Psalm 100

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All right, let's turn to Psalm chapter 100, Psalm 100, as you're turning there,
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I'd like to read from 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. The apostle
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Paul writes, rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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So in everything, give thanks. Does that really mean in everything?
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Yes. In everything, give thanks. So tonight I'd like to break this message down into three points.
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What, who, and why? What, who, and why? So what will be, what's the context of Psalm chapter 100?
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Who is, who are we giving thanks to? And of course, you know, the answer. And then why, why are we giving thanks or that is what are we thankful for?
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And afterwards, I'll give you a chance to share some things that you are thankful for.
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So let's look at Psalm 100 verses one through five, make a joyful shout to the
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Lord. All you lands serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.
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Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and not we ourselves.
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We are the sheep or the people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.
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Be thankful to him and bless his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endures to all generations.
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So this Psalm, what is this Psalm? It's basically a call to worship.
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If you know anything about the Psalms, you know that they have been called
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Israel's hymn book. So part of the Israelite worship, they incorporated these poems or songs into their liturgy.
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So this is a call to worship and it speaks really of the universal nature of God's kingship.
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Notice, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. What all ye lands, not just Israel, not just the children of Jacob, but make a joyful noise unto the
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Lord all ye lands. So it instructs us.
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In fact, it instructs all people to praise God and rejoice in him.
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This Psalm can be considered, even considered a prophecy.
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Speaking of a time when people all over the world will worship the one true and living
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God. Back then it was one nation. Today there are people in all nations worshiping the
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Lord. But one day every nation will worship
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God. And what period of time is this? This will happen when
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Jesus returns during the millennium. So he is
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God. This is a time where all nations worship him. So this is a call, number one, to praise the
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Lord and number two, to thank the Lord. And obviously that's what tomorrow is all about.
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It's a day set aside to give thanks unto the Lord. So make a joyful noise or a joyful shout.
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This can be cross -referenced with Psalm 66. If you want to just flip back in your
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Bibles to Psalm chapter 66, make a joyful noise or make a joyful shout.
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That's how Psalm 100 begins. And that's also how Psalm 66 begins.
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So let's read Psalm 66, one through four. Make a joyful shout to God.
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Nation of Israel? No. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth.
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Sing out the honor of his name. Make his praise glorious. Say to God, how awesome are your works.
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Through the greatness of your power, your enemies shall submit themselves to you. And all the earth shall worship you.
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I think you're starting to see a theme. All the earth, verse four, shall worship you and sing praises to you.
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They shall sing praises to your name. All right, you can go back to Psalm 100 now, but you see this universal kingship of the
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Lord, that all the world, all the nations are called to sing to him and to praise him.
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So Psalm 100, verse three says, know ye that the Lord, he is God. So this is a confession that the covenant
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God of Israel, he is the only true God. Of course, back then, each nation and each tribe, we've learned this going through the book of Numbers and the book of Joshua, that each nation and each tribe kind of had their own
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God. But the confession here is that the covenant God of Israel, Jehovah or Yahweh, however you describe or whatever name you use, the
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Lord, he is the only true God. So enter into his gates and his courts.
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What's that a reference to, do you think? In the time of the Psalmist, this would have been a reference to the temple in Jerusalem.
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So enter into his gates and his courts. This is a reference to the temple that Solomon built.
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The temple was believed to be the dwelling place of God. That's what a temple is.
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That's why a temple exists. That's where God dwells. According to 1
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Corinthians chapter six, however, in this age, what's the temple of God? Do we have a stone structure located in one place where that's the dwelling place of God?
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No. Okay. So today in this age, 1
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Corinthians six says that the body of believers. So our body, your body, the body of believers is the temple of God and where two or three are gathered together.
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Jesus said, there I am in the midst. So it is right to say that the temple of God is, is here among us because our body is the temple of the
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Holy spirit. But when the Jews entered the temple, they are instructed to enter in with what frame of mind or with what attitude?
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What does it say? Okay. So it says, serve the
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Lord, come before his presence with singing. First three know that the
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Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture enter into his gates with thanksgiving.
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So we are to have a thankful heart, enter in with thanksgiving.
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And when we gather together as Christians tomorrow, uh, what are we going to do? The same thing we do on Sunday.
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When we enter into the church, hopefully we should have a spirit of thanksgiving. That's why we assemble together and worship
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God because we're, we're showing our, showing our thanks.
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So when we gather with family and friends tomorrow, uh, we should have this spirit of thanksgiving, thanksgiving, why verse five, because the
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Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting.
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So this should be the test of testimony of believers that we talk to people about how good
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God is when we hear others or unbelievers or skeptics talk about God.
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They don't talk about his goodness, do they? That's our job. We are to praise the
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Lord and be thankful. Why? Because he is good. Verse five, his mercy is everlasting.
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So God is the source of all goodness. His truth endures to all generations.
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That's a reminder of his faithfulness to keep the covenant promise to all of his people.
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And again, that's the nation of Israel. That's what the Psalmist is writing about. But do we as new
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Testament believers have promises? Yes, we do. Their promises were more earthly promises, but our promises, uh, we share in some of the promises for Israel, but our promises primarily are spiritual and heavenly.
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Okay. So that's, that's the first point. The what sort of the, what is the context of Psalm chapter 100 next, uh, is who, who, who should we be thankful for, or, uh, who are we giving thanks to this?
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This is obvious. I mean, we, we know, we know what this is about. We are to give thanks to God.
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And I was thinking about this though, the people that celebrate Thanksgiving, I wonder if it even occurs to them.
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I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Uh, but it's a holiday to give thanks.
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Who are unbelievers giving thanks to? Do they give thanks?
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I mean, I suppose they're thankful that they have a good food to eat and they're probably, some of them are probably thankful for something, but who are they thankful to themselves?
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I don't know. So the word Thanksgiving is mentioned about 40 times in the
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Bible. And obviously the holiday itself is not directly connected to any, there's no scriptural feast or some holiday in the
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Bible called Thanksgiving. But the practice of giving thanks unto God really is as old as civilization itself.
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There's always been people on the earth giving thanks to God. Uh, when you think of giving thanks, what do you usually, when's the time where people give thanks the most, the most common time before the meal, it's still a, still a pretty common practice all over the world to give thanks for your food.
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The first Thanksgiving was held in 1621 when the pilgrims, hopefully this lines up with what the video says.
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I don't know. There's some dispute, I guess over the, over the first Thanksgiving, but the first Thanksgiving day was held in 1621 when the pilgrims after a very difficult and trying winter gathered together for a day of Thanksgiving and eating and fellowshipping to thank the
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Lord for his blessings. I remember when one of my children, uh, were in school and it was kindergarten, first grade, they were taught that the pilgrims were giving thanks to the
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Indians. Well, yeah, I'm sure they were thankful for Squanto's help, but they were giving thanks to the
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Lord in 1863, president Abraham, but that's what you get being in public school.
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So, uh, that's on me, I guess in 1863, president Abraham Lincoln declared it a national day of Thanksgiving in the midst of troubled times.
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What was happening in 1863, the civil war in the midst of the civil war.
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President Lincoln called for unity, calling the people together for a national day of Thanksgiving.
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Uh, since that time, every year on Thanksgiving as a nation, we've gathered together with our families on Thanksgiving day, a day set aside to be grateful to God and appreciation for all that he has done for us.
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And God has been really, really good to all of us. We can all think of the things that go wrong and every day things go wrong and their situations we would have different and bad things happen.
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That's true, but we don't want to get focused on, on the negative. That's why
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I appreciated that video so much because it was just positive. This is a positive, positive holiday, but giving a thanks or Thanksgiving is more than just a day.
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The Bible teaches that giving thanks is also, it's not just a day. It is a begins with a
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D it is a duty Psalm 107 verse one says,
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Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever.
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So again, this is a, a call to worship maybe, but it's also a instruction and exhortation, a command to give thanks unto
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God. So we are to give thanks unto God. And again, first Thessalonians five 16 through 18 tells us how often we are to give thanks while we are to rejoice always and pray without ceasing and in everything, give thanks.
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So that tells you something, rejoice always and in everything, give thanks.
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Is that possible? Is that humanly possible to give thanks in everything?
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We can try, but there's going to be times where we don't feel like giving thanks, but this is something we should, we should shoot for.
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I was thinking about this, the way we look at it. Maybe we only think of this as a command to God's people that yes, um, the
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Psalmist is writing to the Israelites, uh, Paul to the church at Thessalonica. So maybe this is just a command for God's people that yes, we, because we profess to believe in Jesus and because we are in covenant with God, we are to give thanks.
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But it's not really just for us, is it? No, this is an exhortation for the whole world.
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Uh, God wants all nations, all peoples to give thanks to him.
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Uh, are you in Psalm 100 still again, make a joyful noise unto the
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Lord, all ye lands are all you land Psalm 66, make a joyful shout to the
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Lord, all the earth. And it says, all the earth shall worship you.
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You said, well, yeah, but that sounds nice, but it's not happening. No, it's not happening right now, but that's still
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God's call, isn't it? That's still God's desire. That's God's command.
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And we believe because Psalm 100 can be seen as a prophecy. Uh, this is something that will in fact happen.
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Psalm 46 verse 10. Here's another great verse from the Psalms be still and know that I am
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God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
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So this isn't just for God's people, whether you're a Christian or not, and everyone should become
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Christian. That's what, that's what we believe, but this is a, this is a call for all the world, but let's just focus on our land for a moment because Thanksgiving technically is a national holiday, right?
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It is a federal holiday. So this is a holiday for our land. Most people, do you, do you think most people think of Thanksgiving as a religious holiday?
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Yeah. They think of football, taking a nap. What else? Yeah. Family.
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It's a day. The day before Thanksgiving is the day. Yeah. Heaviest traveled day in, in, in the calendar year.
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Black Friday is the day after most people probably don't think of it as a religious holiday.
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Um, but it perhaps just based on the name, if you think about the name, except for Christmas, Thanksgiving has to be the most implicitly religious holiday of all.
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I mean, I would say Christmas because the name Christ is in Christmas, but Thanksgiving, just the name itself implies more than implies giving thanks to God.
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So really Thanksgiving is a religious holiday because you are to give thanks to God above.
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So here, here's what's happening. Unfortunately, uh, the Christian religion in our nation is slowly being stripped away.
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And I would argue it's being replaced. It's like one of you said, when, when you think of Thanksgiving, you don't think of giving thanks to God.
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People think of football, right? So, uh, the thankful part is being replaced with all these other things.
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Um, I believe that the Christian religion is slowly being replaced by the secular religion.
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Uh, I've sort of been touching on this here and there over the past couple
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Sundays. And here's what's happening. The religion of the
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United States, even though it wasn't official, the religion of the United States was
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Christian. The founding fathers are all quoted talking about God, Jesus, the
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Bible were one nation under God. Nobody had any question about which God, uh, they were talking about.
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So Christianity was the religion of the United States, but now we have a new religion and people haven't even realized that there's been this swap and the new religion is the secular religion.
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Now, someone might respond and say, but secularism isn't a religion. It's sort of like the absence of a religion.
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Well, would you agree? And if that's what you're thinking, would you agree that it's at least a belief system?
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It's a system of beliefs and people are committed to it. Uh, people are zealous for it.
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You think of David, uh, David had zeal for God's house. Well, they have zeal for their secular worldview.
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I'm going to touch on this again a little bit on Sunday, but I want us to stop and think about it because when you boil it all down, this may be the crucial issue of our day.
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Sometimes we get sidetracked on some of the other issues that may be associated with it.
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But the secular religion, it is a religion and you need to understand that it doesn't matter if people don't call it a religion.
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It's, it's still a set of beliefs that people adhere to. So you can use the term religion or not.
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It doesn't matter. That's still what it is. Uh, I'm going to prove that in a second, Larry. I believe that the definition in the
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Webster's dictionary for religion is whatever you believe in.
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Sure. If that, well, and if that's the definition, then it's most certainly a religion, but they do believe in it deeply.
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So, uh, let me try, let me try to prove this. Let me just define the term secularism.
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It is the principle of separation of the state from religious institutions.
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So secularism is the principle of separation of the state from religious institutions.
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Uh, originally in our country, uh, this video talked about the founding fathers, the federal government was not to make any one church, the official church of the
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United States. So when our founders set up our government, that was part of it.
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There was to be no official church of the United States. And to that,
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I say, amen, thank God. I'm glad there is no, uh, official church of the
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United States. We've all heard though, the separation of church and state. You know, that, you know, that term, uh, who is that coined by separation of church and state?
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It was a term coined by Thomas Jefferson. And here's the thing. When Jefferson made that statement, many of the colonies or many of the states, guess what?
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They had official churches when he made that statement. So Christianity was the religion of the nation.
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It just was, there could be no one church that was the official church of the federal government.
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So now we don't have the separation of church and state. What do we have? We have the separation of the state from God right now.
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That's what they're trying to do. Separate the state from God himself. Uh, more specifically, they are trying to remove the
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Christian God, the one true God from public life. And they want the memory of the true
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God erased. And more importantly, they want him replaced.
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They want God replaced by the secular God, which I would argue, would argue is the government itself, that they are there to glorify themselves or the government glorifies itself.
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So here's the proof that this is a religion we have. What, where, where does the
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Bible start? How does the Bible start out? Right. The creation account. So we have our, uh, set of beliefs of where the world came from.
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Do they have their set of beliefs of where the world came from? Right. So we have the creation account.
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They have the big bang and evolution. We have our eschatology.
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We believe that at the end of the age, Jesus Christ is going to come back. There's going to be the battle of Armageddon.
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So we have our end of the world scenario. Do they have their end of the world scenario?
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Yes, they do. It's called climate change. We have our standard of how to live, right?
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You could point to the 10 commandments, but we have our standard of living and they clearly have theirs.
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We have our definition of marriage. They have their definition. We even have our idea of what blasphemy is.
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Uh, the, the third commandment says thou shall not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain.
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Did they have blasphemy laws? You say, well, that's one thing that they don't have.
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Well, yes, they do. And it's called hate speech. See, there's certain things that we feel like you shouldn't say.
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Blaspheming God. Well, they have their own set of blasphemy laws, certain things that you can't say.
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Uh, we have God and Jesus Christ. They have their God who is whatever, uh, the government, the culture, just popular opinion, whatever the case, uh, we follow scripture, which changes not.
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They follow whatever the latest thing is, uh, the latest trend.
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They will always go along with what the next thing is. Our beliefs though are fixed.
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Theirs are always changing. So if you look at our beliefs and theirs, they're like mirror opposites or polar opposites.
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We have the saints along with preachers and teachers. They have social media influencers, politicians, and Hollywood celebrities.
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And if you, and they have a lot more influence, uh, than preachers and teachers do in this country.
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Um, Kim Kardashian has a lot more influence than John MacArthur, unfortunately, but the point is, uh, just because they don't call it a religion, it doesn't matter.
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We have our belief system. We have our worldview, they have theirs.
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So for many generations, uh, people accepted what is called the myth of neutrality, uh, the idea that the secular government could remain neutral.
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Towards religion, they'll just let us do what we want to have our freedom. And as of this moment, we still have a great deal of freedom.
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So I am thankful for that, but, uh, this is the issue of our day.
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This is what's happening. Uh, you might've heard one more comment on this.
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Uh, you might've heard of the Crusades. If you know anything about the Crusades, it was, it was framed as Christianity versus Islam, right?
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And the Protestant reformation, you had the Protestants versus the Catholics.
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Well, today you have Christianity versus secularism and it's that big, just like the
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Protestant reformation, this may be in the end, uh, if the Lord carries and they write history, uh, about this time period, this may be even more significant as far as the turning point in history.
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So let's look at Psalm 118, go ahead and turn their Psalm 118. So their belief system, our belief system, uh, a holiday like Thanksgiving, hopefully should bring all of this into focus with one simple question.
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Who are you giving thanks to? We have the answer. We know what the answer is.
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Do they have an answer? So just pray for people who don't know the
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Lord tonight, tomorrow, that it might occur to some of them giving thanks.
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Yeah. Who, who am I giving thanks to? Psalm 118 verses one through four.
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Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever.
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Let Israel now say his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron now say his mercy endures forever.
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Let those who fear the Lord now say his mercy endures forever.
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All right, let's move on to the last point. Point number one was what, you know, what is the context of Psalm 100 point?
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Number two, who, who are we giving thanks to? Who are we giving thanks to the
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Lord? He is God. Uh, point number three. Why? Why are we giving thanks more specifically?
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You know, what are those things that we are thankful for? Uh, we could be here probably a long time, just listing all the individual things we're thankful for.
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Just the big things. We're thankful for our family. Uh, we are thankful for our church family.
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We're thankful for our faith, for salvation in Christ. We're thankful tomorrow.
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We're going to pray and thank God for our food and ask a blessing upon the food. Uh, I'm thankful for freedom of speech that I can get up and still say all of this, um, without fear of consequences.
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Uh, and even those things that don't seem very positive. Remember first Thessalonians 5, 18 in everything give thanks.
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And I was thinking about this because I know that I don't do that. I don't think that anyone really gives thanks in everything.
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How, I mean, how can you give thanks in everything? So I'm trying to do this.
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I'm trying to think of how I can give thanks in all things.
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Are you thankful for income taxes? Are you saying, no, of course
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I'm not thankful for income taxes. Well, you can be thankful for income taxes because it means you have a job, right?
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We can be thankful when the dishwasher stops working or when the gutters of the house need to be cleaned.
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Why? Because it means you have a home. We can be thankful for piles of laundry and things left scattered all over the house because it, it means loved ones are nearby.
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Yeah. It means we, it means we have clothing more than enough. Yeah. So it's just however you choose to look at it, right?
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We can be thankful in all things. If we really believe that verse Romans eight 28 that God causes all things, right?
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Not some things, but God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
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God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. If we really believe that, then yes, we can have thanks in all things.
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Um, can we be thankful for our heating bill? I don't know about you, but I got a full tank of oil and it was about,
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I don't know if it was double what it was last year, but it seemed pretty close. Can I be thankful for our heating bill?
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Um, well it may, yes, because it means we're going to be warm. So it's just, just to keep things in perspective, uh, compared to people who live hundreds of years ago, just that story with the pilgrims, we live like Kings.
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We live like Kings and Queens compared to people, not just to them, compared to just, just about anybody.
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A couple hundred years ago, uh, the small group of people that came to this country on the
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Mayflower who started this custom of setting aside a day of Thanksgiving to almighty
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God, the shelters they lived in at first were very primitive. Uh, they had no means of transportation.
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Their meals were not guaranteed. They had little to no money. They had no place to spend it.
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Even if they did, they had no entertainment, no amusements except what they made for themselves.
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And yet they may do. And yet they were thankful to God and they were probably more thankful than a lot of people today.
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How is that possible? Because they have the right worldview. They had the right belief system.
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They recognized that every good gift comes from God.
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So God is good because of that. Give thanks unto him. Psalm 118 verse one,
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Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
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And Psalm 100 verse four enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.