Psalm 100

Introduction

Psalm 100 is the last of the enthronement psalms. These are psalms 93 to 100 and they’re all about how the Lord reigns as king. Psalm 93 began with the words, ‘The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty’. While Psalm 94 doesn’t refer to God’s reign, it does say that he will judge the earth; and he has the right to judge the earth, because he is the king over all. Psalm 95 says that ‘the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods’. In Psalm 96, the nations are commanded to say, ‘The Lord reigns.’ Psalm 97 opens with the words, ‘The Lord reigns, let the earth by glad’. In Psalm 98 all the earth is told to ‘shout for joy before the Lord, the King’. And Psalm 99, which we studied last week, begins: ‘The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble.’

All of these psalms make clear that the Lord our God reigns. He is the great King who rules over, not only the land of Israel, but over all the nations of the world. He is King over all. And therefore, in Psalm 100, all the earth is told to shout for joy to the Lord and to worship him with gladness and to come into his royal courts with praise.

In verses 1 to 4 there are seven imperatives or commands: shout for joy; worship the Lord; come before him; know that he is God; enter his gates; give thanks to him; and praise his name. And then verse 5 tells us why we should shout for joy and worship the Lord; and why we should come before him and know that he is God; and why we should enter his gates with thanksgiving and give thanks to him and praise his name. It’s because the Lord is good and his love and faithfulness endure for ever.

Verses 1 to 4

You’ll see from the psalm’s title that this is a psalm for giving thanks. So, the psalmist composed this psalm for God’s people when they gathered together for worship to give thanks to God. And in the first verse of the psalm, the worshippers command all the earth — or all the people of the earth — to shout for joy to the Lord.

You’ll notice that Lord is in capital letters which means that this is God’s special covenant name, which is Yahweh in Hebrew. And it speaks to us of God’s commitment to his people and how he has bound himself to them with a promise to be their God and to take care of them. Of course, every nation had their own god. One would say that Baal is god. Another would say Dagon is god. And another would say Molech is god. And the Israelites would say that the Lord, Yahweh, is God.

So, every nation had their own god. But here in the psalm, the worshippers are commanding all the nations of the earth to shout for joy and to worship Israel’s God. They are to worship him, because he’s the Great King who reigns over all. He’s the one true and living God, whereas Baal and Dagon and Molech and all the rest are only idols which can do nothing. And so, shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

And the worshippers are telling all the earth to worship the Lord with gladness. The Hebrew word translated ‘worship’ by the NIV really means ‘serve’. So, ‘serve the Lord with gladness’. But the NIV is right to translate it ‘worship’, because, for the Israelites, it meant ‘serve the Lord in the temple’. Serve him by taking part in the public service of worship, when offerings were made to God and when the people prayed to him and praised his name.

And since this command is issued to all the earth, then the worshippers are calling on all the people of the earth to join them in the public service of worship in the temple. And all the people are to come with gladness. So, they weren’t to come reluctantly. They weren’t to come unwillingly. They weren’t to drag their feet. They were to come with gladness and they were to come with joyful songs. As they made their way up to Jerusalem and into the temple, they were to sing joyfully to the Lord.

And then in verse 3 the worshippers command all the earth to know that the Lord is God. Since this is the middle of the seven commands, then it’s perhaps the most important one. The word translated ‘Know’ means ‘be assured that it is true’ or ‘know that it is true’. And what do the worshippers want all the earth to know? That the Lord, Israel’s God, is God. The worshippers want all the earth to know that the Lord is the true God. He’s the only God. So, know that this is true: the Lord is the only true God and your gods are nothing but idols which can do nothing.

And the worshippers say to all the earth that the Lord made us. When we were studying Psalm 95, which says the same thing about the Lord, I explained that while the psalmist might mean that the Lord is the Creator, who made all things in heaven and on earth, it’s perhaps more likely that he means that the Lord made the Israelites his people. In other words, he chose them and he freed them from Egypt and he brought them to Mount Sinai where he established his covenant with them and promised to be their God and to take them as his people. And so, he made them in the sense that he made them his people.

And therefore the worshippers can say, ‘we are his’. We belong to him. We are his possession. And since they belong to him, then they can be confident that he will look after them. Just as we take care of our own possessions, so the Lord takes care of his people. He watches over his people and protects them and keeps them. As the worshippers go on to say: ‘we are his people, the sheep of his pasture’. Just as the shepherd looks after his sheep, so the Lord looks after his people: he provides them with all that they need, he restores their tired and weary souls, he guides them along the right paths and he guards them from all harm.

So, what are the nations of the earth to know about the Lord? That he alone is God; and he chose his people; and made them his own special people; and he cares for them. Know that this is true.

And the worshippers continue to call on all the earth in verse 4, telling them to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. They’re referring to the courts of the temple in Jerusalem. And they’re royal courts, because the temple contained God’s throne room. And the worshippers are calling on all the earth to come up to the temple with thanksgiving and praise. The word translated ‘thanksgiving’ refers to public proclamation. So, enter his gates to proclaim in public who God is and what he has done. And give thanks to him and praise his name.

And so, there you have the seven imperatives or commands: shout for joy; worship the Lord; come before him; know that he is God; enter his gates with thanksgiving; give thanks to him; and praise his name. As the Israelites gathered in the temple to worship the Lord, and to give thanks to him, they called on all the earth to join them in doing these seven things. As they worshipped the Lord in the temple, they called on the nations to give up their idols and false gods and to come and worship the one true and living God.

Verse 5

Verse 5 tells us why all the earth should shout for joy and worship the Lord; and why they should come before him and know that he is God; and why they should enter his gates with thanksgiving and give thanks to him and praise his name. It’s because the Lord is good and his love and faithfulness endure for ever.

The Lord, Israel’s God, is good. He’s good to all the nations, because every good thing we enjoy has come to us from him. He is the source of all our blessings and of everything that makes life good. And so, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

And the Lord’s love endures forever and his faithfulness continues through all generations. The worshippers who sang this psalm are referring to God’s covenant love. That is, it’s his steadfast love towards his people. It’s his never-ending love for them. And the worshippers want all the earth to know that God’s love for his people is forever. It never comes to an end. And he’s always faithful to his people and to the promises he has made. What he has said, he will do. And he’ll never forget his people. He’ll never abandon them. So, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Why? Because our God is good. And his love for his people is never-ending. And he’s always faithful to his people. Whatever gods you worship are not like our God. Your gods can do nothing for you, because they’re not real. But our God is good and he is good to us. Therefore, come and worship him.

Conclusion

The worshippers who used to give thanks to the Lord by singing this psalm looked forward to the day when people from all over the earth would give up their idols and false gods and worship the Lord their God. And since the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, his apostles and preachers have gone out into all the world to call on men and women and boys and girls everywhere to give up their false gods and to worship the true God.

And that command has come to us as well. We’re commanded to shout for joy to the Lord and to worship him with gladness and to come before him with joyful songs. We’re commanded to know that he is God. We’re commanded to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise and to give thanks to him and praise his name. We’re commanded to rejoice before him because he’s good and his love and faithfulness endure forever. The command has come to us as well.

But here’s the thing: we can only come before him like this, because of Christ our Saviour, who gave up his life on the cross in order to bring us to God. As another psalm says, only those who clean hands and a pure heart can stand in God’s holy place. And our hands are not clean and our hearts are not pure, because we’re sinners who sin against the Lord continually. By ourselves, we have no right to approach a holy God and we should be sent away from his presence for ever.

But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our Saviour, who shed his blood on the cross in order to cleanse our hands and our hearts. Through faith in him we are washed and purified. And as God’s pardoned people, we can come before him to worship him. And we can give thanks to him because Israel’s God has become our God; and because he made us his people so that we now belong to him; and he has promised to watch over us and to keep us always; and he is good to us and his love and faithfulness towards us will never ever end.

And what we have begun to do here on earth, we’ll do for ever and for ever, because God has promised to bring us through the gates and into the courts of his presence in the new heavens and earth where we’ll join with his people from every nation to worship and adore him for ever.