachamim) are over all his works. All thy works shall give thanks to (AV praise) thee, O Lord; and all thy saints shall bless thee".

The first 3 passages show that giving thanks results from remembering that Yahweh is gracious. In addition they indicate that, because God is gracious, his works involve showing grace. Psalm 145 then shows these works lead to the salvation of the saints, which means that the saints can be considered to be part of his works. In turn, the saints (his works) give thanks for the grace shown to them (see Psalm 145 v 10).

The foregoing raises the question of whether it is appropriate to offer thanks for things which we have not asked for. So it may be inappropriate to offer thanks for food at meal times, if we have not asked for it to be provided in the first place (see Matthew 6 v 11) and are not mindful of where it comes from.

Earlier, Psalm 111 v 1 - 4 was quoted, which contains the statements "I will give thanks to the Lord .... he hath made his wonderful works to be remembered". This shows that giving thanks arises from remembering Yahweh's wonderful works (heb niphle'oth). These wonderful works are referred to again in Psalm 26 v 7 which speaks of the psalmist wishing to publish "with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell (heb saphar or count) all your wonderful works (heb niphle'oth)". These instances of giving thanks from remembering and counting Yahweh's works, suggest that giving thanks should be a result of recalling specific things.

The path from confession to thanks

The greek word translated "to give thanks" is made up of two parts, eu meaning "well" and "charisteo" meaning "to be gracious". The relationship between grace (greek "charis") and giving thanks (greek "eucharisteo") found in the Old Testament can be identified in the New Testament as well. 1 Corinthians 10 v 30, which deals with food sacrificed to idols, says:
"If I by GRACE be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I GIVE THANKS".
From this passage it is seen that those who are the recipients of God's grace give thanks (explaining why giving thanks in the New Testament contains the greek word for grace as well).
Earlier in these notes it was seen that the expression "prayer and supplication" can describe the confession of sin followed by supplication or asking God to be gracious. In this section it has been seen that confession and giving thanks are different forms of the same verb in the Old Testament and that thanksgiving is a response to God showing grace or hearing supplication. So we can now write this sequence:

Confession of self (sin) -> Supplication (part of prayer) - >God being gracious - > Giving thanks. (Hithpa`el form of Yadah) (Hiph`il form of Yadah)