The Psalms in a Season of Rejoicing

Scripture Reading

Psalm 100 NIV84

A psalm. For giving thanks. 1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Introduction

We continue our study together in the Psalms, under the series title, “The Psalms in Every Season of Life.” We have considered a number of different Psalms together already. The idea behind this brief study has been that no matter what the season of life is in which we find ourselves, the Psalms are a very helpful source of encouragement, and they are a very helpful source through which we may find appropriate expression for what we are feeling and experiencing in the various circumstances of life.

I do hope that you’ve begun to pick this up. And my hope is not just that you would limit yourselves to the Psalms that I’ve approached, but rather that you would use this as a springboard to drive you to the Psalms in all seasons of life, and that you’d explore for yourself the richness of the Psalms, and so begin to apply them to your own life in various circumstances.

Our study began, as you may recall, with Psalm 146, where I expressed the importance of the Psalms in terms of bringing praise to God. But following that opening preaching in the Psalms, we went on to consider quite a number of “darker” occassions of life in which the Psalms can prove to be helpful. We considered...

The Season of Discouragement - (Psalm 61 )

The Season of Worldly Distraction - (Psalm 90)

The Season of Jealousy - (Psalm 73)

The Seaon of Doubt (Psalm 139)

The Season of Prolonged Darkness (Psalm 88)

The Season of Persecution (Psalm 7 and Psalm 11)

The Season of Guilt and Shame (Psalm 32)

All of those subjects are somewhat negative in nature. They address situations in which we feel overwhelmed, or distressed, or in some way are struggling through the less joy-filled moments in life. And I’m exceedingly glad that the Psalms address these and other subjects.

But we must recognise that the Psalms are also to be used in order for us to bring much praise to God. We ought to use the Psalms both to praise God when things are going well in our lives, and also to praise God when things are just plain mundane and ordinary, and even when things are not going so well.

Paul speaks in 2 Cor.6:10 about being sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. He calls the Philippian believers to Phil 4:4 “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” . He says to the Thessalonian believers in 1 Thes 5:16 “16 Rejoice always;”

Rejoicing is something that we as Christians should have as an ordinary part of our daily lives.

The sad reality is, we are often driven to the Scriptures only when things really start going badly in life. And this shouldn’t be. We should regularly delight ourselves in the rich treasures of the Word of God for us. We should, in light of the wonderful mercies and grace of God, be those who live their lives delighting in God through Jesus Christ.

And the Psalms are once again helpful to us for this. And so this evening, I would like us to consider Psalm 100, under the title of “The Psalms in a Season of Rejoicing.” Perhaps I should have said, a Psalm for everyday Christian life!

But that is what this Psalm is. It is a Psalm in which the writer gives thanks to God for who He is and what he has done. And so I trust that as we consider this Psalm together, we would be encouraged to keep on giving praise to God.

As we look together at this Psalm, we must note that the title shows us that ultimately, this is a Psalm for Thanksgiving. It is a Psalm in which the people who are called by His name are called to give thanks and praise to God. That is the over-arching idea.

With that said, I’ve divided this up into two main sections, with some sub-points as we consider the Psalm together. Notice firstly with me, then, from this Psalm...

1. The Call to Delight in God (vv.1-3)

The first three verses of the Psalm are essentially a call for the people of God to delight themselves greatly in God. The people of God, for us - Christians - are to be those who greatly delight in Almighty God. There are two particular thoughts that come through that we should consider from these verses in terms of this call to delight in God.

Firstly...

1.1. The Manner of Delight (vv.1-2)

How is it that God’s people are called to delight themselves in Him, or to express their delight in Him?

Verse 1 begins with the words, Psa 100:1 “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.”

This is the first manner in which we as Christians are called to delight in the Lord. We are called to shout joyfully to him.

It is something that to our sensibilities is somewhat out of place. Why would we start shouting out before God? We tend to associate shouting with chaos and disorder. But we must see that God’s people are called to abound in expressions of loud and exhuberant praise to the Lord.

James Montgomery Boice writes in this regard:

Psalms, Volume 2: (Psalms 42–106): An Expositional Commentary Three Ways to Give Thanks

It would be accurate to express this idea by saying that the people of God are to praise God loudly because they are happy with him.

Spurgeon said of this verse, “Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people; a cheerful spirit is in keeping with his nature, his acts, and the gratitude which we should cherish for his mercies.”

From the perspective of Christians, those who have the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, we have every reason to be exceedingly happy because of that which God has done for us.

Sometimes, we who are more conservative Christians are frowned upon because we fail to express this kind of joy in life, and even in our worship.

During our family devotions in this past week, on one of the subjects that we were considering together as a family, I tried evoke a joyful response from my family based on the verses we were considering. I put quite a lot of enthusiasm in the glorious truths that the Scriptures were conveying. I think that as conservatives, we tend to be less enthusiastic and emotional than some of our more charismatic brethren. I got more giggles than joyful enthusiasm in the Lord in response. That’s not a response on my families joy in Christ. Rather, it’s something of a commentary on how abnormal it is for us to express ourselves in this way, perhaps particularly when we come to the things of God.

Now, I don’t think this is something that we must hype up in ourselves. But I also do think that there is a place for us to ponder deeply the things of God, and the truth of the extent of the mercies of God in Jesus Christ, so that our spirits are moved within us to delight in the God we serve. It is appropriate. And we should not, when properly moved by the Spirit of God through the truth of His word, be ashamed or afraid to express great joy and delight in Him!

Applying that to the church situation, I would encourage us as the people of God to truly come with a deep expectancy to be delighted in the Lord as we worship Him together. When we gather together to praise, may it be done with joyful exhuberance.

Psalms, Volume 2 Delight in the King! (100:1–3)

The worshiping community—Israel and the whole earth—is to hold nothing back in raising the roof in their praise of Yahweh.

Yes, in an orderly way - our God is a God of order. But orderly does not necessarily mean that we must be subdued when we sing our songs of worship to God. And we may use genuine (not forced, but genuine) expression in our prayers, Scripture readings, and praise to God, as we delight in Him and give thanks for His grace towards us.

But there’s a further manner of delighting in the Lord that is outlined for us here. In Psalm 100:2 “2 Serve the Lord with gladness”. That is the NASB translation. The NIV says that we should “Worship the LORD with gladness...”

The word that is used there literally means to serve, and most appropriately it is through the worship of God that we are to serve him.

But the service of God, indeed the life of worship that is lived before God, is one that ought to be lived out in each and every day

We are called in this instance to not only shout for joy to the Lord, but to come before Him and to serve him with gladness. The life of the person who is devoted to God is a life of humble service unto him.

Do you recall the words that I closed off with this morning? The parable that Christ spoke about through feeding the hungry, you are feeding him; through giving clothes to those needy, you are clothing him; through giving a glass of water, you are giving Christ something to drink, etc.

The point is that when we lovingly serve other people, we are in fact serving Jesus Christ himself. What a glorious throught!

We need to recognise as Christians, that we have been graciously, mercifully saved out of darkness and into the kingdom of Christ. It is a glorious truth. And as those who are subjects of His kingdom, we become slaves to Jesus Christ.

In Romans 1:1, Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

In Phil 1:1, Paul and Timothy introduce themselves as slaves of Jesus Christ.

The same can be said of Epaphras (Col 4:12), Titus (Titus 1:1) James (James 1:1) and Peter (2 Peter 1:1). These were all people who considered themselves slaves of Christ. They were owned by their master, Christ. But what a delight it was for each of them to serve the King of kings!!

Well, the same is true of us, Christians. We are called to be slaves of Jesus Christ, and to give ourselves over to joyful service in Him. We may worship Him through service.

Thirdly, in terms of the manner of delighting in the Lord, we are to delight in the Lord through coming before him with joyful songs.

This is most appropriately, most fully done in the context of corporate worship, as the church gathers together. We must recognise the importance of gathering in corporate worship before God.

Acts of service, acts of love towards others are important. But we can never neglect the corporate gathering of the people of God together. This is part of the manner in which we delight in God.

We come together with joyful songs. We are together to live our voices in praise of this king.

In verse 3 of our text, we find...

1.2. The Basis for Delight (v.3)

We read in verse 3...

Psalm 100:3 NIV84

3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

The first line of this verse is extremely important. We are to know that the Lord is God. The word there is an imperative. It is a command. We must know. We must know that the Lord is God!

I would suggest to you that any person who is going to delight themselves in God has to know God. It is through a true knowledge of God that our hearts are filled with delight as we recognise the majestic nature of the God that we serve.

We cannot rightly and properly delight in God or give thanks to him unless we actually know him.

And I want to encourage everyone that is listening to this service, to not assume that you know God well if you are not spending time in communion and fellowship with God. There is no substitute to knowing God that spending quality, meaningful time together with him.

With any close companionship that you’ve experienced in life, you will know that you have to spend time with the other person in order to form and build a relationship. There needs to be healthy communication. There needs to be time spent together, learning about one another, even if that learning is simply through seeing how a person responds to circumstances and situations in life.

There are great similarities to our relationship with God. If we would spend meaningful time meditating on the truths of Scripture, and seeking to know and understand the ways of God, the way He responds circumstances and situations that are recorded in the Scripture, our love for Him would deepen greatly.

But notice what the Psalmist goes on to say. He points to the fact that we ought to know God as the Creator. Psalm 100:3 “It is He who has made us, and we are his; [[[and not we ourselves]]]”

When we do not know God as our Creator, we have this tendency to think of ourselves in far more independent terms than when we actually acknowledge Him to be that Creator.

Knowing and remembering that God is our Creator puts us at the correct starting point for our lives, recognising that we are not our own, but that we were made for the purpose of worship of the one true God. It leads us to a recognition of our own inability to sustain preserve ourselves - we are those who are sustained by God. This leads us to humility.

Appropriately, that will lead us to the praise of God, to delighting in God. This all the more so when we recognise our sinfulness before our Creator!

We see also from this verse, that “we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

Again, this is a reason for delighting ourselves in God. We can know God as our redeemer. We are his people because he has redeemed us. And because of the great redemption that He has effected on our behalf in Jesus Christ, we are now called the sheep of His pasture.

The implications for this are vast!!

Psalm 23:1 “1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

John 10:11 “11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Isa 40 11 “11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

There is scarcely a more beautiful picture for us as the children of God, than to know that our gracious God saves us, and that we are his sheep that he tenderly cares for.

We are to delight in Him.

Secondly, from our text, we see...

2. The Call to Thank God (vv.4-5)

We’ve considered the call to delight in God, and we now find a call to thank God. It goes along similar lines.

We must firstly note, in this regard...

2.1. The Call to Thanksgiving (v.4)

Psalm 100:4 NIV84

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Already in the preceding verses, all that we’ve considered in terms of delighting ourselves in God is grounds for giving thanks to God. There is abundant reason to thank our God.

The Psalmist here tells the people of Israel, and even us today as the church, to enter into the gates of the Lord with Thanksgiving!

Here is very clearly the picture of the gathering of the people of God. The picture is clear as being that of entering into the Temple of God in order to bring praise.

The gates are the gates of the Temple. The Israelites were called to enter through these gates in anticipation of worshiping God.

The courts of praise would be calling the Israelites to progress beyond the outer courts, and to rather enter to the inner court where the chosen people of God were able to worship God as His elect.

In our day, the church is called to gather together in order to sing praises to the King because of His goodness. It is good, it is right and fitting to praise God together.

We are to gather as the people of God, week after week, because God is the God of our salvation. And friends, let us know that it ought to delight our hearts to gather together and worship God. This worship of God is the cause of great and jubilant celebration in the hearts of His people.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, our God beckons us, He calls us to enter into this place as the people chosen by Him so that we may worship Him together. We are called to give thanks to him, and to praise his name!

There is so much to thank God for in life. I understand that life can become overwhelming at times for us. I understand that there is much difficulty and hardship in this life. I understand that there will be seasons of difficulty and darkness. And those days will be difficult.

My encouragement to you is to look to God, to fix your eyes upon Him and His glory; upon the extent of His perfect revelation to us through the Scriptures; to the Son that is revealed in those Scriptures, and what that means for us; and to recognise that we have every reason for great praise and exaltation of God.

His grace has abounded to us.

His mercies have been showered over us.

His promises remain firm and secure for us.

Our hope of an eternity with Him as a great source of encouragement to us.

Let us focus our hearts and minds on these things, and give praise to our God! Let us give thanks to Him, along with all those that God has likewise redeemed!

Secondly, in terms of this call to thanksgiving, we find...

2.2. The Basis for Thanksgiving (v.5)

Verse 5 reads…

Psalm 100:5 NIV84

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Here we have the wonderful basis for the thanksgiving that we can offer up to our God.

The Psalmist gives three covenantal statements that serve as motivators in terms of our basis for thanksgiving to God.

Firstly, we are to give thanks to God, for the Lord is good.

Perhaps that doesn’t sound like such a strong motivating factor for us. We know very well that God is good, because it’s been told us so often. But we need to understand that within the context of the world of that day, gods were seldom seen as good. They were seen as powerful, perhaps vindictive, often using their power against humanity simply because they could. There were sacrifices made in order to appease the gods, not because man had done anything wrong, but because the gods had this power. There was a wrong view of their gods, and of man.

But we need to recognise that God is good beyond our understanding. God is good to those who are unworthy. God shows grace and mercy in abundance. God does not treat man as their sins deserve, but rather bestows his kindness and mercy upon them.

For us, we are able, by His grace, to approach him, and to worship Him in a deep knowledge of His nature and character.

We are to give thanks to God for He is good.

Secondly, we are to give thanks to God because his love endures forever. The love spoken of here is the steadfast love of the God of the covenant. His love is a steadfast love that is set upon His people, and that love will endure forever. Imagine that you can be confident of the steadfast love of God towards you!? How encouraging this is to us as a people that are so used to being hurt and disappointed by those who claim to love us.

God’s love is an enduring love.

Psalm 136 expresses this love through its extensive repitition. I’ll just read verse 1-3...

Psalm 136:1–3 NIV84

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. 2 Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. 3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

Twenty six verses long, repeating that refrain, His love endures forever. He is a covenant-keeping God, whose love will endure forever, because that love is part of His unchanging character.

Finally, we are called to give thanks because his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Again, this truth concerning God’s character is one that is very strongly conveyed in relation to God and His covenant relationship with His people. God is always faithful to his covenantal promises.

Dear friends, we serve a faithful God. We serve a God who througout history has demonstrated his faithfulness through bringing to fulfilment all his promises to his people. And he will continue to do so until the day of Christ.

Application / Conclusion

In closing, let us be encouraged to regularly focus our thoughts, and delight our hearts in the fact that the God that we serve is to be thanked and praised for who He is.

We need to also recognise that our worship of God is a worship that is to declare to the world the glories and the greatness of our God. Our worship is not merely an inward focused worship.

Perhaps we need to be challenged in terms of our manner of coming worship. I trust that you’ve been reminded through this Psalm of the glorious God that we serve, and the importance of praising Him. And so let us do that. But by way of an encouragement / challenge if you like!

As a way of challlenging, I will quote from a particular commentator. But let me introduce a scenario first…

Imagine for a moment that someone unchurched, who knows nothing of God and of Christ, were to come and stand in our worship service and observe what we do and how we do it…

Psalms, Volume 2 Contemporary Significance

What does our sung praise communicate about the God we worship? Often our praise is far from exuberant, far from joyful, far from the vibrant, colorful, loud, and captivating image of praise we see in Psalm 100. We stand, our hands in our pockets, mumbling words with little thought or conviction, and such behavior casts our love for God in a very poor light. Is our love for Jesus so weak that we are too shy or inhibited to “shout for joy to the LORD” and to call everyone else in the world to do the same? There is something wrong with our hearts if our praise does not reflect the powerful, joy-filled, vivid, vibrant worship of Psalm 100. Psalm 100 stands as a challenge to us!

While the quote was obviously written with a very stereotypical church in mind, I simply quote it in order that we may be challenged. Let us consider once again the greatness of our God. Let us consider His goodness to us.

And then, let us worship Him, with truly joyful, exhuberant praise.... Praise that is fitting given the extent of God’s goodness to us!