Psalm 100

Psalm 100
Tonight I'm going to look at this psalm from the point of view of v. 4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving..."

Exactly how do we express thanks? Of course, we can and we should say, "Thank you." But really when you think about it, these can be empty words, can't they, unless our actions back up our words. So what actions reveal true thanksgiving to the Lord?

• Worship the Lord with gladness. v. 1 Apparently "gladness" can come at least partially from our will. We can decide to be "glad," and we should make this a matter of prayer--asking the Lord to give us a glad heart.
• Come before Him with joyful songs. v. 1 Joyful songs of praise lift our spirits as we worship the Lord.
• Acknowledge that the Lord is our God, our creator. v. 3 We as Americans seem to be independent by nature. This can be a good thing as long as we know that we should never try to be independent of God. There is no such thing as a "self-made" man. Even our intelligence and physical strength come to us by the grace of God!
• Remember that we are His people, the sheep of his pasture. v. 3 As we have noted many times, sheep are a pretty helpless lot--weak and not very smart! The smartest thing we as sheep can do is to mind the Good Shepherd.
• Give Him verbal thanks and praise. v. 4
• Remember that He is good. v. 5 This may seem like a cliche that God is good...all the time. But it is true. Don't forget that no matter what happens, God is good.
• Remember that His love endures forever. v. 5 Human love can be fickle. We are sinful and self-centered. But God's love never changes, and it endures forever. As believers we should never feel unloved because we ARE loved!
• Know that His faithfulness continues through all generations. v. 5 I look at the children and young people at church, and I'm encouraged. Until the Lord comes back, the Church will continue into the next generation and beyond, long after we are gone, and God will be faithful to them as He is to us.

For our meditation:  v. 5 "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."