Psalm 100 Discussion

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Discussion

Tonight we finish up the summer study of Pss. 90-100. Even though we didn’t meet through much of them, I hope you found the sermons fruitful.

Tonight we’re consider Ps. 100. The superscription tells us it is “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.” We’ll consider what it is telling us to do but also what does it teach us about God.

Read the psalm

Psalm 100 ESV

A Psalm for giving thanks. 1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 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. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

What’s the overall tone of this psalm? How do we know? What occasions might this psalm be appropriate for meditation?

What are some of the things God’s people are called to do in vv. 1-4? What should our attitude be as we do these things?

One key characteristic of the children of God is thankfulness. This is a psalm for giving thanks and v. 4 tells us to enter his gates with thanksgiving. Can you think of some other passages that instruct us to be thankful?

Colossians 3:15–17 “15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Philippians 4:6 “6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Over and over in the Psalms we’re told to give thanks to the Lord.

Jesus also gives us the example of continually giving thanks to the Father.

If you don’t make a habit of regularly giving thanks, I encourage you to do so. I’ve found it’s one of the best ways to combat a complaining attitude and discontentment.

Two doctrines that we can draw out from this psalm are God’s self-sufficiency and God’s adequacy. Have you heard of those terms? How might you explain them? How can we see them in this psalm?

Self-sufficiency is the fact that God does not need anything.

Adequacy is that God is all that we need.

All of these actions come out of the recognition of the adequacy of God. He is all that we need, therefore, we can make a joyful noise to him, serve him, come into his presence, know that he is God, give thanks, and bless his name, and so on.

We see his self-sufficiency especially in v. 3 - he is the Creator and therefore needs nothing. He is the owner of all things. We also see his adequacy. Because he is the Creator and we are his, by having him, we have all that we need.

Speaking of the self-sufficiency of God, another author wrote, “Were all human beings suddenly to become blind, still the sun would shine by day and the stars by night, for these owe nothing to the millions who benefit from their light. So, were every man on earth to become an atheist, it could not affect God in any way. He is what He is in Himself without regard to any other. To believe in Him adds nothing to His perfections; to doubt Him takes nothing away” (Tozer). Do you think people live like this is true? How are people tempted to think we add or take away from God with our actions?

I see two ways.

1) If you’re a lost person, you might that as long as you don’t “believe” that God exists, he basically doesn’t exist as far as your life is concerned. But God isn’t diminished by someone’s unbelief.

2) You may fall into the falsehood that because you did something for God, he owes you in return. You can get puffed up thinking that you served God and he really needs you on his team.

Verse 5 gives us the ground or the reason for why we do all of the commands in this psalm. How do we cultivate hearts that want to do what this psalm commands?

We meditate on what the Bible tells us about the Lord and his goodness, love, faithfulness.

We affirm it because God has proven his goodness, love, and faithfulness throughout history to people. We see it with the Israelites in the Old Testament, we eventually see it through the church spreading the gospel, but the ultimate example of God proving his goodness, love, and faithfulness is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

1 John 4:9–10 “9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Jesus life and death showed what love is.

And in his resurrection and ascension to the Father, God is proving that he will be faithful to all generations.