With just 5 verses, Psalm 100 is among the shortest in the Bible. However, the ability of a psalm to encourage us in the faith is not determined by how much is written, but what is written. The five verses of this Psalm are packed with encouragement for the child of God.
1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
What an excellent text to help focus us on the greatness and goodness of God. Let’s look at Psalm 100 today.
All You Lands
Though the Israelites were God’s covenant people in the days of the Psalmist, he addresses his words to “all you lands!” Psalm 98:4 parallels this, telling “all the earth” to break forth in song to the LORD. In our text, the Psalmist gives three universal commands.
We should make a joyful shout to the LORD! It is right that all creation acknowledge Him as our Maker. In looking at Psalm 148 last week, we saw that the heavens and earth should give praise to God. Heavenly bodies and beings declare His handiwork, the elements of the earth and animal kingdom proclaim the praises of God – but too often, man, the greatest of God’s creation, fails to praise Him. We are commanded to make a joyful shout to our God.
The Psalmist then gets more specific about how this should take place. What is the joyful noise? It is not unbridled noise, but singing praise. We are to come before His presence with singing. This can and should be done privately, in the midst of our day to day lives. It should also be done publicly, as we come together fellow worshipers of the one true God of heaven.
See the third command given in the text; we must serve Him with gladness. To do so, it is necessary for us to know what God’s word says. A servant cannot serve his master unless he knows the master’s will. Neither can we serve God if we are ignorant of His will.
He Is God
In a spirit of defiance, Pharaoh asked, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” (Exodus 5:2) His refusal to acknowledge the LORD would result in his son dying and his nation being devastated.
We must acknowledge the LORD as God, the Creator of all things. In our day, many deny the existence of God, believing we are just a product of chance. The writer affirms that God has made us; not only that, but calls us the sheep of His pasture.
David identified the LORD as our shepherd (Psalm 23). Jesus said that He is our Good Shepherd (John 10). What a blessing to be loved by and cared for by the Creator of all. But He is much more than our Creator – He is the One who has also saved us through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The LORD Is Good
Acknowledging that God has made us and cares for us, the writer says we ought to do a few things. He said in verse 2 that we should come before His presence to praise Him in song. One of my favourite songs to sing comes from our text in Psalm 100:
I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise; I will say this is the day that the Lord hath made, I will rejoice for He hath made me glad.
What a great thing to consider, that we can enter into the presence of God. As the writer refers to the gates and courts of God, it is not heaven itself that is spoken of, but the opportunity to be in the presence of God in the here and now through the means of worship. Elsewhere the Psalmist writes about the courts of God’s house which are in the midst of Jerusalem, the place of Jewish worship (Psalm 116:17-19). For us, the gates and courts are representative of the assembly of Christians. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). In the church (the gathering of Christians, not a physical building) we are in the presence of the Lord!
As we come together with fellow believers, may we be thankful for all the Lord has done and continues to do. Let us praise Him and exalt His name! May we acknowledge that God is good, that His mercy is beyond our comprehension, that His word is truth, and that in following it, He will guide us in the way we should go. What a blessing to serve the LORD God of heaven!
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