Living in Thanksgiving
5 ways to thank God, according to Psalm 100
Introduction
All who find rest in God’s presence can sing out Psalm 100, for they are living in His steadfast love. Calling for worship, this hymn invites all people to give thanks to the Universal Creator for the privilege of being “sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100 gives five concrete commands as to how to thank God — (1) make a joyful noise, (2) serve the Lord, (3) come into His presence, (4) know the Lord, and (5) bless His name.
1. Make Joyful Noise
A fitting first command to come from a hymn, Psalm 100 begins by saying:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
An individual who has come to know God and is now in His rest must make joyful noise (some other translations render this phrase as “shout for joy” — the idea still stands). One cannot simply sit in silence when God has given them Himself. The fire with which one is lit up when simply cannot be extinguished — in fact, the entire earth must come to know of it, and join in!
When Peter and John were detained and asked to no longer speak of Christ, they did not comply. The apostles responded to those who threatened them:
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Peter and John, even under threat of punishments, proclaimed boldly their joyful noise. Peter and John’s praises to God, no doubt a nuisance to the Jewish officials, brought the crowds to a place of worship before God. Scriptures explain:
And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.
This tradition of joyful noise continued later with Apostle Paul. Even in prison, Paul and Silas spent their nights singing praises to the Lord while the other prisoners listened to them:
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them
A true believer who is saved by Christ has every reason to sing and shout and make joyful noise! Perhaps even more so than the Psalm’s original audience. The Jews originally sang it when they were in the temple — they knew God from all his miraculous actions amongst them, from bringing them out of Egyptian slavery to helping David expand the kingdom. However, they did not have the revelation that believers have today.
John, Peter, Paul, and Silas made their joyful noises because God Himself had been in their midst (and now God’s own Spirit was within them). This God-man, Jesus, died for their sins and resurrected. With His resurrection, Jesus promised eternal life, freedom from sin, divine fellowship, and restoration to all who believe and live accordingly. This news far out-proclaims any news ever — for this reason it is called the good news, the gospel.
All gospel-believing Christians must take heed to this Psalm’s first command and also make their joyful noises, regardless of the consequence. In light of the good news, no earthly consequence is of any significance, for eternity with God far outweighs any temporal affliction that may occur here on earth.
2. Serve the Lord
The second fruit of thanksgiving after that of joyful noise is service to the Lord. The hymn continues with the second command:
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Awareness of the goodness of God and the great privilege of worshiping Him produces joy in those who know they are welcome in His presence. This hymn encourages its audience to serve the Lord with a heart motivated by gladness.
Although short, this second command gives a profound formula for service that is pleasant to the Lord. The outward action of service must be a result of an internal motivation of gladness. What is the source of this gladness?
For a Christian, gladness (along with joyful noise) is motivated by Christ. What is there to be glad for? After all, the world is so full of evil and misery and sadness. A Christian finds his gladness in that despite the very real reality of evil on earth, there is a greater reality of love in heaven.
The believer is but a temporary sojourner in this present world full of evil; he has an eternal home being prepared for him by His loving Father. This heavenly eternal reality of love manifested itself in the man Jesus Christ, who lives in the hearts of all believers. He is the source of gladness.
This gladness should then produce service. Jesus humbled Himself to the point of being unjustly executed for the sake of others. Apostle Paul, reflecting on this, wrote to the Philippian believers:
Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.
Jesus served until His service brought Him death. Imagine the depth of gladness which must exist in the heart of a believer if he too is to follow the Lord’s example and serve in such a way. Yet this is what Jesus calls His followers to do. In a sign of servitude, after washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus said:
Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Psalm 100 reminds its audience that one shows gratitude by serving the Lord; this service is motivated by gladness for the things which the Lord has done.
3. Come into His Presence
The same verse which bids the audience to serve the Lord also asks that one come into the Lord’s presence with singing. The hymn says:
Come into his presence with singing!
To a modern day believer, coming into the Lord’s presence may mean nothing more than closing one’s eyes and praying, or maybe going to church on a Sunday. For the Jews who sang this hymn, however, the idea of coming into the Lord’s presence was a terrifying one.
Generally speaking, a Jew at the time of this hymn could only enter the Lord’s presence by entering a room in the temple called the Holy of Holies. This was the innermost room found within the Temple of Jerusalem, and it was only accessible to the Israelite high priest. This priest would only be able to enter this room once a year on the Day of Atonement to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood. The Day of Atonement was considered to be one of the most solemn of all events. The Holy of Holies was separated by a thick veil from the rest of the Temple.
The seriousness of entering the Lord’s presence cannot be over-emphasized. In one instance, two of Aaron’s sons died because they had burned a fire that was not commanded by the Lord to the Lord:
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
The fear of dying because of sin was very real amongst high priests when they entered the Lord’s presence in the Holy of Holies. Yet despite such a seriousness, Psalm 100 says to come into the Lord’s presence with singing. If all humans are sinful, and coming into the Lord’s presence as a sinner means death, who can even dare enter the Lord’s presence in song?
Only a perfectly sinless and righteous person can lay claim here. Yet the Psalm commands it as a sign of thanksgiving! How does one make sense of this? At the time of this hymn’s original audience, perhaps this was a mystery to the Jews, but Christ’s death and resurrection (the very source of joy and gladness previously spoken of by the Psalm) explains everything.
At the moment of Jesus’ death, Scriptures attest that the veil within the temple which separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the world had torn. Matthew’s gospel account says:
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
The author of Hebrews spends the entire 9th chapter of his letter explaining the significance of this event. After explaining the Holy of Holies and all the preparations that the high priest had to make, the author continues to say that
when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
God’s presence is no longer limited to the high priest once a year in a specific room within the Jerusalem temple. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross washes all believers clean of their sin and makes them blameless in God’s sight. Now, God’s presence can be accessed anywhere that there is a believer, because God’s presence is within the believer through the Holy Spirit.
Christian believers have something the the Jews could only wish for through hymn — the Christian believer can truly go ahead and enter the Lord’s presence in singing with the full confidence that they are righteous because of Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross.
4. Know the Lord
After commanding joyful noise, service, and entrance into the Lord’s presence, Psalm 100 asks of its audience to know that the Lord is God. The Psalmist said:
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.
This passage was written by Jews who were rejoicing in that the Lord created and chose them as His people. God did not keep entrance into His “people” limited to just the Jews, however. Through Jesus, all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. can be God’s people through faith in Jesus. In fact, the Lord calls His people by a specific name now — the Church.
All members of the Church are members of the Body of Christ. They are saved believers which find their life in Jesus. They are the fruits, and Jesus is the vine. They are the sheep, and Jesus is the shepherd. They are the students, and Jesus is the teacher. They are His people, and He is their King. They are His children, and He is their Father.
Knowing this should bring Psalm 100 to a special light for the saved believer. Through Jesus, who is the only mediator between God and man, a believer can come to know God personally. Man is no longer only able to know about God — he is able to literally fulfill this hymn’s command and know God as a Person.
God is Him who created all people, including believers. God is Him who brought believers in His fold. God is Him who pastures His sheep. God is the ultimate king and the ultimate shepherd. Believers have the great privilege of being His sheep which was bought by the priceless death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
This personal relationship between God and man begins with Jesus Christ. Christ bridges together sinful man and perfect God. Christ is the foundation through which man can come into God’s presence. Christ is He who allows man to build a genuine and personal relationship with God. It is through Jesus that fellowship with the almighty Creator and Governor over the universe can be had.
5. Bless His Name
The final action which Psalm 100 asks of its audience is to be thankful, give praise, and bless God’s name. The Psalmist says:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
Thanksgiving, praise, and blessings come hand-in-hand. By thanking God through praise and blessing, God is being acknowledged as the Giver. It makes no sense to thank someone for something they did not do — one gives thanks to someone who deserves it. Likewise, giving thanks to God is giving Him that which He rightfully deserves. By thanking God, one reaches beyond the gift to the Giver.
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of thankfulness that it is only the humble which can receive something as a gift — the proud will take only what is their due. Thus, a sinner who humbly recognizes His sins and their eternal consequences will seek and accept the gracious gift of the gospel of Jesus; a prideful man who refuses to accept Christ’s gracious gift of eternal life will receive only that which is his due — eternal damnation.
A believer who is saved by Christ has nothing but praise and glory to give to God in his worship of Him. The believer who is saved by Christ blesses God’s name for His good grace.
Conclusion
Psalm 100 gives five concrete commands as to how to thank God — (1) make a joyful noise, (2) serve the Lord, (3) come into His presence, (4) know the Lord, and (5) bless His name. These five things are a direct result of knowing God for who He truly is. That is why the Psalm, after listing off how to give thanks to God, simple ends with an acknowledgement of who He is. The Psalm finishes with:
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Joyful noise, service, entering the Lord’s presence, knowing the Lord, blessing Him — all of this is a result of God, being who He is, saving humans from eternity in hell. The Lord is truly good — Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross testifies of this. The Lord is truly steadfast in His love — the promise of eternal life testifies of this. The Lord is truly faithful to all generation — anyone who believes will be saved.
Calling for worship, this hymn invites all people to give thanks to the Universal Creator for the privilege of being “sheep of His pasture.” All who find rest in God’s presence can sing out Psalm 100, for they are living in His steadfast love.
