A Call to Worship
Psalm 100 has to be one of my favourite Psalms. This may be evident in the fact that I regularly read it when I lead worship. The passage speaks in such simple terms the call to worship and gives us a clear description of how we are to worship. God desires us to worship Him, He loves our worship. Today’s devotion is not as long as the others you normally get from onthingsabove but I hope that it will be a great blessing to you.
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Call out with Joy
In every aspect of our lives we should be ready to call out with joy to God. This is not easy to follow because we are emotional beings who are not always filled with joy. Our natural response to anything in life is closely linked to the way we feel at the time. So to approach God with joy can be difficult when the woes of life are getting us down.
God does not discount this fact. However, in His wisdom, God reveals to us later in this Psalm that if we approach God with thanksgiving instead of our list of troubles, we will see that He is in control of all things. Our natural reaction to that realisation will be to worship joyfully. Then when we lift our troubles to God, we lift them knowing that he has the power and strength to resolve all the troubles you face. Further than that, as you give thanks to God for the great things He has done in your life, you will see His plan unfold, how He has brought you out of troubles in the past, how He was always with you – even when you could not feel Him there.
When we approach God with thanksgiving first, we set our hearts and minds on Him (Colossians 3). However, when we come to God with our list of problems we are experiencing we are too focused on our problems to worship God.
I am not saying that you should not raise your troubles to God. I am suggesting that when we lift only problems to God then those problems can overcome us. When we start by giving thanks to God – we focus on Him and His greatness and then we can lift our troubles to Him – worshipfully – knowing that He has been faithful to us through everything so far.
“Enter His gates giving thanks” and “Honour His name” are two things that we can do that will focus our hearts and minds on the greatness of God, His loving kindness and His faithfulness to us.
Be Glad as you Serve the Lord
As we focus on giving God thanks for the blessings in our life. As we focus our hearts and minds on His kindness, grace and faithfulness our natural response would be gratitude. God loves to hear our gratitude and our gratitude is seen in the way that we serve Him. Our commitment and desire to serve God, to do the best for God is a picture of our gratitude towards God.
‘Be Glad as You Serve God’ simply means to respond to God’s greatness by being obedient in your service to Him.
In the future, why not try starting your prayers and worship with thanksgiving. I believe that your natural reaction will then be to worship God both in word and deed. Your obedience to God will be a natural outcome of your gratitude to Him. Your worship will feel more natural because you are focused on God and His glory instead of on your needs and desires.
