Herman Bavink once famously said, God and God alone is man's highest good.
Similarly, our Westminster Shorter Catechism in its first question asks what man's purpose
is on this earth, and the answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
However, as we come to Psalm 100, it could certainly be said that these ideas of glorifying
God are put to the center.
I am sure many of you, if not most of you, are familiar with these words.
This is the old 100, and I remember on various occasions I have been in crowds, vast crowds
sometimes of thousands, thousands of voices lifted up singing these words.
It is a psalm rich with the splendor of God.
It is a psalm ringing with joy and gladness.
And it is a psalm which brings home the reality that the worship of God for the believer is
sweetness and joy.
This psalm is made up of four stanzas, which if you are using an ESV is clearer, and each
of these stanzas are very rich in their contents.
Verses 1 and 2 make up the first, then verse 3 the second, verse 4 the third, and verse
5 the fourth.
And in this psalm, in this famous psalm, a scene is depicted where the faithful are worshiping
God, the king of the temple, with joy and gladness where they worship him under his rule
and protection.
And through reflecting on this, my prayer is that we will find more and more joy in the
worship of our God and an assurance that we will enjoy him for all eternity.
So we will consider this psalm stanza by stanza.
Firstly, in verses 1 to 2, we are to worship the Lord with joy.
In verse 3, we worship the Lord as king.
In verse 4, we worship the Lord in his temple.
And finally, in verse 5, we worship the Lord for eternity.
So firstly, in verses 1 to 2, we worship the Lord with joy.
We worship the Lord with joy.
Read verse 1.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him with joyful songs.
In these verses, we are commanded to do three things.
Firstly, we are commanded to shout for joy to the Lord.
And the shout in view here is a loud, jubilant shout.
It is often used in the context of battle.
And it is not just limited to the human voice.
Sometimes it is used to refer to that of a trumpet.
I don't know if many of you have been in a relatively small space and you hear a trumpet blast.
Or maybe in Scotland, a bagpipe go off.
It can be absolutely definite, can't it?
And this is the kind of volume and tone in view here when we are called to shout for joy to the Lord.
It is a loud and triumphant shout.
And when we consider all that our Lord has done for us, how much reason we have to shout for joy to the Lord.
He is the one who, according to his foreknowledge, has saved us and purchased us with the blood of Christ.
He defeated the powers of this present evil age by the cross.
And he has freed us from our bondage to sin.
I recall a few weeks ago walking to church here.
And just across the road before we arrived, we could hear cheering and celebrations.
Now, if you can hear that at this time in the year, you know there is a fairly good chance that the English national football team are playing.
And that they have probably just lost a goal.
And that's exactly what happened.
I looked up my phone and right enough, that's exactly what happened.
Sorry if there are any English people here.
This is probably too soon.
But we know what this type of triumphant celebration is like.
And that's football.
This is our eternal salvation and a glory that we will share in for all eternity.
How much reason we have to shout for joy to the Lord.
In verse 2, we are commanded to worship Him with gladness.
Worship the Lord with gladness, it says.
If you are using an ESV, it may say serve the Lord with gladness.
But the idea here is really the same.
Throughout the Old Testament, Israel were to serve and worship the true God, Yahweh.
We are to worship Him alone.
We are to worship Him as He has demanded.
We are to give Him the praise due to His name.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read the Israelites were so often guilty of doing this in all the wrong places.
They so often serve the false gods and other idols.
But the call here is to serve and worship Yahweh, the Lord, not all these other false gods.
And we are to do so with gladness.
We are to do so with gladness because worshiping the God, worshiping the Lord is a good thing.
It is the reason why we were made.
And it is the only thing in which our hearts can know rest and satisfaction.
And when our hearts are rightly tuned to this truth, oh, how blessed we are.
In Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins.
He redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with love and compassion.
Oh, how much does that enrich our hearts in worship.
Charles Spurgeon writes,
The invitation to worship here is given is not a melancholy one,
as though adoration were a funeral solemnity,
but a cheery, gladsome exhortation,
as though we were bidden to a marriage feast.
Now, I know for many of us who are Presbyterian and proud,
this may be a hard one to hear.
But how true it is.
How true it is.
We have been made co-heirs of the kingdom of God.
And very often we come to church as though someone had just died.
I certainly fall into this trap so often.
It could be said that though we are spiritually millionaires,
we very often come to church and sing as though we were paupers.
Now, let me be clear.
I am not commending a certain style of worship over another.
I am not saying we must come to church and lift the hands right in the air in every song.
You know, for some of us, including myself, that's just not in our DNA.
But the question I want to ask you this evening is,
as you worship and sing to the Lord,
is your heart filled with gladness?
Is your heart filled with thankfulness for the joys
and the wonders that your Lord has shown to you?
In verse 3, we are also called to enter His presence with joyful songs.
We are to come before Him.
And the idea here, as the ESV captures well,
is to come into His presence with joyful songs.
Psalm 84, which we sung, verse 2, captures a similar idea.
If you'd flick over a few pages,
Psalm 84, verse 2 says,
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
As we think about coming into God's presence with joyful songs and gladness,
can I ask, do you come into His presence longingly?
Do you yearn to enter into His presence?
I remember when in the UK we have had hot weather.
Yes, I know the one week of the year that happens.
I have sometimes decided to go out for walks,
and I think, huh, it's the UK.
It's fine.
I don't need to bring a water bottle with me.
I go out on the walk, and my mouth goes dry very, very quickly,
and I'm absolutely dying to get back home for a drink.
Maybe you've had similar experiences too.
But in a similar way, does your soul long to be in the presence of the Lord?
Or do you long to be elsewhere?
Maybe there are other things that would take away your attention from the worship of our Lord on His day.
Maybe it's something that would take you away from church, but maybe it's not.
And even in church, it's a distraction on your hearts and minds.
Do you long to gather together as a body of believers as you receive Christ in His Word and sacrament?
Because that is what is happening this evening.
As we gather together, God is present among us by His Word.
And if we know this, how we should not neglect to gather together.
How wonderful is this opportunity week by week to enjoy His presence in worship.
So we worship the Lord with joy.
Moving on to verse 3, we worship the Lord as King.
We worship the Lord as King.
Verse 3, know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us.
And we are His.
We are His people.
The sheep of His pasture.
For those of you who know your Bibles well, you will know that when you see Lord in all capitals,
that is standing in place for the covenantal name of God, Yahweh.
This is the name which He revealed Himself by at the burning bush to Moses in Exodus chapter 3.
And the call here is to know that He is God.
It is not all the other false gods.
It is He, Him, and it is Him alone.
And this theme is a theme which has occurred many times before in the Scriptures.
In Genesis chapter 1, one of the chief purposes of Genesis chapter 1, the account of creation,
is to establish the covenantal Lord Yahweh as King of creation.
This was supposed to be in sharp contrast to all the pagan gods.
The pagans, of course, had a God for just about everything.
They had a God for the seas.
They had a God for the sun.
They had a God for the stars.
And just about anything you could imagine.
And I suppose that in this way we may say that Genesis chapter 1 has a polemical function.
That is, it is attacking all of these other false gods, and it is asserting Yahweh as King of creation.
And this, we know, is the foundation for the covenant relationship that Yahweh has with His people.
In Exodus chapter 19 and 20, it is because God rescued the Israelites and showed Himself to be the one true God above all other false gods that they are to be set apart to Him.
We see, and we see something similar in Psalm 100.
In verse 3, we read it as He who made us, and we are His.
It is because He is the maker of heaven and earth that He alone deserves our worship.
This is the foundation of our relationship with our maker.
It is because He is our creator that we can trust He will be a faithful Lord to us.
Verse 3 continues, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
And when we read texts such as this, we like to think of images of cuddly sheep following after a relatively good-looking guy.
But we need to understand what this biblical metaphor is beyond face value.
Throughout the scriptures, the shepherd metaphor is used to communicate kingship.
In Jeremiah chapter 13, verse 20, it says,
Look up and see those who are coming from the north.
Where is your flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?
Ezekiel chapter 34 gives us a similar idea where it describes to us the bad shepherds.
In other words, the bad leaders of Israel who abused their people.
And in the Bible, this metaphor is used and it is applied to the Lord, to Yahweh.
And it is used in contrast to all of these bad shepherds.
Notably, if you flick the page over to Psalm 95,
in verse 3, God is described as the great king above all other gods.
And then in verse 7, it describes his subjects as the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
And of course, this language was used famously in Psalm 23 to describe the unique relationship between God and his people Israel.
But notice that in verse 3 in Psalm 100, this covenantal language is used in reference to all the earth.
We lose the gravity of this.
For the Israelite, the idea that the pagan nations would worship God would be absolutely mind-blowing.
It would be like if you turned up to your workplace this coming week
and you found all your colleagues or classmates worshiping the Lord,
you would probably be a little bit confused.
But the wonder of Christianity and the mystery of the Scriptures
is that God has broken down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
He has destroyed human divisions and has united for himself a people in Christ,
which is the New Testament church.
So with God as our covenantal king,
we know that as we gather to worship him,
we are in safe hands.
We face many persecutions and pressures as brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you keep up with Open Doors or other missionary organizations,
you will know about some of the horrendous persecutions,
some bear for bearing the name of Christ.
Even in our own lands,
you may face tremendous persecution or pressure
to conform to this world's way of thinking and living.
A few weeks ago, I was preaching on Psalm 29,
where God rules over creation by his powerful and majestic voice.
And Christian, this is your God.
This is your God.
He's enthroned over the world,
in this world that so often seems chaotic and evil,
that seemingly prevails.
You are his.
Read that again.
Verse 3,
And we are his.
And because of this,
be assured that you are held by him.
And as you participate in his worship,
you anticipate the day in glory
when no evil power will ever touch you again.
And until then,
you are surely held by his loving arms.
The psalm envisages a scenario
where God's people worship him
as king under his rule and protection.
And this is what we will do for all eternity.
We worship the Lord with joy.
We worship the Lord as king.
And thirdly, in verse 4,
we worship the Lord in his temple.
We worship the Lord in his temple.
Verse 4,
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
As we found in verses 1 to 2,
we come with joyful songs
to the presence of the Lord.
And here in verse 4,
we find that we are coming to his temple.
The language in verses 1 and 2
does hint towards this.
Many of the praise,
much of the praise described in verses 1 and 2
is often used of the priests
in Old Testament worship.
And here we find this idea
that we worship God
in his temple much, much clearer.
The temple in the Old Testament
was where God dwelt.
It was his house among his people.
If you want fun bedtime reading,
you could go and read Exodus chapters 25 to 30
or perhaps 1 Kings chapters 5 to 8
where the very detailed instructions
for the tabernacle and the temple are given.
And we see in these passages
that these were magnificent structures
overlaid with gold.
It was made as a place for God to dwell.
Of course, not even the highest heavens
could contain God,
but in his grace,
he has chosen and has been pleased
to condescend to dwell with his people,
to dwell with sinners in these holy places
which signified the temple in heaven
where he dwells in light inaccessible.
And this is the scene
which we have before us.
We read of his gates.
We read of his courts.
These were features of the temple.
And we enter his gates
with thanksgiving.
Again, another image of temple worship.
The idea here may be similar
to that of the thank offerings
made in the Old Testament,
such as in Leviticus chapter 7, verse 12,
where this kind of thankfulness
is used in the context
of sacrifices at the temple.
And the picture here
is that of God's dwelling in heaven,
which is where we believers
are headed towards.
The new creation is depicted as a temple.
It is a place where we will worship God
in his presence for all eternity.
Friends, this is where we come to in worship.
We come to the heavenly temple of our God,
and we come to worship
in none other than the dwelling place of God.
As we gather this evening,
we join in this worship.
We join in the eternal song.
We also have to understand
that this stanza follows from the last.
That is, the stanza which proclaims to us
the royalty and kingship of God
is followed by the one
which describes to us a temple scene.
It is a common theme,
especially in this altar,
that God is king in his temple.
It is his temple where he sits
enthroned as king
over his people,
giving them his peace
and protection.
History and circumstances,
they change,
but God's rule over his dwelling place
will never cease.
Friends,
if you worship the one true God,
he cannot disappoint you.
He cannot disappoint.
If you worship other things,
they will fail you.
You know,
in the world,
we have many general elections going on,
and in these elections,
these can sometimes
completely take over us.
People on both sides,
or not on all sides,
are prone to view their candidate
as some sort of Messiah figure.
Governments will pass.
political candidates will pass.
But God's rule
in his heavenly dwellings
will never fail or pass.
It will never cease.
And therefore,
we can approach his dwellings
with thanksgiving,
and we can enter his courts
with praise and bless
his holy name.
Finally,
in verse 5,
we worship the Lord
for eternity.
We worship the Lord
for eternity.
Verse 5,
for the Lord is good,
and his love
endures forever.
His faithfulness
continues
through all
generations.
And how the Bible
is a witness
to these things,
where time and time again
God saves
his people
from their distress.
How he was faithful
to his promise
to Abraham
in sending
Christ the Son,
the only mediator
between God and man,
to die
as a ransom
for many.
How we experience
and know
his mercies
anew
every day.
Charles Spurgeon
again says,
on this verse,
this sums up
his character
and contains
a mass of reasons
for praise.
He is good,
gracious,
kind,
bountiful,
loving,
yea,
God is love.
John Calvin,
likewise,
verse 5 points out,
there will always
be cause for praise.
What base
ingratitude,
therefore,
for us to weary
in giving thanks.
Yet so foolish
are we
that God
must open
his holy lips
to declare
his care for us,
though he silently
maintains it
every day.
how prone
we can be
to forget
the grace
of God.
How easy
it is
to fail
to render
the praise
that is due
to his name.
Christian,
God
is good.
Let us not
forget this truth.
God is good.
Let us not forget
the love
that he has shown
us in Christ Jesus
in saving us
from our bondage
to sin,
and let us not
forget his work
in sustaining us
every day
as our great
high priest.
His love
endures
forever,
and this is what
we find
throughout the rest
of the scriptures.
This psalm
leaves us
with an element
of anticipation.
We have to realize
that as we read
these verses
that the believers
reading this psalm
before the advent
of Christ,
or we're singing
it rather,
we're not singing
with our New Testament
perspectives.
This psalm
envisages
all the earth
praising God,
but as we will know,
this had not
happened yet.
Of course,
throughout Old Testament
history,
it was anticipated
that by the
Abrahamic promise
that all the nations
would be blessed
in that promise,
the time
was not yet.
And as we have
seen,
this psalm
also has
the language
of victory.
In verse 1,
we saw that
the shout
was often used
as a battle cry.
It is military
language.
But when we read
the psalms
in the Old Testament
history books,
we read that
the Israelites
did not always
enjoy this victory.
even just
the psalms.
Psalm 100
is in book 4.
And before
book 4
is book 3,
where Israel
suffered much
devastation.
Psalm 88
gives us
but a glimpse
into their suffering,
where it ends
in verse 18,
you have taken
from me
friend and neighbor.
Darkness
is my closest
friend.
Friend.
The people
of Israel
were longing
for the
restoration
of their kingdom.
They were
yearning for
the day
when God's
promises
would fully
and finally
be fulfilled.
Psalm 20
verse 5
would express
this desire,
may we
shout
for joy
over your
victory.
And of course,
a few psalms
later we read
of the,
we read
Psalm 24,
where the
Messiah is
exalted
as king
in his
victory.
And as we
read our
New Testaments,
we begin to see
this picture
as fulfilled.
After Jesus
died
and rose
from,
died on the
cross
and rose
from the
dead,
he achieved
victory
for his
people.
Colossians
chapter 2
verse 15,
Christ triumphed
over the
powers of
this age
by triumphing
over them
by the
cross.
After this,
Christ was
exalted
as king
in his
ascension.
And after
he sent
the promised
Holy Spirit,
we read
something very
striking in
Acts chapter 2
verse 46.
Turn with me
in your Bibles
to Acts
chapter 2.
Acts 2.
Acts chapter 2,
after Peter
has given
his sermon
to the crowds,
where in
verse 41,
those who
accepted his
message were
baptized and
about 3,000
were added to
their number
that day.
We read this
from verse 42.
They devoted
themselves to
the apostles'
teaching and
to fellowship,
to the breaking
of bread and
to prayer.
Everyone was
filled with
awe at the
many wonders
and signs
performed by
the apostles.
All the
believers were
together and
had everything
in common.
They sold
property and
possessions to
give to anyone
who had need.
Every day,
they continued
to meet together
in the temple
courts.
They broke
bread in their
homes and
ate together
with glad
and sincere
hearts,
praising God
and enjoying
the favor
of all the
people.
And the
Lord added
to their
number daily
those who
were being
saved.
After the
exaltation of
Christ, we
read that the
New Testament
church were
depicted as
the worshiping
temple community
of Yahweh.
We find in
verse 46 of
Acts 2 that
they were
serving one
another with
gladness.
In the
picture, we
have an
Acts, and
in the
wider New
Testament, is
the fulfillment
of Psalm
100.
As we
gather together
this evening,
we are joining
in the worship
presented by
this psalm in
light of the
victory that
Christ, by
His blood,
has bought
for us.
How marvelous,
marvelous, how
wonderful, and
my song shall
ever be.
How marvelous,
how wonderful
is my Savior's
love for me.
Friends, as we
read our New
Testaments, we
read that Christ
is the one who
is King in the
heavenly temple.
He is the
object of our
worship and the
one in whom we
are secure.
Our lives are
hidden with
Christ, our
good shepherd
in God.
However, the
picture in
Psalm 100 is
only partially
fulfilled.
The final
fulfillment of
Psalm 100,
where all the
earth worships
the Lord in
His presence,
is depicted
by Revelation
chapter 5,
where in
verse 9, it
says, you
are worthy
to take the
scroll and
to open
its seals,
because you
are slain.
And with
your blood,
you purchase
for God
persons from
every tribe
and language
and people
and nation.
You have
made them
to be a
kingdom of
priests, to
serve our
God, and
they will reign
on earth.
Christ, Christian,
this is what
Christ is
guiding you
towards.
You are
His, and
He will keep
you secure
until that
day when
He comes
again in
glory, where
you will
worship Him
with all the
joy and
with all the
gladness that
you could
imagine.
as I
close, let
me close
with the
words of
the famous
hymn.
When He
comes, our
glorious King,
all His
ransomed home
to bring,
then anew
the song
will sing,
hallelujah,
what a
Savior.
Let us
pray.
Amen.