I Will Praise Him 3

Preliminary Remarks:

Lately we have been working through a Sermon Series on Praise and Worship. I want to continue that this morning.

We have been focusing recently on Praise and how it is different from worship. - Praise is a more outward expression (Praise has to be vocalized or demonstrated) Worship is a more inward reflection (Can be silent but based more on an intimate relationship with God.)

Please turn with me to Psalm 100

Psalm 100 is the only hundredth chapter in the Bible.

It is the only Psalm with the title “A Psalm of Praise” or “Thanksgiving”

This Psalm was no doubt written to accompany the thank offering in the temple - This was the only offering the Rabbis believed would continue after the need for the sin offerings had ceased.

Psalm 100 was known for years in Latin as the “Jubilate.”

For many years Music Directors and Song leaders would say, “Let us sing the Old Hundredth” which was a paraphrase of this psalm.

It was first published in 1561 by William Kethe - and I would like to sing it at the conclusion of the service this morning. - Thomas Ken added the part we know as “The Doxology”

Issac Watts also wrote a paraphrase that is still sung in some churches yet today, “Before Jehovah’s awful throne”

The Wesley’s put it to poetry like this:

YE sons of men, lift up your voice,

Ye nations of the earth, rejoice,

In God rejoice with one accord!

Bow all your hearts before His face,

Adore Him for creating grace,

And shout and sing to Christ the Lord.

2 Know, that the Lord is God alone;

He made and claims us for His own,

His creatures for Himself design’d;

We are the sheep of Israel’s fold,

The flock He hath redeem’d of old;

His people now is all mankind.

3 O enter then His courts with praise,

Press to the channels of His grace,

With joyful thanks your God proclaim:

Give Him the glory of His love,

And praise Him, like the hosts above,

And bless His all-redeeming name.

4 Praise Him, the faithful Lord and good!

His mercy hath for ages stood;

His mercy stands for ever sure:

His steadfast truth shall never fail,

His word and oath unchangeable

Through all eternity endure.

John Wesley and Charles Wesley, The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, ed. G. Osborn, vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), 185.

Now lets read the original - Psalm 100 -

Read: Psalm 100

Psalm 100 KJV 1900

A Psalm of praise. 1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. 3 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. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations.

Introduction:

Since the beginning of time almost - or at least since the concept of sacrifice and worship - people were never to come empty handed into the presence of God.

Our Psalm instructs us to “Come before his presence with singing (Psalm 100:2)

We are later told to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise...” Psalm 100:4

The Psalmist is telling the People of God how to enter into the Presence of God.

Yes Praise has a way of bringing us into God’s presence

I don’t know about you - BUT I WILL PRAISE HIM!!!

Psalm 100 has an interesting structure as pointed out by J. A. Motyer that I want to use as an outline: It’s a combination of Invitation and Affirmation. There are four main sections each with three subsections that teach us how to Praise Him!!!

First I want us to notice -

Psalm 100:1-2 A Threefold invitation to praise - we see it in three “verbs of increasing nearness” Praise ushering us into God’s holy presence.

Shout (Ps 100:1) - Make a joyful noise - Shouts were used often in the Old Testament as a means of Praising God.

I think of the Children of Israel under the Leadership of Joshua when they were at Jerich\ - they were to be quite while they marched around the walls - but on the last day they blew their horns and shouted - That shout was a shout of praise - and yes it played its part in bringing the walls down.

Do you have some walls in your life - is there a spiritual warfare? You might try praising - making a joyful noise shouting praise to God.

Praise and even shouting Praise to God has a way of bringing us into the Presence of God.

Worship (Service) (Ps 100:2) - There is an intrinsic correlation between worship and service. We will go deeper into that when we begin to look more at worship - but for now....

Service is the first worship response we owe God.

The word “serve” when used to talk about serving or laboring for the Lord it does not mean toilsome labor, but a joyful experience of liberation. Such as when it is used in Joshua 24:18

Joshua 24:18 KJV 1900

18 And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.

How far it reaches is seen in Romans 12:1 (We will also later explore the relation of worship and holiness)

Romans 12:1 KJV 1900

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Nothing short of a living sacrifice counts as “worship”

Come (Ps 100:2) - To enter - to go before God or God’s presence with singing or “joyful song”. When is the last time you came to church ready to go? Came into His presence not tried to pull down His presence - but came into His presence?

So we have a threefold invitation to Praise but the Psalmist also gives us:

Psalm 100:3 - A Threefold affirmation of identity: The Psalmist again wants to affirm some things - This is an affirmation of identity. He wants them to know who God is and who they are. This is has a huge impact on praise and worship - as in reality - Praise and Worship are a response to God.

God…The Psalmist makes it clear that the God we are Praising isn’t just any old god - but The God of gods. It is Jehovah!!! Yahweh! He is the one who spoke to Moses out in the wilderness, “I Am that I AM!”

made us…This God made us - and not we ourselves. In reality - the most fundamental question we can ask is:

Are we created in God’s image or is God a work of our imagination?

The Psalmist is trying to answer that question - He has created us - made us - not we ourselves or a process of evolution.

his - The Psalmist affirms that this great God who is God, who created us - is involved in our lives. In Theology they talk about the transcendence of God which is a true attribute of our God - He is above and out of our reach as humanity - but then they also talk about God’s immanence that he is intimately involved in our lives -

Listen to how the Psalmist puts it - We are HIS!!! This is something we obviously can know - because the Psalmist does. He is identifying who we are and to whom we belong!!!

We are the sheep of His pasture - he is not only near but is leading, guiding, and helping.

I will praise Him for His Transcendence - we couldn’t have a powerful mighty God without Him being Transcendent.

But I will also praise Him for His immanence - that HE IS VERY NEAR. That WE CAN COME INTO HIS PRESENCE. THAT IF WE DRAW NEAR TO GOD HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO US!!!!

Psalm 100:4 - A Threefold invitation of increasing intimacy

Enter…To go into - to go into the inner court - within reach if you will of God’s presence.

Give thanks… To praise - to offer thanks for God’s deed in the life of an individual or community.

If you remember we have been talking about the 7 main Hebrew words that deal with Praise in the Old Testament. We talked about:

yāḏâ (Ya- Dah) - Such as in Psalm 9:1 I will praise (yāḏâ) thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works. yāḏâ means To Express praise -to make a public confession of the attributes and acts of power of God. - it’s focus is on the content of praise, spoken out-loud.

hālal - [haw-lal'] To boast, extol, sometimes seen as to be clamorously foolish. the root meaning is connected with making noise. Found in verses like Psalm 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise (hālal) thy name for ever and ever.

zāmar - (ZAW-MARR) it means - To offer praise to God using one’s voice as an instrument. As in Psalm 98:4-5 “…sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp...”

Today I want to introduce another Hebrew word that talks about Praise. It is used in the Title of this Psalm. It is used in Psalm 100:4 instructing us how to enter His gates.

We enter the Gates of God in thanksgiving or with tô·ḏā - (toe- daw) it means to give thanks. To offer thanks and praise - in the Old Testament it was usually accompanied by a sacrifice - the Thanksgiving Sacrifice.

I will tô·ḏā - (toe- daw) Him - I will praise Him - I will offer thanksgiving to Him.

But then the Psalmist continues into the next line and adds another Hebrew Praise Word -

We enter into his gates with tô·ḏā - (toe- daw) or thanksgiving: But we also enter his courts with PRAISE: tehil·lā (tay-he-la) to offer words of homage as acts of worship - or to speak positive words about the excellence of God.

Praise - to be thankful unto him, and bless his name - This can be done no matter the circumstances - and the Psalmist will talk about that in a moment - but as I read this a thought about a story I read recently:

Samuel-S. Scull a farmer who settled on a farm in the Arizona desert with his wife and children.

One night a fierce desert storm struck with rain, hail, and high wind. At daybreak, feeling sick and fearing what he might find, Samuel went to survey their loss.

The hail had beaten the garden and truck patch into the ground; the house was partially unroofed; the henhouse had blown away, and dead chickens were scattered about. Destruction and devastation were everywhere.

While standing dazed, evaluating the mess and wondering about the future, he heard a stirring in the lumber pile that was the remains of the henhouse. A rooster was climbing up through the debris, and he didn’t stop climbing until he had mounted the highest board in the pile. That old rooster was dripping wet, and most of his feathers were blown away. But as the sun came over the eastern horizon, he flapped his bony wings and proudly crowed.

That old, wet, bare rooster could still crow when he saw the morning sun. And like that rooster, our world may be falling apart, we may have lost everything, but if we trust in God, we’ll be able to see the light of God’s goodness, pick ourselves out of the rubble, and sing the Lord’s praise.

Psalm 100:5 - A Threefold affirmation of God’s nature:

Good - That means he is deserving of honor and respect and praise.

Love - His “hesed” or loyal love is everlasting Paul tried to come up with everything he could that might separate us from God’s love and finally had to end with “Nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus”

Faithfulness - His truth or Faithfulness that what He is and Who He is is the same to every generation for all time and eternity.

After studying and looking at this passage - I see an amazing pattern of Praise and worship - I also see a stimulus to praise

I want to make a joyful noise

I want to serve the Lord with gladness

I want to come before his presence with singing

I want to know God better

I want to enter his gates with thanksgiving

I want to enter his courts with praise

I want to be thankful to Him

I want to bless His name

I WILL PRAISE HIM!!!

This morning I want to close out in the old tradition - I want us to sing the “Old Hundred”

It was a song written back in the 1500’s by a Scottish man named William Keethe

Now the tune is very familiar it is the “Doxology” but the words may be a little more unfamiliar - but I want us to stand and sing this together in Praise to God.

Will you Praise Him With Me!!!