The Jubilant Sheep: Psalm 100
“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 we 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.” Psalms 100:1-5
Yesterday we looked briefly at Psalm 23. In that Psalm we looked at the goodness of the Sheperd. We learned that “the Lord is my Sheperd, I shall not want.” His care for His sheep is amazing!
By contrast, Psalm 100 briefly talks about the sheep; “we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” We now discover the way we should respond to Him as our Shepherd: Shout joyfully to the Lord Serve the Lord with gladness Come before Him with joyful singing Acknowledge Him as our God Proclaim Him as our Creator Enter His gates with thanksgiving Enter His courts with praise Give thanks to Him Bless His name
We as His sheep should be jubilant and filled with joy in His presence. We should worship Him. Why? The final verse tells us: For the Lord is good His loving kindness is everlasting His faithfulness is to all generations
It is very hard for me to study this Psalm and not participate in corporate worship. Few things delight me more than joining a Spirit filled flock for inspirational worship. I can only imagine what the heavenly chorus is going to be like.
According to Psalms 19, the heavens are declaring His glory. According to Luke 19:14 the rocks are preparing to cry out in worship. According to Revelation 19, a great multitude is going to proclaim the fourfold “Hallelujah” with a loud voice.
What is God trying to tell us? Don’t wait until you get to heaven to loose your inhibitions about worship. Start now. Worship is an action verb. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Learn to worship God!
