Psalm 100:1

Verse of the Day Devotion Psalm 100:1 

“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.” – Psalm 100:1  

The key theme of Psalm 100 is that the Lord’s great and good attributes and actions deserve joyful worship by all humans. This psalm calls on the universal audience of people in the whole earth  to serve the Lord as their God because he has created them and he cares for them with his faithful love and faithfulness. Isaiah has a similar idea in chapter 56. “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the sabbath, And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” Isaiah 56:6-7.

God is calling all people to worship Him.  Note the last three words in our focus verse, ‘all the earth’.  The Lord here is presented as the only God worthy of worship not just by Israel, but all nations; everyone on the earth.  The first two verses are a call to praise the Lord, which in the Hebrew is yehôvâh, which does not refer to any god but the true God, Jehovah, or Yahweh.  “A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.  Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.” Psalm 100:1-2.  When we serve Him, which has the meaning of worship, it should be done exuberantly, with great joy and gladness.  The Hebrew word for gladness here is śimchâh which has the idea of joy, mirth, pleasure, and gaiety. We can also worship Him as we see in Psalm 2. “Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”  Psalm 2:11-12.  But here in our focus verse, it is with joyfulness and thanksgiving.

Then, in verse 3 we see the reason for this praise. “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.” Psalm 100:3.  Our God is the only God.  He made us, not ourselves or anything else.  And we are His people.  It is evident that the Lord who created humans also cares for them as his flock and that what the Lord has done in shepherding Israel he also does for all the earth, because he has always had a mission that encompasses the whole earth. “For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice.” Psalm 95:8.  And He will bless those who bless His people. “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3.

We are called to praise and be thankful to Him.  “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name.” Psalm 100:4.  God has given us so much.  He meets all our needs and we are, therefore, to give Him honor and give ourselves completely to Him.  And the reason for this praise and worship due Him?  “For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, And His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:5.  We are called to give Him all praise and glory we can muster.  For He is good, and He loves us beyond our understanding.  He is a faithful in all things, to all generations. This is essentially Hesed, which denotes the limitless nature of grace and divine mercies. There is no limit to His goodness and mercy, and there is no way we, as His children, cannot be thankful for the mercy and grace He has shown to us.

And because of all this in Psalm 100, we must show our gratefulness to Him because He has provided a way for us to be His children, for He sent His Son Jesus to die for us to pay the penalty for our sins.  C.S. Lewis put it so well in his book ‘Mere Christianity’, where he said, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”  Without this, our fate was sealed in eternal torment.  He provided a way for all to have a glorious and beautiful eternal life with Him, and all we need to do is believe and accept this work He did for us.  And this is why He deserves joyous and exuberant praise and worship from all the people on earth.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Psalm 32:11

Verse of the Day Devotion: Psalm 32:11 

“Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.” – Psalm 32:11       

This verse points out a great and mighty truth that we as Christians should understand, for we have a relationship with the all-powerful, all knowing God of the universe.  That mighty truth is that we have a reason to rejoice no matter our situation.  And we must always be glad in Him.  And the main reason we have for rejoicing is stated in verse one and two.  “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered!  How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! ” Psalm 32:1-2

We have all sinned.  We have done what is wrong, and we were guilty of going against the commands of our creator.  And because of this we were separated from God because of our sins.  We did not have any way of making things right, therefore we were destined to eternal separation from the one who loved us.  However, God made a way.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  John 3:16.  God sent His only begotten Son to earth to pay the penalty for what we did.  We were guilty and were destined to eternal death.  We could not pay the penalty, so Jesus did. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

God, in the form of a man in Jesus gave Himself for us.  He did not have to do this, but He wanted to. It was because of His love and mercy that He addressed our situation, and all we have to do is believe and accept the work Jesus did on the cross.  Do we really understand this?  The fact that the eternal God, creator of all things including the rebellious creatures called human beings, came and died in our place shows the immense love He has for us.  Do we deserve this love? No.  But He loved us just the same.  He made a way for us to be in fellowship with Him by imputing Christ’s righteousness on us, if we believe and acknowledge our guilt, not attempting to hide it from Him. “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.” Psalm 32:5

And because of all He did, we should rejoice and be glad for He saved us and made us His children and will soon take us home to be with Him for all eternity. There will be no sin, sorrow, weeping or dying.  It will be a place of constant joy and peace, where God reigns and we live in His presence forever.  This is why our lives should be a fountain of gladness, rejoicing and shouts of joy.  If what God did for us is not a cause of perpetual celebration and rejoicing, then we need to get on our knees and ask Him to show us again.  He gave us Himself, and there is no greater gift I can think of. 

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.