Thanksgiving in the Psalms
Psalm 100 is a bit different from other psalms. It's shorter and much more compact, but it contains a lot. Another thing that you'll notice right off the bat is that it has a different rhythm than a lot of the other psalms. Many of the other Psalms have a lot of repetition. While there is some repetition in Psalm 100, each line plays off of a different instruction or verb. Today we will look at the actions and instructions that we’re given in Psalm 100.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
Shout For Joy
Verse 1 says that we should shout for joy. It doesn’t say shout because you're frustrated, or stubbed your toe. It says to shout for joy. Yeah. Psalm 100 invites us to delight in our Lord with joy. Joy isn't something that you can legislate. We can't just get up be joyful. It doesn't work that way. Joy is something that you must first tangibly experience to respond with joy.
I'm a big European soccer fan. When the ball crosses the goal line, the response from fans is an uproar.
There's a response of joy to the reality of what just happened. A goal was scored, and the fans of that team responded with joy. The instant reaction to the reality of the ball going in the net is shouting for joy, and being overwhelmed in the moment. This is how Psalm 100 invites us into the worship of our God.
In our culture that's quite irreverent. If we all started shouting we would say that's called heckling. I don't want to encourage us to disorder and chaos. But I want us to take seriously what God's Word says. God's Word in Psalm 100 invites His people to shout for joy to the Lord. I want us to take these things seriously, to think about what it is that God is inviting us to do. So often we'll critique the Bible stating there's nothing that it tells us to do, or I don't get anything out of it. If you read Psalm 100 and you read verse 1, you at least know you're invited to shout about something. It's quite plain. The scriptures instruct us to respond out of the reality of who God is and what he's done, with an appropriate response, which is joy and gladness.
Know God
Knowing the Lord our God is the reason we can shout. It's in relationship to God. It's this personal God, who is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of David. That God, that being who served alongside and made promises to those people, is God. it's NOT a moral system of planning out your life or living out your life. Psalm 100 puts us to the test and says, this is our God. This is the one to whom we praise. This is the one reason we can be filled with joy. In a world where there are lots of frustrating things, letdowns, and obstacles. There is one being, who you know by name, who never drops the ba
Joy Expressed
Have you ever seen joy expressed? I was thinking about different illustrations of what joy looks like. Of course, joy is when my favorite team is winning. That's one-way joy is expressed, but joy expresses itself in a lot of different ways. Have you ever been to a wedding before? Have you seen a bride’s expression when she is coming down the aisle. Have you ever turned and looked at the groom’s reaction to his bride? Their looks are a joy. You can see a gladness in their very being as they become one. With that in mind, hear this again from Psalm 100. “It is He who made us and we are His”.
The Lord looks at His people with joy, with gladness. We can look to our great God with joy and with gladness. We can be thankful for His grace and for His love towards us, even in the midst of awful circumstances. We can still be thankful that we have a great God who has promised us that eventually all the evil, including the evil we experience, will one day be gone. And there will only be forever rest and forever joy with Him.
Why?
His faithfulness continues through all generations. God is faithful to his promises. He doesn't leave any generation without a witness to who he is and what he's done. For aging American Bible-believing congregations that are wondering about where the kid's at, the question is not whether God's going to keep up his end of the bargain. The question is whether we're going to participate in him keeping his end of the bargain. Will we be a part of God's faithfulness to the next generation?
I don't want you to look at Psalm 100 and see it as a checklist of things you must do. Think of how oppressive and legalistic that would be. We can become the Pharisees real quick if we want to. Psalm 100 is not a to-do list. Psalm 100 is like your dream vacation itinerary. It's the thing that you look at when you're bored at work. It's an invitation to your dream. As we look at Psalm 100, we should shout for joy to the Lord, to the God who loves you, who made the universe, knows you by name, knows all of your frustrations, all of your struggles, all of your near-death moments, and all of the darkness. Serve him with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. He knows you, and he's made himself known to you. Know that Lord, that he is God, it's he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. So enter his gates with thanksgiving, in his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good, and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.
