Bible verses for birthdays
The Bible says little about birthdays themselves, but much about the life a birthday marks. The psalms praise God for forming each person before birth, and they teach us to count our years wisely because life is short. A birthday is a good moment for both: thanks for the life God has given and trust for the time ahead.
These verses can be written in a card, read at a family table or prayed over someone you love. They speak of God who made us, who carries His people through every year and who finishes the work He has begun.
Made by God with care
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Ps 139:13–14 · King James Version (1769)
David praises God, who formed him in his mother’s womb. Albert Barnes explains that the word translated “possessed” in older versions here means “formed” or “created”. The growth of a child before birth was a deep mystery to Israel’s wise men, and David sees in it the wonderful work of God.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Ps 139:16 · King James Version (1769)
The Hebrew word for the unformed body means something rolled up, an embryo not yet unfolded, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. In Barnes’s words, the idea is that before David had shape or form, God saw what he would be, and his life was already written in God’s book.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Eph 2:10 · King James Version (1769)
Paul is speaking of the new, spiritual creation in Christ, not of physical birth. Believers are God’s handiwork, made new for the good works He prepared. As John Wesley notes, we walk in these works, though we are not justified by them.
Counting our days wisely
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Ps 90:12 · King James Version (1769)
The title calls this psalm a prayer of Moses, and it sets the shortness of human life against the eternity of God. Wesley sums up the request: to consider how short life is, so that we give ourselves to true wisdom. Such counting, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add, is learned from God, not by natural ability.
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Ps 118:24 · King James Version (1769)
This is a psalm of thanksgiving whose author is unknown. “The day” is a particular day of God’s deliverance: Barnes connects it with a victory over enemies, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown with the Feast of Tabernacles, and Matthew Henry reads the whole passage as pointing to Christ. Christians can still meet every day of mercy, a birthday included, with the same gladness.
It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lam 3:22–23 · King James Version (1769)
These words stand at the center of a book of grief over fallen Jerusalem. Barnes notes that the writer speaks for all who suffer. Things were dark, Henry observes, but by God’s mercy they were not worse, and fresh mercies came every morning.
For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
Prov 9:11 · King James Version (1769)
Here Wisdom speaks, and the reason she gives follows the call to fear the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see more than long years here: as bread feeds the body, wisdom gives life in the highest and truest sense.
Blessings for the year ahead
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Num 6:24–26 · King James Version (1769)
God gave this blessing to Aaron and his sons to speak over Israel. Wesley explains it as asking for every blessing, bodily and spiritual, for God’s kindness shining like the sun, and for peace with God, with one’s own conscience and with others.
Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel.
Ps 20:4 · King James Version (1769)
This psalm is the people’s prayer for their king as he goes out to battle, and his heart’s desire was victory over Israel’s enemies. In the same spirit we can pray for a friend: that God would grant the good desires of their heart and bless their plans.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Isa 46:4 · King James Version (1769)
The idols of Babylon had to be carried by their worshippers, but the Lord carries His people. “I am he” means I am the same: Barnes notes that a parent’s care fades as children grow up, but God’s care stays unchanged into old age.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Phil 1:6 · King James Version (1769)
Paul is fully convinced that God will finish what He began in the believers at Philippi. In Wesley’s words, He who justified them and began to sanctify them will carry the work on until it ends in glory at the day of Christ.
However many candles are on the cake, each new year is held in the hands of the same faithful God.