O Come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods (Ps. 95:1-3)

Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise (Is. 60:18)

We have a call upon us to Thanksgiving. Unto the One who has given us manifold blessings, may we not forget to render the thanks due unto His name. May this be a day of great rejoicing in each home across the nation. As our founding fathers below remind us, this is to be a day of prayer, praise, and penitence. May the simple realization of how greatly the hand of Providence has blessed us draw us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Happy Thanksgiving all! The below excerpts from Thanksgiving Proclamations would be a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving celebration.

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…No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

 It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union….

Excerpt from President Lincoln’s official Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863. This was given shortly after Lincoln’s salvation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor;….Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence….And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;….and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

President George Washington, October 3, 1789

Read the entire proclamation here.

Whereas it is the incumbent duty of communities, as well as individual persons…. to recollect the innumerable blessings conferred upon them by their all gracious Father and Benefactor; and as the season of the year is now approaching when – in imitation of the example of our venerable forefathers – a day has been invariably set apart for this laudable and religious purpose:

I … accordingly appoint Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November next, to be observed as a day of public thanksgiving and praise throughout this Commonwealth, hereby calling upon ministers and people of every denomination to assemble on the said day and … render to God the tribute of praise for His unmerited goodness towards us: in favoring us with so great a measure of health; in preserving us from desolating judgments; in so far smiling upon our trade, our liberty, and the works of our hands; …[and] in continuing to us the innocent enjoyments of social life, the means of religion, the right of private judgment, and the Holy Scriptures – which are able to enlighten and make us wise to eternal salvation…
And… it is highly becoming that we present our humble and penitent supplications to the God of all grace that He would be pleased mercifully to forgive our manifold sins., and through the sanctifying influences of His Spirit, correct our heart and manners and make us a holy and happy people; that He would be pleased to preserve to us our invaluable rights and liberties, civil and religious; to prosper the administration of the government of the United
States, and of this and other States in the Union;… to smile upon our university and all seminaries of learning so that streams may issue from them to make glad the city of our God; … to put an end to civil and religious invasions on the rights of men; and to cause the benign religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced among all the inhabitants of the earth…

John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

See this article and more in Project: Remember.

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