Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 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.
Psalm 100 HOW DO WE WORSHIP GOD WITH GLADNESS?
Springford Baptist Church: July 18, 2021.
I am often surprised by how grateful people remain who are going through very difficult times. Those who have learned to worship God with gladness have understood that worship is recognizing God for Who He is and responding to Him with who we are. Worship directed toward God is not dependent on or controlled by our circumstances.
We can all think of times in our lives when things seemed easier. Lately conversations that I am having with people involve a recalling of what they used to enjoy and how confined and constrained things have been as we have had to face the restrictions of the pandemic. Some people looking around at our world and hearing reports of forest fires, droughts, and floods would wonder how we could even think of worshipping God with gladness.
Thankfulness to God needs to be fresh. It cannot be confined to the yesterdays when life might have seemed more pleasant and satisfying and uncomplicated by health issues, grief and loss, and other disappointments and limitations.
When we deliberately choose to approach God “With Thanksgiving” as we are instructed to do in Psalm 100 it changes our whole outlook. Gratitude, deep thankfulness from our hearts turned toward our God does transform us.
We draw near to God when we worship Him with gladness.
There is opportunity to come to God in an attitude of thanks every day!
We can come to God giving thanks for:
What He has done-REMEMBER
What He is doing-CELEBRATE
What He will do-PRAY
How does this transform us? Because our gratitude reinforces for us how much God loves us! This is a key aspect of recognizing God for who He is and responding with who we are. God is love (that’s Who He is). We are loved by God with His love that endures forever (vs. 5) (that’s who we are).
We are transformed when we have affirmation that we are profoundly loved.
Think about how we feel when we receive a phone call, card or email or a facebook message…
Don’t we feel cared about knowing that someone took time to express how that person feels about us or to remind us that we are in that person’s thoughts.
The Jewish people who used this Psalm, this song, for giving thanks had specific instructions about how to bring a thank offering to the Lord.
Thank offerings (Lev. 7:12) were given in gratitude for deliverance from sickness, trouble, or death or for a blessing received.
This is a response to God’s active involvement in life. This choice of presenting thanks to God acknowledges His love and care. It recognizes that God touches our lives repeatedly with His immense love and we don’t remain unchanged when we feel His compelling love.
Thanking God with gladness for what he has done can take us back several years or just to yesterday.
Sometimes we might have the notion that the things worth remembering are the bigger things that we can see God has brought about or answered in our lives.
Recognizing reasons to give God thanks for things both big and small affirms for us that God cares about every detail of our lives and is aware of our every thought and everything that affects us. That recognition and gratitude transforms us. And so we REMEMBER. Prayer
This truth is expressed in vs. 3 “Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
The same God who gave us the gift of life, breathing life into us continues to watch over us because we are His people, we belong to Him. We do CELEBRATE PRESENT PROVISION!
We don’t just look back when we’re giving thanks to God. Our walk with God is about relationship and it needs to be fresh and up to date.
There is evidence for all of us of what God is doing right now:
We can thank God for the strength and courage He gives us for whatever we are facing. We can certainly thank God with gladness for how He is bringing us through this pandemic.
We can thank God that He is showing us that He is real.
We can thank God for the blessings both big and small that He brings into our lives.
Sometimes we focus on an unresolved situation, a seemingly unanswered prayer or a heavy burden that we are carrying. This might lead us to question Where is God? And it might blind our eyes to seeing what God is doing and how God is at work… to recognizing that our God is always with us.
Our faith in God is affirmed when we recognize that God has not forgotten us and when we can discover reasons to worship Him with gladness for what he is doing right now.
Personal gratitude is most transforming!
What is God doing in your life that you want to thank God for this morning? Let’s thank God right now. PRAYER
There is a third reason to “Enter His gates” (to come to God, to approach) with thanksgiving and to worship Him with gladness. This is because of what He will do!
If we were thanking God for what He has done and what He is doing, but didn’t have confidence that God will continue to provide and answer our prayers and demonstrate His love for us, we would have an incomplete understanding of God and of worshipping God with gladness.
It all builds doesn’t it? We trust God more and more as we understand that He has been with us and given us reason to thank Him. Our trust deepens as we see that God is active now and continues with us meeting our needs (PRESENT PROVISION). Then comes this wonderful gift of anticipation.
We thank God for all He is yet to do and our faith expands as we consider how God will respond to whatever is ahead in our lives that we don’t even know about at this time.
There are many circumstances in our lives that are beyond our control, but we can choose our attitude and if we choose an attitude of gratitude then we can find ourselves coming to worship God with gladness. If we introduce “WITH THANKSGIVING” to what has been, what is, and what will be, we will discover God in every one of these places in a profound and powerful way.
5 For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
This promise is so significant when we are praying for our families and when we are wondering what the future may hold!
What has God yet to do in your life and in the lives of those whom you love that you want to thank Him for this morning? This is faith! PRAYER