Thankful Praise

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# 48 2020 Dev. Psalm 100:5. Thankful Praise! Read all of Psalm 100. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
                        his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Psalms 90 through 100 are a series of eleven Psalms that open and close with “Lord” (Adonai) or “the Lord” (Yahweh). Psalm100 is the classic praise song that many followers of Jesus memorized and taught to our children. It does, of course, fits perfectly into this Thanksgiving Season and ends this series of Psalms. We look back to Ps. 90 that introduces this series: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Teach us to acknowledge you and “to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom”. “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days”. Ps.100 is the culmination of the call to worship concluding this series.

The Psalm calls “all the earth” to praise and worship with “joyful songs”. Every human plus all the rest of creation foreshadowing the coming reality of God’s praise by all things in heaven, on the earth and all things under the earth. Whether we realize it or not, all of life is worship or it is rebellion to God.

Still in the context of “all the earth, know that the Lord is God.” He is our Creator and the Creator of all things, we, us, all people belong to Him, along with all of the universe. To know God moves way past acknowledging God. The Psalmist here is speaking of an intimate spiritual relationship. A relationship that flows both ways as indicated by the pastoral language, a shepherd’s loving care: “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

The Psalmist enters into God’s presence with thanksgiving, with praise. His gates and His courts is a reference to the temple where there was worship every day. Today we understand that all of creation is God’s sanctuary, we worship in our man made sanctuaries but the sweep of this psalm covers all of life and every day of our lives. Again, we have set aside a day for thanksgiving, thanking God for His many blessings and giving thanks for family and friends. What have we learned over this year? I hope we have learned that we are not in control of our health, our lives, our jobs or our happiness but we know the God who is in control.

The last verse is our hope in these difficult times: “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” We thank God every day!

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