Psalms and Prayers for Ice and Snow
I grew up in Chicago, where snow is a frequent fact of winter. We took note of the first snow and significant snowfalls, and every once in a while, an actual blizzard would come to shut down work and school. The danger in such a storm is often greater from ice than from snow; ice can cut power, damage homes, and lead to accidents on walks and roads. As a child, I wasn’t often worried about the ice. Instead, a storm on the horizon made me hope for a snow day.
A snow day is a special kind of grace. There’s grace in the snow, which covers the dirt, just as God covers our sin. There’s also grace in the day: a whole day free, unearned, of wonder and play. I live in South Louisiana now, where the snow is rare. However, when it does come, four inches of snow can shut us down for four days!
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This article collects psalms and prayers related to ice and snow (don’t miss the winter hymn at the end!). May God protect us from bitter weather and prompt us to praise him for his power and his grace.
Ice and Snow in the Psalms
Winter storms are powerful and irresistible. They come with ice and snow, sometimes for days on end, because God is the maker of all things; such storms manifest the power of God and the swift operation of his word.
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?
Psalm 147:15-17
God sometimes uses this power to a destructive effect, as in the hail that he sent on Egypt, the seventh plague of hail, which ruined the crops and killed the livestock of Egypt:
He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.
Psalm 78:47-48
Given their destructive power, it may seem strange that ice and snow can worship God. The psalmist exhorts them to such praise, since they obey him and fulfill his word.
Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!
Psalm 148:7-8
Yet snow in the psalms is not only a demonstration of power; it is also a symbol of grace. As the snow covers the dirt, so God covers our sin and makes us as white as the snow:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:7
Ice and Snow in Isaiah
Snow is also a sign of grace in the book of Isaiah:
Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Isaiah 1:18
Moreover, snow blesses the land by storing water until the spring, when it melts and waters the earth. Isaiah uses this image to describe the word of God, which God does not send to the planet in vain:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11
Most fascinating, hail appears in Isaiah as a force of God’s destruction, but one aimed at those who have made a covenant with death:
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter. Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.
Isaiah 28:17-18
In this light, we can see how ice and snow point to the ultimate destruction of death. Though winter is in one sense a sign of death, the deeper meaning of a snowy graveyard is the hope of resurrection.
Prayers for Ice and Snow
The Song of Creation
Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, * O heavens and all waters above the heavens. Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *praise him and highly exalt him for ever. Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew, * all winds and fire and heat, Winter and summer, glorify the Lord, *praise him and highly exalt him for ever. Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, * drops of dew and flakes of snow. Frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, * praise him and highly exalt him for ever. Glorify the Lord, O nights and days, * O shining light and enfolding dark. Storm clouds and thunderbolts, glorify the Lord, * praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
“Benedicite, Omnia Opera,” in The Book of Common Prayer (Huntington, CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019), 87.
In Times of Natural Disaster
Almighty God, by your Word you laid the foundations of the earth, set the bounds of the sea, and still the wind and waves. Surround us with your grace and peace, and preserve us through this storm [or ________]. By your Spirit, lift up those who have fallen, strengthen those who work to rescue or rebuild, and fill us with the hope of your new creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (2019), 654
In The Bleak Midwinter (by Christina Rossetti)
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak midwinter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,—
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
Image: North Yorkshire Churchyard, by SteveAllenPhoto, courtesy of Canva.
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