For Giving Thanks

 

Read Psalm 100

 

            Think of the times in your life that you have been most thankful…those most exciting moments when you could not wait to tell someone the good news you have.

 

            Psalm 100 is for giving thanks.  In its title notes, it is the only Psalm titled, “For giving thanks.”  Yes, there are many other Psalms that have verses and theme of thanksgiving.  But Psalm 100 is the only one 100% of this thanksgiving and what the thanksgiving is for.

 

            As we read the Psalms, we cry out for God’s mercy, we tell him of the misery we are in and the oppressive enemies we face in life’s ventures.  We also rejoice, give thanks, and praise him for all he does in creation and for our salvation.  We confess our sins in great sorrow to him, begging his forgiveness.  In the Psalms we see ourselves complaining, questioning, and even cursing our enemies more violently than we see ourselves blessing God.  And yet we continue to call on him, call his name, loudly and clearly.  And, in the Psalms we meet God who listens, who hears, who answers, who loves, who claims you as his dear children, who has given you all that he has and that all is nothing but good, his perfect goodness in his love in Jesus Christ, his one and only son, our brother, Lord and Savior.

 

 

 

v. 1     

            Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Think of joy in comparison with just being happy.  Joy fills your entire being, down to the bone, into your heart and soul.  Joy in God is the defining motive and power of faith.  Knowing what God has given you and done for you, both in earthly and eternal gifts alike, is the joy that lifts our hearts up as we want to and so sing our boldly and confidently those hymns and songs throughout our lives.

 

            Last winter during Advent, we studied the great hymns of Advent.  Those were hymns of joy, thanksgiving and praise at:   Zechariah’s song at the birth of John the Baptist, Mary’s song when told she was carrying our Lord, the Angels’ song to the Shepherds, and Simeon’s song at the presentations.  All of these songs we sing in our services to this day in thanksgiving for the greatest gift God gives, himself for us.  Psalm 100 is the song to sing any time Christians gather together to celebrate this great gift of forgiveness and eternal life God gives. 

 

            …all the earth.  God is one God for all people of all time.  This short phrase tells us that we are part of the communion of saints, all of God’s children joined together as one.  In this communion of saints we are reminded who joins us together as one.  It is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who, as he gives us his body and blood, joins us together with him and also joins us together with each other as that one body, his bride, the church.  No believer is ever left out.

 

v. 2     

            What a reminder of the state of heart each one is to have as we gather together in his name.  Yes we are tired in this world.  Yes, we are sorrowful because of our sins.  Yes, we are hurting because of all kinds of things.  But when we come together in services, join together in fellowship, gather together in times of assisting each other and in prayer, it is always with joyful hearts because of the faith God has given us.  That faith is knowing that he is coming again to take us from this sinful earth to all of the glories and splendor of his heavenly kingdom.  We rejoice and give thanks because he has already forgiven our sins.  It is only a glimpse of when all believers are gathered together in eternity as we have nothing else to do but to sing, “Praise God!”   And his angels today rejoice that enthusiastically each time a sinner repents and trusts in Jesus alone for forgiveness and salvation. 

 

v. 3

            Know that the Lord is God.  This is a statement of fact and of truth.  This is a command.  It is affirmative that we know that the Lord we call upon, the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is God.  There is no other God.  There is no other way to know God.  There is no other way that God is to us or anyone else throughout all eternity.  Even the evil spirits knew and shouted out that Jesus is the Lord.  All in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow at Jesus’ name because he is the name above all other names.  As we meet God, we surrender to the joy in Him.  Our self-assurance and independent values all vanish in the presence of God. 

 

            It is he who made us, and we are his.  Everything that is human and in history has been put in place by God.  God made us in his image to be his people.  He has called and claimed us as his people even though we left his image in sin in Eden.  Throughout all time he continued to call and set aside those faithful to him as his precious people.  Think about Job, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and all of his descendants known as Israel.  And Jesus has sent his disciples, each one of us, to go into all places of this world to preach his word to all who will hear and baptize all who believe in his name.  He wants all people to be his.  Our God describes himself as a jealous God, wanting all people to be his own and not given over to anything else.  He is the one God above all other gods that we imagine and place before him.  Those gods are no more than what we can make them.  It is God who first made us and all things, and first loved us giving us all things both of this earth and in eternity.

 

            We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Yes, this takes us to Psalm 23 and all that Jesus brings us as he is our shepherd and we are his sheep.  Again, he wants no one else to own us, to have us.  He gives nothing but the best, even himself, to us.  We are called his sheep in other Psalms.  74:1 we cry out feeling rejected by him, even the “sheep of his pasture.”  79:13 tells how the sheep of his pasture will praise him forever, from generation to generation.  And 95:7.  how we bow down before him to worship him because we are the “sheep of his pasture, the flock under his care.”  What other shepherd would you want to have? 

 

v. 4-5

            Enter his gates with thanksgiving.  The gate is the entrance.  Jesus tells us he is the gate, the only entrance into heaven.  As we come in sorrow and repentance for sins, we come with thanksgiving knowing that God has already saved us.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  [Romans 5:8]  That is why the Lord’s Supper is also called the Eucharist, the Greek word for “Thanksgiving.”  We come in thanksgiving for Jesus’ body and blood that is already given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.  We come humbly and in simple faith.  But we also come joyously thanking and praising God for this great gift that he never holds back from presenting to us, over and over and over again to always remember what he has done.

 

            And his courts with praise.  As the gate is the entrance, the courts are where one lives.  Yes God is with us here on earth, but his home is in heaven.  Your home is in heaven with him.  As you enter those courts where your room is prepared, we will all praise God together there in his heavenly home, our heavenly home.  We will thanks to him and praise his name just as the 10^th leper did because of the perfect healing and eternal joys he gives.

 

            For the Lord is good, and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.  God is nothing but good.  He his perfect in that good and gives nothing but good to you.  His love endures forever, it is there no matter what happens or what you or I do.  What a great comfort that is to know that there is no sin you have done that is so great that God will not forgive.  And his forgiveness is forever.  He will not stop by and say, “Hey!  Remember that time you did this or that?”  No, he will always come to you giving nothing but complete and perfect forgiveness, making you his dear child again and again through all eternity.  As God was faithful to Enoch, to Abraham, to Jacob, to all of Jacob’s children, to David, he remains faithful to you and me and all people today and will forever.  It is because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  To that we can all say.  Amen and Amen.  Alleluia.  Praise God.

 

            Let’s stand and praise God. 

 

                        Sing Doxology: