(upbeat music)
- Hi, this is Pastor Tom,
and I'm gonna welcome you to Psalm 100
in daily drive time devotions.
This wonderful Psalm that starts with these words
in verses one and two,
shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
worship the Lord with gladness,
come before him with joyful songs.
Psalm 100 is often in people's lists of favorite Psalms.
The five verses of Psalm 100, it's a short Psalm,
but the five verses of Psalm 100
are like the six verses of the 23rd Psalm.
Every verse is overflowing with truth.
It's a Psalm that answers this prayer,
I want to know that you're God throughout the day to day.
I want to keep you at the top of my mind
with your wonderful love, your awesome power,
your perfect nature, your eternal faithfulness.
Psalm 100 is a Psalm to help us do that.
So we're gonna go through this Psalm verse by verse.
Verse three gives us three reasons for joy,
verse four gives us three ways to act joyful,
and verse five gives us three truths to bring us joy.
Verse three, three reasons for joy.
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.
Here's how you know you can have joy.
Number one, the Lord is God.
Now, what does it mean for the Lord to be God?
I mean, we use the word God so often,
what does it even mean?
Well, in Hebrew, this phrase is know that Yahweh is Elohim.
Yahweh, that is the personal holy name of God.
That is the name through which God revealed himself to Moses.
And Elohim, that is the God who's all powerful.
That is the God who rules everything.
That is the one and only God.
So he's saying here, know that the God
who reveals himself to us is the one and only God.
Know that our God is the God.
And our God is God, not because we discovered him,
but because he reveals himself to us.
There's nothing that can take that joy from you.
The fact that God has revealed himself to you.
So that's the first reason for joy.
Number two, he made us.
It is he who made us.
You were personally created by a loving God.
I don't care what anybody said about you today.
You were personally created by a loving God.
I don't know, I don't care what you did
that you're ashamed of in the past or today.
You were personally created by a loving God.
I don't know what fears you might have about the future
and how people are going to treat you
and what your life's gonna be like,
but this truth is always gonna be true about you.
You were personally created by a loving God.
And the one who created you is the one who most loves you
every day of your life.
Nothing can take that joy from you.
The Lord is God, you can be joyful.
He made you, you can be joyful.
And third, we are his people.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture, it says here.
Well, the relationship between shepherd and sheep,
it's close.
The shepherd is always with the sheep.
That's what it means to be a shepherd.
You're with the sheep.
If you leave the sheep alone, they're in deep trouble.
So you're always with the sheep, that's the job.
And God says, you're my people.
You're my sheep.
I'm your shepherd, I'm always with you.
When you say the Lord is my shepherd,
when you say you are the sheep of his pasture,
you're reminding yourself that our God and creator
is close to you every day of your life.
And nothing can take that joy from you.
That's just verse three.
And now verse four tells us three ways to act joyful.
Verse four, enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise,
give thanks to him and praise his name.
So it says enter in, give thanks and praise his name.
Well, to act joyful, first you have to enter in
to the place of joyfulness.
It doesn't happen automatically.
It's more like walking through a door.
So I've got to mentally, spiritually, emotionally,
even physically sometimes do something
that causes me to enter into this place of joy.
And then give thanks.
Just tell God thank you for all that he has done.
Tell God thank you for all that he's doing
in your life and in other people's lives.
Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking
we can only give thanks for what he's done in our lives.
No, give thanks for what he's done in everybody's life.
You're gonna have ups and downs in your days.
And there's gonna be some days when it feels like
there's so little to give thanks for.
But if you really seek and think about it,
you're gonna realize there's so much
to give thanks for today.
I can give thanks for my life.
I can give thanks for my words.
I can give thanks for the air that he's given me.
I can give thanks for the fact that he's created me.
And then added to that is all the blessings he gives to us.
And then added to that is all the blessings
he gives to others.
Give thanks.
And then three ways to act joyful, praise his name.
Now giving thanks and praising his name,
there's not always a distinction between those two,
but I want to draw a distinction here.
To praise his name means you're talking to God
about who he is.
So you give thanks to God for what he's done in your life
and other people's lives,
and you praise his name for who he is.
And we don't do that often enough.
We just don't often enough say,
God, I praise you that you're eternal.
You're never gonna end.
And you never started.
That's the greatness of who you are.
God, I praise you that you're faithful.
God, I praise you that you're loving.
Just think of the list, hundreds of things.
Praise his name.
That's how you act joyful.
You talk to God about who he really is.
And then verse five.
He talks about three truths to bring us joy.
Now you may have noticed in verse three, he says,
here's why you should have joy.
In verse four, he says, here's how to have joy.
And then verse five, he comes back
with three more reasons to have joy.
There's a lot of joy in Psalm 100.
That's why people love this Psalm.
Verse five says, for the Lord is good.
And his love endures forever.
His faithfulness continues for all generations.
Well, here's some things to praise God for
that bring you joy.
God's goodness, God's love, God's faithfulness.
God is good.
I'm not always good.
My thoughts aren't always what I want them to be.
My heart doesn't always go in the direction
that I want it to go.
But I can be brought to a place of joy,
not by looking at myself, but by looking at God
and what a good God he is.
And realizing that he wants to begin to translate
that goodness into my life.
It may seem too slow and too long, but he's at work.
God is a good God.
And I also have great joy because of God's love.
The love that was shown to me on the cross
that I could have forgiveness.
The love that's shown to me every day
through God's daily care for me.
And I can have joy because of God's faithfulness.
His love isn't just for today.
His love will last all my life.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life.
His love will last all the way into eternity.
I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever, forever.
Psalm 100 encourages us to act in love
and praise towards the Lord.
To go to the places and to do the things
that promote this love and praise in my heart.
So there's these words that we've seen
again and again in Psalms.
Shout and worship and come before
and know, acknowledge and enter.
In fact, I'd like to go back to that word
in verse four for just a moment.
Enter in.
Because I think the question for a lot of us is,
how do I do that?
How do I enter in to this place of joy?
When this Psalm was written,
they literally entered in through the gates of Jerusalem.
They entered into the courts of the temple.
They went to a different place.
But now, because God's presence through his spirit
is in our hearts always,
we have to find ways spiritually
to enter into his presence.
And we're invited to.
Hebrews 10, 19 is the most familiar verse
in the New Testament about this.
And so dear brothers and sisters,
we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place,
the place of God's presence
because of the blood of Jesus.
The blood of Jesus, what happened on the cross,
his crucifixion, his love poured out for you
has opened the doors.
So enter in.
Here's the choice you and I have.
You can stand on the threshold of that open door
and you can consider all the reasons
you're unworthy to go in.
And we're all unworthy to go in.
I'm unworthy to go in.
Or you can take this invitation.
You can enter in boldly
because of Jesus's love for you.
In fact, think about this.
To not enter in is to deny the power
and the meaning of the cross, of his love for you.
He died so that you can enter in.
So stop having this feeling,
oh, I'm not worthy, I shouldn't enter in.
Instead have this feeling,
if I don't enter in, I'm embarrassing Jesus.
He's the one inviting me in through the cross.
He's standing right there by the throne of God saying,
I died for you so that you could come in boldly right now
into God's presence and enjoy the depth of his love for you.
Enter in right now.
So let's do that as we pray.
Our Father, we right now sense
that we're standing at this door
and we see Jesus because of what he's done on the cross,
beckoning us.
We enter in and we make the choice.
We step across that threshold.
We enter in boldly to your presence,
not because of what we've done,
but because of what Jesus did.
And now we're here.
We're in your presence and we know the depth of your love.
We know the greatness of your power.
We sense your mercy.
We sense your wisdom and a hundred other things
that might be coming to our minds right now.
You are the great and glorious God.
Help us to never be afraid,
to never shy away from entering in
to your wonderful presence.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
(upbeat music)