Psalm 100
The title of this psalm is “A song of praise for the Lord’s faithfulness to His people”, and now is a perfect time to remind ourselves of it and turn our focus to it. We live at a time where the god of this world (Satan) has tricked so many of God’s people to be dominated by issues that have taken their focus away from declaring the greatness of our Lord. How this psalm commences excites me for Verse 1 says: “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands”. I realise that I can only shout when I am excited about something, we can talk about many things but can only shout when I am enthusiastic about something. The first word is ‘make’ which denotes it is a decision that we have to make, a good decision to make each day is to be joyful in our expression to the Lord! This brings such a sense of fulfillment to our daily living. The next verse says: “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing”. This exposes another important attribute in the way that we live, sometimes we can forget that we are being Christlike when we serve. This is so contrary to the spirit of this age which is ‘I am important I will not let other people tell me what to do!’ When I serve the Lord I am being humble which is something that pleases the Lord. Next, we are encouraged to come before His presence with singing. This reminds us that being in the Lord’s presence is a choice that we make and not a feeling. I am reminded that it is very difficult to sing when I am feeling sad, so this psalm is very clear of the attitude in which I am to live because it is very difficult to sing when I am feeling sad so this psalm is very clear of the attitude I must have to be able to “make a joyful shout and serve the Lord with gladness”. This is such a contrast to the world in which we live which is so negative and full of fake reporting, this is why the bible instructs us not to conform to this world. We have such an opportunity today to stand out because of our Godly attitude to everyone. It is so rewarding to choose to live in the Lord’s presence. Psalm 16:11 says: ”In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore”. It is sad when we get too busy to spend time in the Lord’s presence. Nehemiah 8:10 says: “The joy of the Lord is your strength”. It cannot be overemphasized the importance of making time to spend time in His presence. This psalm is full of encouragement to just do that, we find such pleasure and strength when we do this. As we reflect on the goodness of God we have a never-ending source of reasons to spend time with the Lord. The Lord is so good because He supplies us with new reasons every day to praise Him. We can do this by shouting His praises or singing to the Lord with gladness of heart. It is so good to be reminded of God’s goodness and this psalm just does this. I am so glad that I serve such a wonderful Lord.