THE WHOLE THING
Psalm 100:1-5 NKJV
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.
Let’s just do the whole psalm today for our devotional. It’s only five verses, but they sure pack a punch.
Make a joyful shout to the Lord. The people who wrote the psalms had an understanding of how awesome God is and how worthy He is of our praise. When David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem, he was not shy about rejoicing before the Lord. One of his wives scolded him for his exuberance, and David shut her down. He basically told her that he was planning to be more expressive.
Serve the Lord with gladness. This is something we do for Him. However we serve, it is to bless the Lord and His people. And whatever we do for Him, we need to be glad about it. Serving the Lord is more than what He does for us. This is our return, one of the ways we say thank you. And we come before His presence with singing. Joyful shouting, serving with gladness, and singing; there is nothing sad about our God.
Verse three is simple but so profound. Know that the Lord, He is God. That sounds blatantly obvious, and yet so many do not seem to know that. He is God. Not money. Not power. Not famous people. Not success. Not pleasure. Not fame. All of those are poor substitutes for the real God. And God is the One who has made us, and we did not make ourselves—a big amen to that. We did not evolve. We did not just happen. God made us. One translation says He made us, and we are His. We are His people belonging to Him. The sheep of His pasture. That visual may not sound appealing, but if the Lord says I am His sheep, then my response is bah bah!
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, not begging. Enter His courts with praise. In the days when kings ruled in their courts, there was a certain protocol as to how you entered the court of the king. In the court of heaven, the highest court of all, there is a protocol. We enter, thanking Him and praising Him. We enter without complaints. We come into His court and bless His name.
We are thankful and praising because we know that the Lord is good. His goodness has been extended to us. We should be eternally grateful and relieved that the Lord is good. And that His mercy is everlasting. We may run short of mercy, but He never does, and that is good for those of us who need His mercy. I am so glad that when I missed it, His mercy was there, and I did not have to be afraid that I would catch God on a bad day. He is good. His mercy never runs out, and His truth is eternal. Truth, on this earth, seems to be running in short supply. We must pay closer attention to discern if what we are hearing and seeing is true. But God’s truth, in His word, is true yesterday, today, and forever. Praise the Lord!