This past Lord’s Day we sang Psalm 100 as part of the worship service, and it hit me afresh what a wonderful psalm this is. It reveals so much of the character of our good God.
All people that on earth do dwell. That means everyone. No exceptions. He wants us all.
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. No mumbling. We are singing to the Lord!
Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell. Let’s hear some laughter, let’s serve the Lord with merriment. Let’s toast His attributes and clink our glasses in His name!
Come ye before Him and rejoice. Here’s a little repetition, and we need it. No kidding: God wants merry worshipers, happy singing, glad hearts, and jolly rejoicing in His presence by every last person on the planet.
Why?
Know that the Lord is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make; We are His folk, He doth us feed, and for His sheep He doth us take.
Here we have God’s profound mercy: He made us with no helpful suggestions from us. He calls us His folk; we are His relatives! And He cares for us like a shepherd looking after his dumb sheep, leading, feeding, protecting, and delighting over us. He likes us!
O enter then His gates with praise; Approach with joy His courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless His Name always, For it is seemly so to do. He calls to us to “come on in,” and as we get closer to His courts, our joy and anticipation are to overflow in praise and blessing.
For why! the Lord our God is good; His mercy is forever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure. And we are back where we started, with God’s solid goodness, His sure mercy, and His firm truth that will never end. That’s something to sing about!
In summary: God is good! We are to be His jolly people who worship His goodness with merriment, cheeriness, and high spirits. The mirth of our worship and service should run over and spill out until we are just sloshing around in the praise of God’s goodness.
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I LOVE this psalm and so do our children. The 7, 5 & 3 year olds hae this memorized. We always recite it on THanksgiving- it is one of our traditions that day.
“He likes us!”
This is always such a wonderment to me. One of my favorite quotes from your husband is this bit from a sermon of a couple years back (October 2, 2005, to be exact): “God has received you. Deal with it. God likes you. Deal with that. God sings songs over you, as it says in Zechariah: ‘He delights over them with singing.’ Deal with that. God likes you; He loves you. And we think, ‘Yes, He loves us in a technical, theological sense, but only because He has to and because He’s God. He doesn’t like having to love us.’ He loves having to love you. He likes having to love you. He loves having to like you. I think that covers it. He likes having to like you.”
Perhaps if I’d grown up singing, “Jesus likes me, this I know,” it wouldn’t seem like such an alien concept. But though I’m still not used to the idea, the thought of it leaves me with a goofy grin and sure does make me want to do that mirthful, jolly, sloshy stuff!
This is one our favorites to sing at family worship time.
Ms Nancy! Thank you for all your posts on visiting the Merkeles – Bekah is an inspiration to me. This Psalm was exactly what I needed today! I love how God works like that. 🙂 We can’t wait to see you all in March for the conference!
Your comments have made this favorite psalm even richer. Thank you.
My favorite rendition of this is on the Ralph Vaughan Williams CD “A Vaughan Williams Hymnal”. The choir of Trinity College and the organ combine to give me goosebumps every time.
Lovely reminder that the words are full!
We had the Old Hundredth as the opening hymn at our wedding. With the organ and orchestra going full blast, and with a choir and a church full of people singing at the top of their lungs, I got that goosebumpy-type feeling that we were catching a glimpse of heaven…
Except that heaven will be so much more glorious! Wow, can’t wait..
I love this Psalm.
Valerie… for crying out loud, now how did you know I NEEDED to read/hear that quote today? Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m copying it down. I don’t suppose you have a copy of that sermon (MP3 style) you can send to me if I gave you my email address??
Sorry, Luma…that was in ye olden days of pre-podcast sermon-listening, so if I have that particular one on my hard drive somewhere, it’s not filed by date and is therefore unknown. Contact Canon, though…they have everything!
Thanks Valerie!!
Did you know that in the Trinity Blue, it is “him serve with fear, His praise forthtell…”? That’s how I grew up singing it. It actually took me months to remember to sing it the other way, but how much better!