If there is any psalm in the Book of Psalms that
tells us how to enter into God’s presence, it is Psalm 100. It is truly
one of the most concise yet enlightening or informative psalms of PRAISE or of THANKSGIVING
in the Bible. Let’s go through it line by line.
Psalm 100:1 “Make a JOYFUL noise unto the Lord, all
ye lands.”
God wants us to be HAPPY in Him. He says “the JOY of the
Lord is your strength,” Nehemiah 8:10b. Elsewhere in the psalms we read,
“That there be no complaining in our streets. HAPPY is that people, that is in
such a case: (in other words, HAPPY are the people who aren’t complaining), HAPPY
is that people whose God is the Lord,” Psalm 144:14b-15.
When I was discouraged through the death of my forty-five-year-old
son, a friend of mine called me on the phone. She told me that she noticed that
I wasn’t HAPPY. She said that though I was talking victory, and how everything
would work together for good, it seemed as if I was under a cloud of
discouragement. She told me that I needed to fight to regain the JOY of the
Lord. I needed to fight for JOY, because the enemy was trying to defeat me.
When she said that, it seemed like the light went on in my head and the Holy
Spirit was speaking through her. From that point on, I made fighting for JOY my
goal. Suddenly, I couldn’t read the Bible without coming across the many verses
that talk about JOY, HAPPINESS, GLADNESS, PRAISE and THANKSGIVING.
After David had committed adultery and murder in the case of
Uriah the Hittite, and was exposed for he deeds by the Prophet Nathan, David
prayed, “Make me to hear JOY and GLADNESS; that the bones which You have broken
may REJOICE….Restore unto me the JOY of Your salvation,” Psalm 51:8 &
12a.
David’s spirit had fallen into darkness through his sin. Unconfessed
sin separates us from God. On being found out, though he was physically, and mentally
broken and emotionally discouraged with his failings, he asked God to “renew a
right spirit” within him. He asked God to bring HAPPINESS and JOY back into his
life. He had first experienced that JOY in his relationship with God through
the Holy Spirit on being anointed by Samuel to be the new king of Israel. Samuel’s
anointing of the young David with oil was symbolic of the Holy Spirit coming
upon him. In 1st Samuel we read, “and the spirit of the Lord
came upon David from that day forward,” 1 Samuel 16:13b.
One of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit, and
the second mentioned by Apostle Paul in his list of nine characteristics, is “JOY.”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law,” Galatians
5:22-23.
Rather than murmuring and complaining, God wants us to be JOYFUL,
HAPPY, and THANKFUL.
Apostle Paul warns us against murmuring when he says, “Neither
murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they were written
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come,” 1 Corinthians
10:10-11.
Apostle Paul was talking about the children of Israel who
had come out of Egypt and had complained at every stage of their journey, and
who were finally destroyed because of their complaining. In Romans, he
gives a classic example of what happens to a believer who does not maintain a THANKFUL
and JOYFUL heart.
Romans 1:20 “Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were they THANKFUL: but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
In Ephesians, we see something similar. “Let no
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, (no murmuring and
complaining), but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and
anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.
And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you,” Ephesians 4:29-32.
If we turn away from THANKFULNESS and JOY, we can easily
fall into murmuring and complaining. Like Nick Vujicic said, “You’re either going
to be a THANKFUL person or a bitter person, one or the other. I’ve never met a THANKFUL
person who was bitter, or a bitter person who was THANKFUL.” Let us strive
therefore to be THANKFUL.
Apostle Paul wrote elsewhere, “In everything give THANKS,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” 1 Thessalonians
5:18.
Apostle James warns us. “But if you have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom
descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying
and strife, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from
above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace,” James 3:14-18.
Then in Hebrews we see, “Wherefore lift up the hands
which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed,”
Hebrews 12:12-13.
The author of Hebrews is reminding us that when we go
through a period of chastisement or what seems like correction from the Lord, we
should not let discouragement defeat us. We need to fight discouragement, straighten
up our posture, lift up our hands in PRAISE to God, and get back into following
Jesus once again. PRAISE and THANKSGIVING bring victory and defeat
discouragement. That is why we need to make a JOYFUL noise unto the Lord.
Psalm 100:2 “Serve the Lord with GLADNESS: enter into
His presence with SINGING.”
In Psalm 22:3, it says that God, “inhabits the PRAISES
of Israel.” In Hebrews 13:15, we read, “therefore let us offer the
sacrifice of PRAISE to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving THANKS
to His name.” In Psalm 32:11, the psalm finishes, “Be GLAD in the Lord,
and REJOICE ye righteous: and shout for JOY, all you that are upright in
heart.”
There is something powerful about giving PRAISE and THANKSGIVING
to God. The Holy Spirit dwells in our songs and words of THANKSGIVING and PRAISE.
Apostle Paul admonishes to, “REJOICE in the Lord, and again I say, REJOICE,” Philippians
4:4. He goes further and teaches us how to offer our prayers to the Lord.
Philippians 4:6-8 “Be careful (or anxious) for
nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let
your request be known unto God. And the peace of God which passes all
understanding, shall fill your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be
any PRAISE, think on these things.”
Apostle Paul is reminding us to bring our supplications to
God in the spirit of THANKSGIVING, similar to what we see a bit further down in
Psalm 100.
Psalm 100:3-4 “Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is
He that has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of
His pasture. Enter into His gates with THANKSGIVING, and into His courts with PRAISE;
be THANKFUL unto Him and bless (or PRAISE) His name.”
The proverbs tell us that the beginning of knowledge or of the
understanding of life is, “the fear of the Lord,” Proverbs 1:7. By
starting with God as our initial assumption in all our thinking and being, we
are starting with a “fear of the Lord.” God is the prerequisite necessary to
understand life. It is not, “I think, therefore, I am,” but rather, “God
thinks. He is the great I am. Therefore, I am able to think, having been
created in His image.” That is why Saint Augustine said, “Seek not to
understand that you might believe, but rather, seek to believe that you might
understand.” It’s belief in the invisible God known through Creation, and the
revelation of Himself in Scripture, and through life experiences, that gives us
understanding.
It is through our THANKSGIVING and PRAISE and humility of
heart that we enter into His presence.
James 4:6b & 10 “God resists the proud, but gives
grace unto the humble….Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall
lift you up.”
Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good, His mercy is
everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations.”
God’s truth is not beyond our grasp. It endures to all
generations. It is up to each of us to seek it out. Jesus said, “Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you,” Matthew 7:7.
In the Old Testament, we read, “And you shall seek
Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah
29:13. In Deuteronomy 30:11-14 we find, “For this commandment which
I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is
not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and
bring it unto us, that we may hear it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you
should say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we
may hear it, and do it?’ But the word is very nigh unto you, in your mouth, and
in your heart, that you may do it.”
God has put a moral guide, our conscience, within each human
being, the “Light, which lightens every man that comes into the world,” John
1:9b. He has revealed Himself in His creation, if we look for Him with an
open heart. Apostle Paul has warned, “For the invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,”
Romans 1:20.
King David, likewise wrote, “The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day (they) utter
speech, and night unto night (they) show knowledge. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard….and their words to the end of the
world,” Psalm 19:1-4b.
God’s truth is out there. We just have to be open and look
for it and we will find it. His truth endures to all generations. We all are
without excuse. Like Pascal has written, “God has willed to make Himself quite
recognisable to those who sincerely seek Him, and thus, willing to appear quite
openly to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those
who flee from Him with all their heart, He so regulates the knowledge of
Himself that He has given signs of Himself, visible to those that seek Him, and
not to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire
to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.” Pensées
by Blaise Pascal under “Morality and Doctrine.”
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