The Hundredth

This is the only Psalm given the title “A Psalm for Giving Thanks”. Lots of Psalms encourage the giving of thanks but no other Psalm is given identified as such, like this one is. It follows what we have called “The Kingly Psalms” (93-99). It’s position here may be a celebration, a conclusion of sorts, as to all we have been studying in the Kingly Psalms. God’s reign on earth, His reward to the righteous and His retribution to the wicked should be celebrated.

This Psalm is a wonderfully encouraging one. It appears to me to be a Psalm used to prepare the people of God for the worship of God. Notice what the Psalmist says:

Come into his presence with singing! (2)

Enter His gates with thanksgiving (4)

Enter his courts with praise (4)

The language used suggests one is entering the place of worship for the purpose of worshipping God. For that reason, this Psalm can also be of great benefit to the Christian. This is a great Psalm to read on Sunday morning before church. It’s a reminder of our obligation to worship the Lord as well as a reminder of the Lord’s worth. There are seven commands given in this Psalm and two explanations related to those commands. That is how we will break down the Psalm.

I. Seven Commands.

A. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.

Three questions answered in verse 1.

Who is to give thanks to the Lord?

All the earth. Jew and Gentile. This suggests that believers are to be on mission. We are to be sharing the gospel so that all the earth does worship the Lord. But in the end we can only ensure that we ourselves are giving thanks to the Lord.

I must give God thanks. There is no legitimate excuse for me not to. I can attempt to make excuses.

I can point to things gone wrong in my life:

Physical suffering

Betrayal by loved ones

Financial difficulty

Heartache

Death of a loved one

The suffering of someone I love

There are plenty of people hurting in this world. In fact most of the people on the earth are suffering in some way and all of us will suffer at some time if we live long enough. Yet God still commands all the earth to give Him thanks.

Who is thanks to be given to?

The LORD. The covenant God of Israel. We don’t get to choose our own god. We don’t get to build one for ourselves. God is not a Mr. Potato Head doll for us to create to our own liking.

This is not only a reminder to the idolater it is also a reminder to the atheist. The atheist withholds thanks from the One who deserves it most. To be sure, we thank doctors. We thank those who give us a job. We thank those who bless us with gifts. We should do that. But our ultimate thanks is to the LORD. Those who don’t believe in God think too highly of humanity. It is the goodness of God that leads men to treat one another with kindness. If the Lord were to withdraw Himself from his creation, there would be no love at all. We are created in the image of God and His kindness is reflected to a degree even in the unredeemed.

How are we to give thanks?

We are to make a joyful noise. A joyful noise is a shout. Happy people are noisy.

Go to a football game and you will hear it.

Go to a concert and you will hear it.

Go to a political rally and you will hear it.

We shout for those who make us happy. We shout because the LORD has given us the joy we have. He gives us joy and we express that same joy back to Him with a joyful noise. The Christian should be emotional about the Lord. Our heart should be moved when we think of all He has done for us.

B. Serve the LORD with gladness (2).

We need to see this in our churches. The church is to be active in service to the Lord. However, that activity should be coupled with joy. I am afraid that one of the reasons joy has departed from our service is we are serving in areas that matter very little when it comes to the Father’s business.

Baptists love committees. We create them for all sorts of purposes. Most of the busyness of a Baptist church takes place in a committee meeting. I have seldom seen joy in a committee meeting. Committees can be a useful thing if they are profitable committees headed by qualified leaders.

The most joy I have observed at JSBC has been in our mission center. I have been blessed to hear the conversations, see the smiles, and even hear the laughs of those gathered to serve our community and share the gospel. When we are serving in the manner God has ordained the church to serve, we will experience more joy. When we bog ourselves down with unnecessary work we will become as joyless as the Pharisees. Instead of doing the work of God they huddled up and created more rules to follow. There was no joy in that.

For the Christian, serving God is a great joy. It is also a command. We have an obligation to serve Christ with our gifts and our time. I am convinced that if we knew the joy we would experience in the Lord the laborers would not be few. Friend listen serve the Lord and do it with gladness!

C. Come into His presence with singing (2).

Singing and joy go hand in hand. Happy people sing. One of our Baptists hymns says:

Let those refuse to sing

Who never knew our God

But children of the heavenly King

May speak their joys abroad

When we enter church, we should expect to sing songs and we should expect all Christians to be singing them. There will come a day when only Christians are singing. Until then let us make sure all Christians are singing.

Hebrews 13:15 says

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.

When we come into the presence of God for corporate worship He expects a song to be on our lips. Joyful singing is one of the proofs that we are satisfied with God. In the Old Testament no worshipper went to the Temple empty handed. In the New Testament we should not go to the church without a song on our lips. God expects us to sing. He commands us to sing. When we do it is a beautiful testimony of the satisfaction God’s people find in Him.

D. Know that the LORD, He is God (3a).

This command reminds us that our devotion to the Lord does not exclude our brain. We are to know God in an experiential sense. But we must first know who He is. We must have some level of understanding of the God we are placing our faith in.

We know God by knowing Christ. Christ is God therefore to know Him is to know God. The most practical way for us to know God is to study Christ. When we study Christ, see our need for salvation and call on Him we are saved. This begins our journey of knowing God.

When we know God, we are to acknowledge God. We are to tell people who God is. Because of the Testimony of Scripture and what Christ has done for us we know Him to be the only true God. What we know we are obligated to share.

We should never be ashamed to say that Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life. We should never be ashamed to say that only Jesus can save. We know that the LORD is God and we have an obligation to make that truth known to others.

Friend, if you are a Christian, acknowledge it. Tell people. Be clear. We are not searching for truth. Truth has found us. We know Him and He knows us.

E. Enter His gates with Thanksgiving (4).

The Jews literally entered gates to go into the Temple. The gates led to a series of courts. When Jews entered the gates and found themselves in one of the various courts they were to do so with thanksgiving and praise. Worshippers should thank and praise God for who He is and what He has done.

The believer can should obey this command. We should obey it daily. But we have a specific opportunity on Sunday to obey this command. When we enter the doors of the church and make our way into the sanctuary, we should do so with our hearts filled with praise and thankfulness.

Sunday is not just any day. It is the Lord’s Day. We have more reasons to be thankful than we can count. God has been and always will be good to us. Our attitude when we arrive at church matters more than we think. We can choose to dwell on all sorts of things that have nothing to do with what God has done for us. If we do so we will not be filled with praise and thanksgiving.

It is incredibly rude to show up to worship with a chip on our shoulder. Imagine you were having a celebration for your child. Folks are smiling, laughing, celebrating with you. Then someone comes in and sits in the corner. They pout. They cross their arms. When people look at them it’s discouraging. Their actions alone begin to rob people of joy. You would likely be upset about that. We gather on Sunday to worship the Son of God. It’s no time to mope and pout. It’s not time to make your own misery the center of attention. It is time to praise the Lord. It is time to give thanks to the Lord!

F. Give thanks to Him (4).

Thanksgiving is not only to be our attitude. We are called upon to give thanks as well.

We can do this through personal prayer.

We can do this through public testimony.

We can do this through song.

We are to recall all the wonderful things God has done. We are to be specific in thanking Him for what He has done for us.

G. Bless his name (4).

When we think about the character of God we should be inspired to bless Him for His goodness. Do you ever tell God how good He is? Do you ever acknowledge who He has proved Himself to be in your life? Do you ever heap compliments on the Lord? That’s what it means to bless His name. At church we speak to one another, that is a good thing. But primarily we come to church to speak to God and to hear from him through His Word. A great question to ask ourselves is “How often do I speak to God when I go to church?”

Those are the seven commands given in this Psalm. Those commands help prepare us for worship. Now we will look at the two explanations related to those commands.

II. Two Explanations.

A. God is our Creator and Redeemer (3).

God deserves our worship because He made us. Everything we are and everything we have we owe to God. This is true even if you are not a Christian. We are not all God’s children, but we are all God’s creation. We are the clay. He is the Potter. Because of that we owe much to God.

There are no self-made men or women.

God gave you every talent or ability you have.

God gave you the time to accomplish what you have accomplished.

God gave you the strength to work. If you build tables, God gave you the tree from which you got the wood.

God gave you favor with people. This has resulted in opportunities and advancements.

We may build things, but we cannot create them. We certainly did not create ourselves. Therefore, we don’t deserve the praise for who we are or what we accomplish. God does.

The second half of verse 3 refers to our redemption. We are His people. We are the sheep of His pasture. This language is used to describe god’s own people. Jesus used the analogy of the Shepherd and the sheep to describe Christians in the New Testament. The Shepherd redeemed the sheep by giving His live for them (John 1:29; John 10:11).

Believers are doubly blessed. God not only made us, but He also remade us (2 Cor. 5:17). We not only have earthly gifts, but we also have heavenly gifts as well. This is why we should enter the house of God with joy and praise. We are saved! We belong to God!

B. We will experience God’s goodness and love forever (5).

Look at verse 5. The Lord is good. How good? Look at the rest of the verse.

His steadfast love, His mercy, endures forever. God’s forgiveness has no end. God will never get tired of us. Think of all the generations that have experience the mercy and faithfulness of God. God was just as faithful to Moses as He is to me. He is just as faithful to Abraham as He will be to your grandchildren. Every generation will experience the mercy of the Lord and they will experience it forever.

We should never tire of praising God because He never tires of keeping us. God has prepared a place to welcome us. We should prepare ourselves to worship Him. This concludes Psalm 100. May we obey its commands and take to heart its explanations.