Thanks Be To God – Travelling Light

A joyful song of thanks, perhaps suitable for the end of a service. Congregational.

Psalm 136:1; Ephesians 5:20
Themes: church, thanks. prayer, forgiveness, creation
Download sheet music

Not being a constantly thankful person, I was surprised when I started to write this song that I had enough ‘thank you’s to fill sixteen verses, let alone six. I kept to six, despite Weslyan precedent.

This song got an update for our church’s 40th anniversary in 2009.

Thanks be to God, who made our world,
Inspired it with His breath,
Created us, and cares for each
Through birth and life and death.

Thanks be to God, who feeds His world,
Enough for all to share,
But asks us all to realise
This task – the call to care.

Thanks be to God, who through His Son
Shows us the path to tread,
And by His Spirit leads us on,
Feeds us His holy bread.

Thanks be to God, who hears us when
We come to him in prayer,
And answers us, if we would hear
The still, small voice that’s there.

Thanks be to God, who by His grace
Forgives us when we sin,
And calls us all to do the same,
To heal the hurts within.

Thanks be to God, our Lord, our friend,
Our constant one in three
Who tends our wounds and calms our fears
And longs to set us free.

—

(2009 anniversary version)

Thanks be to God, who made our world,
Inspired it with His breath,
Created us, and cares for each
Through birth and life and death.

Thanks be to God, who called us here
To join our hearts as one,
To sing his praises, share his Spirit,
Learn from Christ his Son.

Thanks be to God, who by His grace
Forgives us when we sin,
And calls us all to do the same,
To heal the hurts within.

Thanks be to God, who hears us when
We come to him in prayer,
And answers us, if we would hear
The still, small voice that’s there.

Thanks be to God, our Lord, our friend,
Our constant one in three
Who tends our wounds and calms our fears
And longs to set us free.

Thanks be to God who is our guide
On paths we may not see,
For all that’s past, and is today,
And all that’s yet to be.

Picture credit: Flikr / Nate Grigg