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Psalm 100 – A Song of Thanksgiving

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By: Edward Cortez

 

Psalm 100 is an ecstatic and cheerful thanksgiving song. Just notice how many positive and upbeat words are used: “joy,” “gladness,” “joyful songs,” “thanksgiving,” and “praise.” It is a good meditation for all of us during our thanksgiving celebration this month. It contains only fi ve verses, but they are very powerful, uplifting, and encouraging passages.

The fi rst part of this psalm exhorts us to “shout for joy to the Lord…worship the Lord with gladness…come before him with joyful songs” (Verses 1-2). Many of us may fi nd it hard to “shout for joy” because of what we are going through or what we’ve been through this year or in the past. But these passages direct our worship to the source of our joy. We are not rejoicing for the sake of rejoicing, nor are we just being happy for the sake of being happy. Rather we are being joyful “to the Lord,” we “worship the Lord with gladness” …and we “come before him with joyful songs.”

For our thanksgiving to be much deeper and fulfi lling, there must be an object to our thanksgiving. And the object of our thanksgiving is no other than God, himself. When we turn to God and acknowledge his central role in our lives, focusing on his ability and power to protect, preserve, and provide for us, then our thanksgiving celebration will become more meaningful and memorable. Celebrating thanksgiving with families, loved ones, and friends with awesome food is great! But let’s celebrate thanksgiving by acknowledging the One who gives us all that we have and made us into all that we are.

Psalms 100 enjoins us to worship the Lord with gladness, which means we are to come excitedly to him because of who he is – a God full of love, mercy, and compassion. His generosity knows no bounds and his faithfulness is from generation to generation. We are to come before him with joyful songs. A person who understands how he’s been saved from a life of sin and destruction will always have a song in his or her heart. This person knows that without God saving him and keeping him alive there is simply no hope for him.

The second half of this Psalm gives us the reason why our thanksgiving should be full of joy, rejoicing, worship, and praise. It begins in verse 3, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We are God’s creation. We came from him and as such we are to go back to him in gratitude and thanksgiving for all that he has done and continue to do for us. He is also our Shepherd who carefully and compassionately looks after us. A good shepherd knows his sheep intimately. And the sheep know and recognize the voice and the presence of their shepherd. There is a deep attachment between the shepherd and the sheep. And this is how God relates to all of us who believe in his name and trust in his Son, Jesus.

This psalm then invites us to “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (verse 4). A thankful heart will always fi nd entrance into the presence of God. Though we are not worthy to enter God’s presence because of our sins, but through the death of Jesus on the cross who took away all of our sins, a divine access has been granted to all who believe by faith in the fi nished work and once-and-forall sacrifi ce of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Psalm 100 then concludes with an affi rmation of the unchanging character of God: “For the Lord is good and his loves endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (verse 5). A good, loving, and faithful God is the greatest reason why we can celebrate Thanksgiving even when there is an economic downturn or personal loss. James puts it this way, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

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