Sermon Notes

1-2 On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into His presence. 3 Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn’t make Him. We’re His people, His well-tended sheep. 4 Enter with the password: “Thank You!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank Him. Worship Him. 5 For God is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever.

Psalm 100 was written as a song of praise and worship to the Most High God. It comes at the end of a series of praise psalms:

· Psalm 93 - praise God for His majesty.

· Psalm 94 - praise God for His justice.

· Psalm 95 - praise God for His providential care.

· Psalm 96 – praise God for His glory.

· Psalm 97 - praise God because of His supremacy.

· Psalm 98 - praise God because of His marvelous nature.

· Psalm 99 - praise God because of His faithfulness/fidelity.

Here, in Psalm 100, we are to give thanks to the Lord because of His enduring goodness.

What is revealed through this series of psalms is that God doesn’t just tell us what we should do, but He reveals to us how and why we should do it. Especially as it pertains to spiritual matters, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do anything. And God’s way is always the right way. For the Christian, any way that doesn’t have Jesus at the center is the wrong way.

1-2 On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into His presence.

The psalmist invites us to rise to our feet in appreciation of who God is. He reminds us that our thanksgiving must include an uncontrolled exuberance directed toward God and designed to focus our attention on His goodness.

The psalmist says that our worship of God should include giving, not just a desire to receive. Too often, we come to God only looking to receive from Him. But when we are filled with thanksgiving, we come to give to Him as well. When we think about the goodness of Jesus and all that He’s done for us, we ought to bring a gift of laughter to the Lord. We ought to come singing to Him, “How Great

Thou Art!” Our worship of God should be intentional; it should be emulative; and it should be responsive.

3 Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn’t make Him. We’re His people, His well-tended sheep.

The psalmist says that we can be thankful to God because of the things that we know about Him. This is helpful to us because it reminds us of who we are and who God is; it reminds us of what we can do—our limitations—and what God can do—His limitless-ness.

*We all like to think of ourselves as important, as successful. But regularly, something happens that reminds us that, absent God, we are severely limited.

The psalmist takes comfort in the fact that he does not belong to himself. God is his Creator—the One responsible for his existence. But more than creativity, God cares for him—“we are well-tended sheep.”

*God is worthy of our worship because our existence is owed to Him. But God is worthy of our praise because He is com-passionate, provisional, protected by His care. God provides for all our needs despite those who try to harm us.

4 Enter with the password: “Thank You!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank Him. Worship Him.

When the psalmist mentions “enter,” he’s talking about our need to gather for corporate worship. Depending on the time of the psalm’s writing, the psalmist is referring to entering the Tent of Meeting (the tabernacle), or the Temple, or perhaps the synagogue. But for the Christian, the call is for us to come to Church.

*The biggest lie that has ever been told is that we don’t need to come to Church. The Church is where our souls are revived, where God’s Word comes alive and is made meaningful to us, where encouragement is given to those in despair.

The psalmist tells us that we are to make ourselves at home in the praise and thanksgiving that we give to our Lord. When we’re at home, we’re in a place of complete comfort and security.

*If the Lord has been good to you—and He has—then you ought not have a problem saying, “Praise the Lord!”

5 For God is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever.

In the final verse the psalm, we are not only told that we should be thankful, but we are told why we should be thankful:

· We should be thankful because God is sheer beauty. When we see His beauty, then we know that, despite what’s happening in our world, despite what happens in the economy, despite how unfair the systems are that we must deal with, we can be thankful because God is still in control.

· We should be thankful because of His generous love. We serve a loving God, and His love is generous. God doesn’t just tell us that He loves us, but He shows us that He loves us—despite our many faults.

“Generous” is a description of the Greek term for love, agapè—a love that knows no limit or restriction. The psalmist is describing the extent of God’s love toward us, and the point he is seeking to make is that God’s love is boundless.

· God is forever loyal. There’s a difference between loyal and forever loyal. Like God’s love, His fidelity is boundless and all-encompassing.

In response to all that the Psalmist has identified regarding the attributes of God, we are to worship and offer our sincerest thanksgiving. It is not enough to verbally affirm that we have reverential awe for God. This is incomplete. God is to be revered, honored, and elevated as the great Lord who is most worthy of praise. This means that we approach God as holy and righteous. We’re to sing and proclaim God’s fame. There should be nothing more important in this world than God’s renown. As we do this God will touch down in our lives and use us powerfully as His witnesses.

What is to be expressed in worship? Praise and thanksgiving to God for the personal knowledge we have of Him. He is our God, our Maker. We have also come out of a distant relationship into a personal relationship with our God. That plant the seed of joy in our hearts. We have experienced His Shepherd’s care over us as the sheep of His hand, the people of His pasture. That constitutes worship: singing and praying, not artificially, not perfunctorily, but genuinely expressing praise to God.