Joy, Gladness, Thanksgiving & Praise

I woke with a knot in my stomach. I’d gone to bed worrying about someone I hadn’t heard from and unsure of how they were doing. It was the first thing on my mind. The previous day I decided to write on Psalm 100 as it seemed fitting for Thanksgiving week. I wish I could say that Psalm 100 was the first thing to lay hold of my thoughts when I awoke. I wrestled with the worry for a while before I reminded myself that God is trustworthy. I should be trusting my concerns to him instead of spinning my tired brain around in worried circles.

Not long after I began praying, I got a message from the person I had been worried about. All thoughts of worry instantly vanished, and praise replaced it. God allowed me to glimpse His sanctifying work in this other person, and it was good! It was what I should’ve been trusting God for all along. Instead of worrying, I should’ve been trusting and praising God for His good work even if I couldn’t yet see it.

Psalm 100 is a short 5 verses, but it reveals God’s character, and His commands for thanksgiving. It is the pinnacle of praise that began in Psalm 93 and has been building – praise for God’s holy Kingship.

1 A Psalm for Giving Thanks.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

2 Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into His presence with singing!

3 Know that the Lord, He is God!

It is He who made us, and we are His;

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 steadfast love endures forever,

and His faithfulness to all generations.

There are seven imperatives or commands in this Psalm, but I want to start with the one in the middle because the rest of the Psalm revolves around it. “Know that the Lord, He is God!” (vs 3) Knowing God leads to our response to God or in a simple format: knowing = doing. Take a minute to write down all the “God is…” truths in Psalm 100.

From verse 3, we know that the Lord is God. There are no other gods. There is no one who compares to God (Exodus 15:11). The Psalmist commands us to know God. He isn’t talking about some general acknowledgement that God exists. It is a personal knowledge of who God is.

The Psalmist tells us that God made us, we are His, we are His sheep. He is our Creator. We have been made in His image. He knows us intimately. We belong to Him which gives us identity and purpose. Israel was and is God’s special people set apart, but those who are in Christ, have been adopted as children of God. He redeemed us through Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection, so we could belong to Him forever.

As our Shepherd, God protects and provides for us. He is with us in the valleys and the green pastures. We are cared for. We are loved. (For more detail see my blogs “My Shepherd” and “Thoughts, Trust & My Shepherd”.)

In verse 5, we see even more of God’s character. He is good, His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. God is good in everything He does (Romans 8:28-29; James 1:17). His steadfast love and faithfulness secure His continued goodness towards us. We never need to doubt His goodness.

Knowing our good Father provokes us to make a joyful noise to Him, to serve God with gladness, to come into His presence with singing, to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, to give thanks to Him, and to bless His name (all commanded in this Psalm)! Gates and courts reference the tabernacle and temple. We should rejoice as we participate in the blessing of corporate worship, but unlike the Jewish people who had to go to the temple where God’s presence rested, Jesus made a way for us to confidently come near to the throne of grace. The curtain in the temple was torn making access to God possible with Jesus as the only mediator. We come with joy, gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praise and blessing at anytime and anywhere. In fact, Paul said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstance; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

I know there is brokenness and suffering all around us, and rejoicing may seem like a distant dream. Looking at many of the other Psalms, we know that God doesn’t expect us to pretend the brokenness and suffering don’t exist or affect us. However, we can still rejoice and always rejoice in who God is, and that He has redeemed us and made us His beloved children in Jesus. Rejoicing, thanksgiving, and praise will help us persevere through the hard things. They will help us keep a Godly perspective. In rejoicing, giving thanks and praising God, we give to Him what He deserves and what we were made for.

Jesus is described as a Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). He more than anyone knew the brokenness and suffering in this world. He bore our sins, suffered, and died, being forsaken by His Father. And yet, the author of Hebrews writes, “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Despite the agony of the cross, Jesus could approach His suffering and death with joy because of the work God was doing in redeeming us.

Reflection

1. What specifically about who God is and what He has done propels you to rejoicing, thanksgiving and praise?

2. Do you approach corporate worship with joy? What is one thing you can do this Sunday to go into corporate worship already filled with thanksgiving and praise?

3. Does your daily life reflect joy, glad serving, singing, thankfulness, praise, and blessing? What is one thing you can do this week to begin cultivating this kind of joyful response to God?