Psalm 100

Scripture

Psalm 100 KJV 1900

A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: It is he that hath 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 his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations.

Make a Joyful Noise

This Psalm is titled in our Bibles A Psalm of Praise. It certainly is that. In study I found that in more ancient times the title was perhaps A Psalm of Confession. Not necessarily confession in the sense of admission of guilt or wrongdoing but confession in the sense of declaration or proclamation. The word Thanksgiving in verse 4 has a sense of confession so it is not unwarranted that the title had been one thing and is now another as languages shifted from one to another and also within themselves. In introduction I have also jumped ahead in the Psalm. Lets begin at the beginning tonight.

The Psalm invites us in as participators of this praise toward God. it opens MAKE a joy noise unto the Lord all ye lands. We could see this as a command or an invitation. Truthfully it is probably both. To the unregenerate sinner it would seem an onerous command to make a joyful noise to the Lord, to the ruler of heaven and earth that the sinner has not surrendered to. Yet to the redeemed it is an invitation to bring praise to the one we willingly serve. Let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord who has made and redeemed us!

What is meant by this joyful noise? I do not want to get too bogged down in words tonight but I found the discussion of this command fascinating. In my study for this sermon tonight I discovered that I have a wealth of resources from around 1700 years ago. Around this time Christianity became legal and since it was no more fighting for its very existence it began to settle doctrinal disputes and bring unity to the worldwide church. Because of this we find a great wealth of scholarship from this time. In reading some of these writers I found they used a single word for the whole phrase “Make a joyful noise.”

It is one Greek word and there is a correlating English word that I had never heard. This introduction says “Jubilate unto the Lord” We have often used this verse as a reason that even the most musically incapable should sound forth their praise unto God! Guess what? It sort of fits! To Jubilate is to shout a shout of praise, a noise of joy, a shout of victory, to shout triumphantly! Have you seen anyone be blessed and they make a noise of praise? A shout of Amen, or even a noise of jubilation that has neither description nor spelling? That is making a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Make a Joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. In every time and in every place, Wherever children of the Lord are found there should be the shout of victory, praise, and Joy!

Serve the Lord with Gladness

The next invitation in this Psalm is to serve the Lord with Gladness. We were created and born to serve. We cannot avoid this reality. We were born servants or slaves to sin. We can become servants or slaves of God. Yet this service to God is not a drudgery for His yoke is easy and His burden is light!

In the Old Testament law God set up provisions and protections for those of His people who found themselves enslaved by other Hebrews. The slavery could only last 6 years and on the seventh the slave must be set free and sent out with provisions for a new start in life. Yet there was another practice. If the slave found the master to be good, one who cared for his slaves as people rather than property, who provided for their needs and did not make unreasonable demands a person could elect to become a love slave. This person was then committed to being the servant of the other for the rest of their lives. Offering their lifelong service to a good master, who in turn was required to provide for the slave for the rest of slaves life. If life was sure to be better under this good master it made sense to become a lifelong servant of theirs for the lifelong provision they would provide.

Our service to God is in many senses similar to this practice of becoming a love slave. We elect to become His servants and obey His commands, knowing that He is good, He is kind, His yoke is easy and His burden is light, knowing His provision is perfect, knowing His love is eternal and His care endless. Being a Love slave of God is a glad service! I am not sure that there is any way to truly serve the Lord but with Gladness!

Come Before His Presence with Singing

Another invitation is made. Those who serve the Lord with gladness are invited to come into the presence of the Lord. We are so unworthy to be in the presence of the God, but we are invited to come into His presence with joyful singing. Joyful singing is not always that lifting of the voice in exultant praise but I think sometimes the quiet whisper of the hear. The silent thanksgiving done in a moment alone or in a crowd as we recognize the grace and provision of God. For is He not always with us? Are we not always in His presence though our sense of His presence ebbs and flows, He is always near His children. Come before His presence and joyfully sing. Whether that is done by entering the sanctuary of worship and lifting your voice is praise or in the quiet moments of heart rejoicing.

Know Ye that the Lord he is God

So far we have been invited to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, to Serve Him with Gladness, and to Come before His presence with Singing. Well, if we are to do all this before the Lord we ought to know who the Lord is. You see today we use the words Lord and God interchangeably, but if note in your Bibles the full capitalization of the word LORD. This means it is dealing with a proper name of God. Since I am trying not to get too bogged down in words tonight I won’t try to decipher the whole discussion of this Hebrew word causing the all-caps writing of LORD. It seems to be a combination of Yahweh and Adonai. Well, who is this Adonai that we are submitting ourselves to, that we are making our Lord and ruler? He is God. He is the divine creator, the ruler not only of us, but of Heaven and earth, the eternal one. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves, and it is His people that we are. He has rulership over us for He created us. Whether or not we submit to Him he is God over all. We cannot escape His authority nor can we lift ourselves up in any way. Have we done good things? Thank God, He is the creator. Have we submitted to His Rule? Thank God, He made us able to serve Him and not we ourselves. Have we obeyed His word? Thank God! It is through His ongoing mercy and grace acting in our lives that we are able to serve Him! We are weak, foolish, and feeble sheep. We cannot have pride for anything we do or become for we are not our own creation, nor are we our own source of strength or sustenance.

Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving

We are again given an invitation. Enter into His gates. This can be taken in a variety of ways. In the figurative sense it can be seen as entering into his prescence and a different literary way to say what verse 2 has already said. It can also be an entering into His salvation. The word thanksgiving was translated in the latin vulgate confession. Both connotations are found. Enter into the gates of salvation with confession. There is no other way to enter into His gates than to confess ones sin, and to confess Christ as Lord. This is no works salvation, but there can be no salvation without our confessing our guilt and our new allegiance. And yet that confession of guilt shifts to a thanksgiving or a confession of praise. One day that entering in at His gates will no more be figurative but literal. Until that day we ought to live lives of thanksgiving and confession. Not confession in the sense of confession of continued sin and continued disregard for the Lord but confession that it is not in our own strenght that we now live, but rather in His. Thanksgiving for his ongoing grace and mercy in our lives, not grace and mercy for sin, but grace and mercy that we daily lean on to live without sin, that we daily lean on in our ignorance and infirmity. Jesus Christ used this same word in praise to God and we know He confessed no guilt for He truly was guiltless. We out to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise for though once we were guilty our sins have been wiped away, the record of them destroyed, only remembered by the great Accuser and the vile creatures we once were have been changed to be guiltless before the Father! Be thankful to Him and bless his name for the grace and mercy he has shown and continues to show to you and I!

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting

It was my intention to focus tonight’s thoughts on this phrase and yet as I begin what was to be the crux of the message I have already nearly used the time I intended to use. Yet let us not hurry through such a thought. As we worship God we are fed spiritually. As creature who need to worship, just as we need food and water, we find worship for the right thing filling or fulfilling and satisfying a need in our souls that no other thing, no other avenue of worship could ever fulfill. Are you empty, are you dry? Have you tried praising God? Have you worshiped on principle rather than on emotion? Try it. This may help fill that emptiness and take away the dryness. The Lord is good!

Yet I really wanted to focus in tonight on the next phrase. His mercy is everlasting. His mercy has no end. He will not cease to be merciful. After he has freed us from the bondage of sin his mercy for us does not cease. It is thought his mercy that we are not just forgiven from sin but then protected unto life eternal. Yet also His mercy does not end if we fail. It is everlasting. His mercy is limitless and everlasting. Some have taught that there is a limit to the mercy of God, and while I certainly believe that we can find ourselves in a place where we reject his mercy so much that we no longer recognize its activity in our lives I do not believe that it is His mercy that ceases but rather our response and recognition.

12 men had a special privilege on earth of living with and learning from Jesus in a way that no one else got. They were recipients of God’s mercy. 3 of them I believe we special recipients of God’s mercy in a greater way. Those three in my mind were Thomas, Peter, and Judas. Peter recieved mercy in that after He had rejected Jesus He was restored both spiritually and positionally. He did not deserve this restoration for in an effort to save either his skin or His reputation he denied the one he knew was the Christ 3 times. Yet, he was restored through God’s mercy.

Thomas has been given the moniker Doubting Thomas for demanding to touch the wounds of Jesus to believe, yet Jesus through His mercy allowed Thomas to do so! Though witnesses proclaimed Jesus Thomas refused to believe, though Jesus had tried to explain the prophecies to them Thomas refused to believe. He was a dedicated follower and yet he doubted. Jesus, through His everlasting mercy did not cast him out and instead calmed his doubts and proved Himself in a special way to Thomas.

Judas I believe also recieved this everlasting mercy though he denied it. When Judas saw that Jesus was convicted his heart broke within him. He confronted the temple priests and told them that Jesus was innocent, and the that he, Judas had sinned in betraying innocent blood. I believe this was the working of the mercy of God on Judas. He recognized his wrong, he was confronted with the truth of what he had done and he had a chance to throw himself at the feet of Jesus and beg for mercy. Yet he did not. Perhaps out of a sense of justice he went out and hanged himself, bringing justly deserved eternal punishment upon himself. He had spent years with Jesus who taught of the mercy and forgiveness from God, yet he rejected that mercy, and took justice into his own hands. It was not God who’s mercy was ended, rather it was Judas who would not respond.

Perhaps you are one of these three. I want to remind you that the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting. Peter, though he rejecting blessing beyond measure when as one of the 12 he denied Christ found mercy. Have you been blessed by knowing God and yet come to place of rejecting him? The Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting. His mercy still calls out for you.

Have you known Jesus as Thomas and yet doubted that he really can do what he has promised? Have you said that you would not believe God until you saw Him moving? You are not out of the reach of His mercy. The Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting.

Have you like Judas sold out Jesus for earthly gain? Do you now recognize the sin and foolishness of such action? That is God’s mercy extended unto you. What will you do with His mercy?

The Lord is Good. His mercy is everlasting. Leave justice up to God and accept the mercy shown by Him.

His truth endures

Not only does His mercy edures, so does His truth. The truth of the gospel, the truth of His word, the truth of forgiveness for sinners remains. His truth endureth to all generations. That means us today. This book is not a dead book about dead people with a dead message, but it is the living Word of our Living Lord who makes alive those who once were dead in sin. Because of this we ought to Make a joyful noise and to Serve the Lord with Gladness. We to know that our Lord is God and that we are His and he always takes care of His own. We ought to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and give him praise. Let us be thankful to Him for He is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations