May 29, 2005  •  Pastor Randy Smith

"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. 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. 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" (Psm. 100:1-5).

I did not recite this Psalm from memory with any intent to boast in myself. As you will soon discover, my objective is to boast in the Lord for His undying faithfulness — His faithfulness to raise up committed servants and His faithfulness to use Scripture to accomplish His purposes.

I grew up in a family that came far from prioritizing the things of the Lord. We never read the Bible, nor did we ever pray. As a matter of fact, I can only recall one time in my entire life that we even attended church together — Resurrection Sunday, 1977.

However, when I was in second grade, I was invited to a home Bible study for children. After school we would gather in the living room of Mrs. Ruud. She was anything but "rude." She was a wonderful woman who devoted one evening of the week to teach neighborhood kids the Bible.

Beyond making me so interested in the Scriptures, she and her family displayed an attractive perspective to life that I had yet to experience. I looked forward to her weekly study more than anything!

I can remember one evening we had car trouble and I convinced my mom to let me ride my bike three miles alone at the age of 8 just so I could attend. I can also remember when she encouraged us to memorize Scripture. I can vividly remember the day when I stood before the entire group and recited from memory Psalm 100.

Within a few months, my father was transferred to the Midwest. I’m sure Mrs. Ruud wondered what would ever become of this dorky, highly allergic kid from the irreligious family. I left Mrs. Ruud never to see her again, but she left me with the impression of what it meant to be a Christian. And she left me with the power of God’s Word hidden deep within my heart.

For the next fifteen years my life drifted from the Lord. I always believed there was a God and I prayed to Him often. A few times I stumbled into a Catholic Church with my friends often groggy from the partying the evening before. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of sincere faith and true repentance in my life.

However, I always remembered Psalm 100. I would often recite it to myself, carefully dissecting every verse since this was all I knew about the living God. The seed of God’s Word was planted in my heart. Eventually, it began to sprout.

By the time I completed college, I had come to realize that the great promises of the world failed to deliver. They were unsatisfying, laden with hidden consequences. I sought out a pastor, who was the father of a sixth grade student of mine and asked him what it meant to be a Christian. That first Sunday at his church I heard the Gospel and gave my life to Jesus Christ.

This morning I would like to do something a bit different. I would like to share my testimony in conjunction with the exposition of Psalm 100.

1. HE IS GOD

Let’s begin with the first point: "He is God." In verse 3 the Psalmist said, "Know that the Lord Himself is God."

Everybody has a god in his life. Even the atheist is guided by a belief that determines his worldview. Even the belief that we cannot have a worldview is a belief that is determined by some guiding force in our lives. Whatever controls us, whatever we give our allegiance to, has become our god. For many this god is themselves.

We establish ourselves as the autonomous authority in our lives. We answer to self. Self has become our god. Oh, we may cloak this god by claiming to belong to a certain religion, but deep down inside our true god is self and we invent clever terminology to justify our idolatry. "God wants me to have free-will" "I am only doing what is best for my self-esteem." "I can’t love others until I learn to love myself."

Jesus was well aware of our propensity to honor self above Him. That is why it shouldn’t surprise us to consider His primary call to discipleship. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Lk. 9:23).

The Apostle Paul predicted in the latter days "men will be lovers of self" (2 Tim. 3:2). They will hold "to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power" (2 Tim. 3:5).

We live in a day and age where self is supreme. And possibly no greater evidence of this is our desire to worship whomever or whatever we please, whenever or however we choose. We believe we have the right to create our own god (1 Cor. 8:5) and His purpose of existence is to honor us and play within the boundaries we’ve established.

The Psalmist disagrees. Verse 3, "Know that the Lord Himself is God." The essence of all true religion begins with "knowing" the one and only God. Who is He? And what does He expect? Moses said, "Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other" (Dt. 4:39). Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, "Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me" (Isa. 43:10). "Know that the Lord Himself is God" (Psm. 100:3). We must see from the beginning that the true God will not permit another false god to obscure His glory. He is God and He wants us to know Him.

Growing up, I thought I believed in God, but I really didn’t. My mouth confessed the Lord, but my heart cherished a rather domesticated god. I didn’t know about the utter holiness of God that calls His followers to repentance. Nor did I understand the unfathomable love of God that would rather die for my sins than reject me for my feeble attempts to earn His righteousness. My devotion, my allegiance was nothing more than a blind sacrifice of self-deception.

This Psalm helped me realize why I had a responsibility to seek out the true God.

First of all, as verse 3 says, He is my Creator. "It is He who has made us and not we ourselves." By the sheer fact that He made me, I belong to Him. Far from the belief that I evolved and only science could lay a claim to my ownership, I came to realize that I was accountable to the living God.

Furthermore, I came to realize that He made me for a purpose (Pr 16:4). My life was not a meaningless journey. There was a reason for my existence and that reason was to be discovered in the divine counsel of my Creator and for the divine purpose of my Creator.

In addition to God being my Creator, I also came to realize that He is my Redeemer. Concluding verse 3 the Psalmist said, "We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."

Once again this verse speaks of ownership. We are His people. We are His sheep. We belong to His pasture. This verse also implies that there are other sheep that do not belong to Him and other pastures that these sheep would rather graze. I asked myself, "Am I one of God’s sheep?"

I guessed the easiest way to answer that question was to determine if God was my shepherd? Sheep are stubborn and defenseless by nature. Therefore a Shepherd is essential to guide and lead them. If I am a sheep as God’s Word declares, who was leading me? Who was I taking my marching orders from? Whose voice brought me comfort and assurance? Jesus, the Good Shepherd said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (Jn. 10:27). The poster I saw at Marti Gras in 1985 burned deep within my heart: "Are you really living for Jesus?" Could I say with David in Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (emphasis added).

Furthermore, whose field did I enjoy eating from? Did I feast on the words of God or the words of the world? Where did I find my greatest contentment? Did I prefer to lie down in His green pastures (Psm. 23:2) or did I find greater enjoyment hanging in the slums of worldliness?

God was my Creator by default, but was He my Redeemer by faith? Did I know Him as my Shepherd? Did I know what it was like as Spurgeon said to be "guided by His wisdom (and) tended by His care and fed by His bounty" (Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Psalm 100, p. 234)? Did I know about the "Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep" (Jn. 10:10)? Did I really know God?

I believe we are all familiar with the story of Elijah on Mount Caramel. Many in his day rejected the true God to follow Baal. After the prophets of Baal failed to evoke any response from their dead deity, Elijah laid wood and a sacrifice on the altar and flooded it with water. After his prayer, fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. Do you recall the response from the people? "When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God’" (1 Ki. 18:39).

What is our response? The Lord is your Creator, but is He your Redeemer? If we know that the Lord is God, if we know the Lord is our Redeemer, the only appropriate response is intelligent praise and adoration. That’s what we see in this Psalm. The theology of verse 3 is the ground for the praise recorded in verses 1 and 2.

Shout Joyfully

The Psalmist said in verse 1, "Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth." Then in the second half of verse 2 he said, "Come before Him with joyful singing" (cf. Psm. 98:4).

Why do people get down? Is it because they think too much of themselves? God told us to dwell on Him (Heb. 12:2)! Is it because they are overwhelmed with their circumstances? God said He will work all things together for good (Rom. 8:28)! Is it because they have regret of the past? God promised to forgive all our sins (Rom. 8:1)! Is it because they are worried about the future? God said not be anxious for tomorrow (Mt. 6:34)! When we consider the awesome promises of God we can understand why we are commanded to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil. 4:4; cf. 1 Thes. 5:16).

How can we consider God’s awesome promises and His wonderful attributes and unspeakable love to us and be downcast? On the contrary, Christians should be the happiest people on the planet! We don’t need a bar once a week to celebrate "happy hour!" Every hour is "happy hour" when we are secure in our relationship with the Lord! We should be unable to contain ourselves. We should feel like we would burst if we cannot "shout joyfully to the Lord" and "come before Him with joyful singing!" Worshipping God through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19) should be our constant pleasure both alone and corporately when we assemble with other believers.

Serve Gladly

Another element of truly knowing God is glad service. Look at verse 2. "Serve the Lord with gladness."

Over a century ago, George Bowen once said, "Can you bear to be waited upon by a servant who goes moping and dejected to his every task? You would rather have no servant at all, than one who evidently finds your service cheerless and irksome" (Quoted in: (Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Psalm 100, p. 235).

If we truly know God, ministry leaders would not have to beg people to get involved. People would not be serving out of obligation or against their will. What a privilege to serve our Creator! What a blessing to work alongside the ministry of our Redeemer! It should be our chief joy to render service to the Lord! And in doing so we would bring Him much honor.

Think of it this way. Father’s Day is approaching. Nothing can make a father happier than a child’s obedience done in an ongoing fashion. The Proverbs have much to say about this (Pr. 1:8; 15:20; 23:22). But in addition to the actual obedience, highly essential is the attitude in which the task was performed. If a child really wants to honor his dad, he or she will do it with a cheerful spirit. Why? Because it reveals that it is a joy to obey father.

In the same way, few things can be more dishonoring to our heavenly Father than when His children serve Him begrudgingly and wear a long face as their badge of ownership with Him.

Knowing God, understanding Him as our Creator and Redeemer (verse 3), should result in joyful praise and glad service (verses 1 and 2).

2. HE IS GOOD

In verse 5 (as we move to the second point) we learn more about the specific attributes of God.

First of all, the Psalmist says, "The Lord is good." I like the way R. C. Sproul characterized the goodness of God. "God (is) altogether good, He is consistently good (and He) doesn’t know how to be anything but good" (Sproul, Essentials of the Christian Faith, Tyndale, 1992, p. 49). Since God is the standard of all goodness and the source of all goodness we can be sure that the way He governs our lives is good. Despite how little I may know of your personal circumstances, I can assure you that God is good. And whether you believe that or not, it won’t change God’s character one iota!

You see, we get ourselves into trouble when we begin to question the goodness of God. For the smallest doubt of God’s goodness implies we are more concerned about goodness than He is and/or our standard of goodness is far better than His.

Such thinking precipitated Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God in the Garden. By faith we must believe that God’s ways are best, and we must align ourselves with God’s definition of goodness. According to Romans 8:29, God demonstrates His goodness not by removing our afflictions, but by using our afflictions to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. Can we ask for anything better?

Additionally, verse 5 says, "God’s lovingkindness is everlasting." The Psalmist understood the free, undeserving grace of God. He knew the God "who pardons all (our) iniquities" (Psm. 103:3) and forgives our transgressions and covers our sin (Psm. 32:1). Though we deserve justice, we must comprehend and cherish the everlasting mercy that removed our sins "as far as the east is from the west" (Psm. 103:12). We should not be surprised that we see this word "lovingkindness" (hesed) used 121 times in the book of Psalms alone.

Finally in verse 5 the Psalmist says, "His faithfulness to all generations." Think of it this way: God will always be good and God will always be loving. Do you know why? Because His glory depends on it. These wonderful attributes that we cherish so much will be consistently displayed in our lives because God is unable to change who He is. The Good Shepherd will keep you from perishing. And He will never break a single promise He has made because He is faithful.

In the midst of extreme heartache the prophet Jeremiah cried, "This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness" (Lam. 3:21-23). God can be trusted because He is faithful.

Two years ago the Chicago Cubs came a few outs from playing in their first World Series in 55 years. Their new manager Dusty Baker was a legend in the Windy City for turning around the lovable losers. Shirts were popping up all over town: "We trusty in Dusty." Now, only a couple seasons later, the Cubs already 8 games out of first place, are ready to run Dusty Baker out of town.

Praise God that our hope is not in a person. We don’t "Trusty in Dusty" or any other human for that matter, we trust in God (as our currency indicates) and the One in whom we place our trust is faithful to come through today and tomorrow and every day into the future; and He has the track record in the past to prove it! His people always come up winners!

Verse 5 says our God is good and He displays that goodness through His lovingkindness and faithfulness. And once again, the more we understand the attributes of God, the more we will desire to honor His name.

Be Thankful

According to verse 4, we will "enter His gates with thanksgiving" and (skipping a phrase) "give thanks to Him."

Once we realize who God is and what He has done in our lives, giving thanks will be a natural overflow. Just as a joyless person is an offense to God, the same could be said for a thankless person.

We must get our eyes off others and ourselves and fix them intently on God. We must count the many ways He has blessed us personally. Then regardless of our circumstances, we can see the hand of God and be grateful.

As a matter of fact, God commands us to give thanks in everything (1 Thes. 5:18a) and He offers us no excuse to be ungrateful. Consider the Charles Allen’s account of the American Pilgrims: "I’ve seen a picture of the pilgrims at the first American Thanksgiving. Do you know half of their number died the first year they were here? They had a hard time, and it was a cold winter. Dangers lurked everywhere, but those pilgrims didn’t think of the death of their loved ones and the dangers and the cold weather. They didn’t let that obscure the blessings of God. They went together, and they thanked the Lord for the blessings they had received" (Charles Allen, Lessons from the Lepers, Preaching Today, Tape No. 147 — emphasis added). It just goes to show that regardless of our circumstances, Christians can be thankful.

Bless and Praise His Name

In addition to thanking God, we should be people who praise and bless His name (cf. Psm. 79:13). Again, verse 4, "Enter…His courts with praise…(and) bless His name."

Praise, like joy and thanksgiving, should be a spontaneous overflow of a heart that understands its Creator and Shepherd. We have been wired to exercise these emotions regarding that which we deem supremely valuable. As a matter of fact, we delight in it so much we cannot hold back because praise completes the enjoyment. It is as C. S. Lewis said, "The appointed consummation."

John Piper did an excellent job connecting both praise and joy: "We praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value, and celebrate what we love, and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. So if God loves us enough to make our joy full, He must not only give us Himself; He must also win from us the praise of our hearts-not because He needs to store up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising Him, the most magnificent of all Beings" (Desiring God, p. 49, copyright Bethlehem Baptist Church, used by permission, www.desiringGOD.org).

This is the heartbeat of our God expressed in Psalm 100. Did you notice how this Psalm is structured? The joy in verses 1 and 2 resulted from the deity of God (Creator and Redeemer) mentioned in verse 3. And the praise in verse 4, resulted from the goodness of God (lovingkindness and faithfulness) mentioned in verse 5. I believe we can say that the imperatives of serving Him and rejoicing in Him as well as being thankful and praising Him are directly proportionate (and I come full circle by ending where I began) to knowing God. Not knowing about Him. Not majoring on the minors in Christian living, but really knowing God.

It all began with Mrs. Ruud who cared enough to open her home to a bunch of her daughter’s friends after school. She did her job by faithfully teaching God’s Word and leaving the results up to Him (Ac. 20:32).

Little did she know that one of those boys 16 years later would be led by that Word and enter a church, hear the Gospel, and give his life to Christ.

And that memorable September morning, 1989, I received Communion for the first time and I sat in the pew and wept when the pastor said, "The body of Christ is given for you." Never did I experience such an overwhelming sense of love that has moved me to rejoice, with eternal thanksgiving and unending praise for the greatness of our God. What a joy it is to know Him and be known by Him (Gal. 4:9)!