Psalm 100: Know the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Over the last two weeks there have been several deaths for several celebrities and well known individuals. John MacArthur, Ozzy Osborne, Hulk Hogan, Malcolm Jamal Warner. And many of these deaths were of people who held great significance to many. My news feed was filled with tributes for each of these deceased.
However, there was one other death that while extremely well known might be outside of many of your realms of influence… but likely the 2nd most significant death in mine - after JMac - would be Ryne Sandberg. After a significant battle with prostate cancer Sandberg died this past week at 65. Now if you follow baseball you probably know who that is… if not, he was the 2nd baseman for the Cubs from 1982 to 1997. All sorts of accolades - 1984 MLB MVP, 10x all star, 9x golden glover, etc. etc. Sammy Sosa and Ryne Sandberg are the reason I, as a small boy living in Wheaton, Illinois, came to like baseball. Contrary to the line from Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own”… there is crying in baseball… the days after his death last Monday will filled with tributes and mourning by Cubs fans. Including the 7th inning stretch during Friday’s game. This game featured a recorded video from when Sandberg and his family sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” on June 23rd of 2024. From the clip that aired there was something that stuck out to me. During the recorded stretch Sandberg and his family sang the song - but they were joined (whether live, or in the recording I don’t know) by a loud harmonious crowd singing along with them. This certainly is common for baseball games, but something about the clip I watched was different. It was loud singing in tribute to Sandberg.
How much more significant, and wonderful, and glorious and deserving of praise is the Lord God than any baseball player? How much more meaningful are the hymns we sing on Sunday than “Take Me Out to the Ballgame?”
At a baseball game, everyone sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, it’s just expected. So the sound of 40,520 people were singing this song on Friday’s game… yet consider verse 1… all the earth is obligated to sing to the Lord.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
The call of this Psalm is simple: Know the Lord. Praise the Lord.
In Psalm 100 we find our conclusion to both our summer series in the Psalms, but also the conclusion of the Kingly Psalms. From Ps 93 to 100 we have sing a focus on the theme that the Lord is King, he reigns over all the earth, and he is worthy of worship.
So our Psalm today concludes this section by presenting a Worship filled response to God’s reign.
This short Psalm is made up of 7 imperatives or commands.
Shout
Serve
Enter
Know
Enter
Give Thanks
Bless
I’m not going to exhaust each of these seven commands. But I will focus on several of them the first of these is shout:
Shout
Shout
And I saw an interesting picture of this last week.
Last Sunday, my family and I attended Fellowship Baptist Church in Riverside, Ca as we do whenever we visit California. And while we were blessed by our visit and participation in the service there was one particular aspect that stood out to Vanessa and I, as we discussed it after service. It wasn’t the sermon though we were blessed by Pastor Greg’s faithful exposition of the word - even in the midst of battling with cancer. It wasn’t even anything that came from the stage - but rather it was the sound of children singing. From the front of the sanctuary we heard children singing loudly - and accurately - they knew the songs and they desired to sing to the Lord. Now we are not entirely sure who it was but I have an educated guess. And it is connected to one of the first things we did when we arrived in California. On the first first full night we were there we had dinner with friends. We were supposed to meet them for dinner on our last visit but sicknesses and thunderstorms so we had a rain check. We reached out to them and for dinner. And following our conversations about church, homeschooling, work, the puritans, and life - and dinner we witnessed them gather together their children and they invited us to join them in their time of family worship. Each kid grabbed their Bible and opened to John 2. Their dad read the passage and we talked about Jesus turning water in to wine. I added some insight as appropriate, but I mostly sat back and watched. I wanted to see how this family did family worship (they have some kids older than mine) and one thing that I noticed that stuck out is that they sang during their time of family worship. And they sang a new song - not just new to us, but to them as well. They learned new songs together, to praise God as a family.
Now by Sunday, I had already begun to look at this text so when I heard kids shouting to the Lord - I immediately thought of the first verse to this Psalm which seems to be best translated as shout to the Lord. These children singing perfectly captured the meaning of this verse shout joyfully to the Lord.
In Psalm 100, we see a repeat of similar language from Psalm 98. Once again, we read that all of the world is commanded to praise God. This command is not centralized on Israel but on all the earth.
Creation is obligated to service, worship, and thanksgiving for who God is and what he has done.
But more specific than that a saved people ought to be a singing people. God has taught us how we ought to worship him and one aspect of the worship which he is worthy is with song.
No one in heaven will be complaining that the music is too loud. No one will complain that people are singing too loud. No one will complain about singing too much. Rather eternity will be filled with joyful singing to the Triune God who is most worthy of worship. We read a picture of this in Revelation 5 this morning.
Sing here so that you may prepare for eternity.
The second imperative that occurs in this Psalm is to serve.
Serve
Serve
Serve is partnered with singing in verse two. However, serve is also modified with an attitude. To serve with gladness.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
So in verse 2 we read of the next two imperatives. The first of those is to serve the Lord with gladness. When it comes to serving the Lord there should not be an attitude like that of a child being asking to do chores, or a student required to do busy work, or an employee begrudgingly completing the request of his boss.
Instead it is the desire of the heart of the believer to serve the Lord joyfully. And serving the Lord ought to further influence those things I just listed.
The New Testament regularly instructs us in 1 Cor 10:31, Col 3:17, 23, Eph 5:7 to work as if we are doing all things to the service of the Lord and not man. So whether it is housework, schoolwork, church-work, work-work or leisure do all things as if serving the Lord, not man.
And serve with gladness, not forced compulsion because he is worthy, he is glorious. He is good.
Then next imperative in verse 2 is to enter, or to come.
Enter
Enter
The command to enter or to come in is repeated twice in this Psalm. First in verse 2, and then again in verse 4.
The first time to enter into his presence with singing, and the second with thanksgiving.
In the context of ancient Israel this meant to enter into the temple, into the place of worship to sing and serve the Lord. In the New Covenant God has made his people into a temple. Our whole life ought to be marked by worship and service of the Lord.
But in order to enter into God’s presence you first must know the Lord. The structure of the Psalm sandwiching Know between the two uses of enter emphasizes this.
Know
Know
3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Know is the thematic center of the commands in this text. This demonstrates that the Psalmist ultimately wants everyone to know that YHWH is God.
We can know God because he has made himself known. He has done through this his world, his word, and his work.
In God’s world, we can see that this perfectly designed universe screams of a designer.
And it logically follows, that if this world has a Creator, and if we can know him because he has revealed himself to us - then we ought to know EVERYTHING we can about him. He is ultimately beyond our grasp - but what can be known about him is enough to damn us for our sins. This is called general revelation.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
General Revelation is sufficient to condemn, but not sufficient to save.
God has also revealed himself in his Word. And in this psalm the divine name YHWH is used 4 times in this Psalm. In verse 1, 2, 3 and 5. Given the specificity of the divine name demonstrates that the Bible does not just give the instruction to worship any God. But rather, the God of the Bible - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who has revealed himself in his word, his world, and in the work of his Son Jesus Christ.
This Psalm leaves no place for pluralism for the Christian. We are not able to tell others “well as long as you worship some higher power, that’s good for you.” Rather this psalm is asserting that all human beings ought to know The Lord who created the heavens and the earth, who created man in his image, who sent his son to redeem us.
This verse does seem to move to a more specific relationship that God has with those whom he has redeemed… his people, the sheep of his pasture. Know God - through his word, and through his son. To know God you must know right things about God. It’s remarkable, and disheartening, how many people claim to love God and yet the God they “know” is a God of their own design.
I’ve probably used this illustration before but if I am speaking to someone and I ask them “Do you know my wife?” And they say “Yes, she has red hair, she’s professional volleyball player, 6ft7in…” It will be very clear that they do not know my wife.
We can not know God, and know wrong things about him. Yet how many people do we know whose definition of God is not based upon reality, but upon
It begins to state that all who have been created by God are those who belong to him - and they ought to know that he is God. All creation should know God, and worship God. But all creation ought to know God as he has revealed himself. We cannot find God in ourselves - but rather we ought to look to what he has communicated to us to learn about who he is.
God has made himself known in his world, his word, and his work in Christ Jesus.
Knowing God, and knowing God rightly, will then naturally lead us into the last two verses of this Psalms.
If you know God, and you know Jesus, and have been given salvation by grace through faith in his life, death and resurrection. Then it will naturally lead you to thanksgiving, praise and blessing.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
The only way that sinful humans can enter into the Lord’s courts with thanksgiving and praise is through Christ Jesus. Our sins have created a separation between us and God. No one comes to the Father except through him.
To return to the thought of the passing of the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Bollea. When he passed there were a lot of people who responded to his passing with something to the extend of “well he’s in hell now.” Their basis for this is mostly because he said the N word once, he’s conservative and some of them based it upon their perception of the character that Terry Bollea played on TV. For many the use of the N word is the unforgivable sin. However, in 2023 he was baptized. He publicly professed faith in Christ, was baptized, and was very outspoken about his faith until his death. He was frequently seen wearing a shirt that read John 3:16.
Operating on the assumption that his publicly expressed faith was sincere saving faith - then he entered into the Lord’s gates with thanksgiving and praise - but not because of his own works but because of the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross.
But there’s more grace in Christ than there is in us. Certainly
In verse 4 we read of the second instance of the word enter. But this time instead of the word being partnered with signing, here it is partnered with thanksgiving - and the remainder of the Psalm gives us significant reason to Enter his greats with thanksgiving. When you know the Lord, when you know what he has done, when you know who he is you will see that he is worthy of worship - and deserving of thankfulness and service.
And this ought to result in blessing.
Bless
Bless
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
The final verse of the psalm we read a celebration of who God is. These are your reasons to sing. This is what you remember about God when you are having an awful day and do not want to praise God.
God does not change, these things are always true of him. Even when you are having the worst day of your life. The Lord is always good. His steadfast love always endures forever. And his faithfulness always continues to all generations. God is perfect, and his perfect extends to all of his attributes.
In worship, we approach the King…. This whole summer we have seen Psalms that speak of the Lord’s sovereign reign - and here the Psalm reminds us that we ought to approach that King with joy-filled worship rejoicing in who he is and what he has done.
When you consider the worship that the Lord is worthy of… consider a child singing unashamedly of the savior that they have been taught to love. Sing with more passion than a crowd of baseball fans during the 7th inning stretch. Give thanks to the King for he has redeemed his people. Enter his gates with thanksgiving for the wonderful work of redemption he has accomplished on the cross. The King has risen, and he is coming again.
Momentarily we will celebrate the King, by coming forward to his table and proclaiming that he will come again. The Lord’s Supper is another aspect of worship - and we proclaim that Christ’s body was broken for us, and his blood was shed for us. Let’s pray as we turn our hearts to the King’s Table.
