Tag: worship

Psalm 100: Joyful Thanksgiving

Giving thanks to God is a lifestyle choice not just a day on the calendar. Taking our cue from the psalmist, let’s learn to joyfully shout out our thanks to God.

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1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness;

   Come before Him with joyful singing.

3 Know that the Lord Himself is God;

   It is He who has made us, and not ourselves;

   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 lovingkindness is everlasting

   And His faithfulness to all generations.

Verses 1-2: Do all with joy…

This psalm opens with the three commands, but the psalmist is not just calling us to action but to have an attitude of joy before the Lord.  We are challenged to live out our faith with a joyfulness that is heard in our words and seen in our actions.

Verse 3: The Lord He is God…

Too often we live as though we are “self made” and able to decide who we are and what we do. Recognizing we are His people…the sheep of His pasture, means that we must accept Him as our shepherd and submit to His authority in our lives.

Verse 4: Enter His presence with thanksgiving…

We must be intentional to come before the Lord with a thankful heart and mind. Not only because of what He has done for us, but more importantly because of who He is…blessing His name. The Hebrew word for bless is bârak. It literally means  to kneel; the implication is to bless God is an act of adoration.

Verse 5: His lovingkindness is everlasting…

God is our standard for goodness. His lovingkindness (hesed-mercy, kindness, steadfast love) is always available for us to accept or reject. God’s faithfulness speaks of His trustworthiness, dependability for all time.

Several years ago I taught kindergarten at our church preschool. The students memorized Psalm 100 for their “graduation”. I would encourage you to memorize this psalm and let it become the pattern for you life…as you

Serve with joy…

Submit to God as creator and shepherd…

Give Him thanks; bless His name…

Praise His goodness, lovingkindness and faithfulness!

 

 

 

DAN: Convenient Worship…Inconvenient God

Near the northeastern border of Israel stand the remains of a place of worship.  A metal frame outlines where a large altar had been.  This place of worship was established nearly 3,000 years ago, because Israel’s new king didn’t want his people returning to Jerusalem to worship the Lord God in the temple there.

So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem;  Behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.  1 Kings 12:28

It is more convenient for you to worship here close to home…no matter that it is a golden calf instead of the Lord God.

That convenient worship led to the downfall of the kingdom.

…Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin…So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria… 2 Kings 17:21-23

Thinking of this makes me wonder if my desire for convenience has affected my worship of God.  Am I willing to worship and obey God when it is hard or “inconvenient”?  Will I stay true to God and my commitments to Him no matter the cost or only if I can work it into my schedule?