1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, <sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-15510a" data-link="[a]">[a]all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and <sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-15512b" data-link="[b]">[b]not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Psalms 100 is a psalm of praise that showcases how believers ought to approach God’s presence. It is a psalm of the protocol of God’s presence. Psalms 100:1 says “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.” In making anything, process is involved. God doesn’t just want us to offer Him any kind of noise, it says it must be ‘a joyful noise’. There is a mere noise, and there is a joyful noise. It is an expression of gratitude that springs forth from the depth of the revelation of who God is, and you must be deliberate about making it. Verse 2 says “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” When you want to give thanks to God among other things, you must do so with gladness. Sing with a melody in your heart to the Lord. Thanksgiving must be done with melody and joy. Let God’s goodness rejoice your heart. Verse 3 says “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” You must give thanks to God, recognizing Him as the Creator and Source, with a consciousness of total reliance and dependence on Him: that you are His child, and He is your Father. No self-righteousness, no boasting but boasting in Him alone. Hallelujah!
Verse 4 shows us how to enter God’s presence. It says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name.” The presence of God is highly gated. God is everywhere but His manifest presence is not everywhere. For His glory to be made manifest, certain things must be set in motion. Hebrews 4:16 says to come, enter the Throne of Grace. There is an entry for us because Jesus paid the full price for us to enter, and thanksgiving is the password. We enter in with thanksgiving. You cannot give thanks to God without realizing that your entire life depends on Him. It starts from the mindset that you owe your life to God and everything else depends on Him. With or without you, God is God; but you cannot be you without Him. So, you give Him thanks as your source and sustainer. Verse 5 says “For the Lord is good…” Has the Lord been good to you? You ought to give Him thanks. Hallelujah! Gratitude, thanksgiving, and absolute trust in God is the protocol of God’s presence.
MY SOLID FRONT (YOUR CONFESSION):
Thank You Heavenly Father, for boldness and access into Your presence. I enter with thanksgiving and praise into your courts, and I rejoice in Your goodness today in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Further Meditation: Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:19-22.