Psalm 100 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

All Men Exhorted to Praise God.

A Psalm for Thanksgiving.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3 Know that the Lord [Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

In today's text the psalmist says: Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. The KJV says: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. It is this idea of making a joyful noise; singing joyfully and shouting to the Lord which gave me license to truly worship God in song. You see, I am one of those people who can't carry a tune in a bucket. I would not be anyone's pick for the choir or chorus and certainly not to sing a solo. Yet, I'm God's choice. The thing is, excellence is not what God is concerned with. He wants obedience. That does not mean that those who lead worship and singing should not seek excellence. But individually, each one of us is to worship, sing and shout with the voice that God gave us. In John 4:24 Jesus says: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." I can only worship God as I am. I can choose to make a joyful noise because God chose me. I can sing and shout joyfully and I can serve Him with gladness.

That leads us to another principle that we can and should apply. Colossians 3:23-24 says: Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. So the same freedom and license that we have to worship God just as He created us, should also apply to whatever we do. None of us can be the best at everything, but we can do our best, as unto the Lord, in all that we do. In our culture and society we often view the reward for our work as being monetary. This leads to the potential for many people to do less than their best, particularly if they don't feel they are being adequately compensated. Minimal compensation often results in minimal effort. For the believer, we should see things differently. Regardless of the earthly compensation we receive, we should view our true reward as what we receive from God. One thing is certain. We cannot out give God. If we will do whatever we do as if we were doing it for God; if we will serve Him with gladness even when the people we serve don't deserve our best or our joyful service, He will reward us beyond what any human individual or institution can do. He will give us the benefits, the promises and the provision of our full inheritance in and of the kingdom of heaven.

The psalmist says: Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. None of us would be foolish enough to argue that we created ourselves. Yet not everyone acknowledges that it is God who did make us. Genesis 1:26-28 says: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” For those who do not accept that God is their creator, ultimately they accept then that creation as a whole, and so their own existence, is the result of a series of random accidents. If this life is nothing more than the result of an accident, then what joy, what gladness, what hope is there? On the other hand if God Himself is our maker and creator, there is hope, joy and gladness regardless of the circumstances or situations of the world. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says: I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

The psalmist says: Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.  For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations. Amen. Thank You Lord that You created me just as I am, in Your image and likeness. I will sing and shout joyfully. I will serve You with gladness, doing what I do as unto You. I am thankful that You are my creator and my God and so I live joyfully with the hope and future that You have planned for me. Amen.