Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.

Serve the LORD with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the LORD Himself is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the LORD is good;

His lovingkindness is everlasting

And His faithfulness to all generations.

—Psalm 100

I have no idea if there’s any empirical evidence to support the claim, but I’ve always appreciated the saying that you can’t be anxious and grateful at the same time. Anxiety is a beast. A raving, joy-stealing beast. And in a world where there are so many opportunities to encounter anxiety, it’s good to know there’s something we can actively do to fight against it. 

Walking Through Miscarriage and Holiday Anxiety

If you’ve been following me for the last six months, you probably already know that in August, my husband and I lost our first pregnancy to miscarriage. It’s been a journey to heal physically and emotionally from that loss, but I’ve found that as I approach the holidays—the time when we were planning on telling our families— anxiety has begun to creep into my heart.

Will I be able to get pregnant again? When I do, will everything be okay? Will I have more miscarriages? Will I ever get to hold any of my babies? There are so many questions swirling in my mind and heart.

Psalm 100 and Anxiety

Yesterday morning, one of the pastors at my church, who has been open about walking through miscarriage, preached on Psalm 100. As he was walking through the psalm verse by verse, I sensed God pointing my attention to all those questions and others that commonly accompany anxiety. And I noticed something. Every last thought or question that I could think of was focused on the unknown.

That may not be the most revolutionary idea out there about anxiety, but it painted the psalm in a new light for me. It’s all about worship and thanksgiving—quite timely for the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And as we worked through the psalm, it reminded me that thanksgiving is rooted in celebrating what we do know. It’s quite literally the antithesis of anxiety.

This happens twice in the psalm. First, in verse three, and then again in verse five, the psalmist not only recounts things he knows about God, but he also commands his heart to know these things about God. Those truths—that God is our Creator and full of lovingkindness and faithfulness—serve as the basis of his thanksgiving. 

The result of this thanksgiving is what I imagine to be the precise formula for what kind of life God wants us to live—peace + humility + joy.

Three Results of Biblical Thanksgiving: Peace, Humility, and Joy

We see peace in the imagery of ourselves as “the sheep of His pasture” in verse three. It’s the same imagery that we all know from Psalm 23. God is the shepherd. We are the sheep. And He’s fully and completely provided for us. There are no unknown threats or variables to be anxious about, and the result is that we are made to lie down in green pastures.

Humility can be found in verse three as well. The psalmist writes, “It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.” It’s a pointed reminder that may seem unnecessary, but I think humility is a more important part of the equation than we might initially think.

It’s true that the Bible says God desires for us to be humble, but it’s not just an arbitrary desire. There’s a purpose. Thanksgiving is the act of giving thanks in return for something you’ve already been given. The thing is, it’s pretty hard to give thanks if we aren’t first humble enough to admit that we aren’t the source of the gift. This humility helps put us in a right relationship to God and can open the door to deeper intimacy and blessing.

And then there’s joy. Joy is sprinkled and splashed all the way through this psalm. It’s the natural overflow that occurs when we choose to recognize how much goodness we’ve been given by God. According to the psalmist, it isn’t just an overflow of emotion. It’s also an overflow of shouting, singing, and service in celebration of what we’ve been given.

How to Practice Biblical Thanksgiving This Holiday Season

Going through Psalm 100 has really changed the way I see Thanksgiving. It can so easily become another secular holiday when we get together with family and eat way too much, but it’s also an opportunity. An opportunity for us to truly wage war on the anxiety and fear in our lives. Who can maintain any anxious thoughts when surrounded by the peace, humility, and joy that come with truly giving thanks to God through meditating on how He has blessed us?

As we approach this holiday, let’s make a conscious effort to intentionally spend time following the instructions in Psalm 100. Let’s praise God. Remind ourselves who He is and who we are. Teach our hearts to know and remember that God is good and faithful and kind. Let’s openly, loudly celebrate all God has done for us. And in the process, let’s leave those anxious thoughts behind.