Serve With Thanksgiving

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Psalm 100: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His. 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 steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

There was a lady in one of the congregations I served who commented on the reality that the congregation did not sing out loud. They sang quietly. Ethel said, "I can't sing. I make a croaking sound." I said to her, "It's all about making a joyful 'noise' to the Lord." 

In our text, God doesn't call us to have "perfect pitch" or sing loudly, so loudly that it drowns every one else out. God wants us to make a joyful noise.

Why?

There are couple of reasons.

1. He IS GOD!
2. His steadfast love endures

He IS GOD!

There is no other. He is IT! God made the world, the universe, and all that is in it. God created us and placed us in a position in authority over the entire creation. WE ARE HIS. We were, are, and always will be, people of God. And when we put our faith and trust in Him and Jesus Christ who died to forgive our sins and rise to bring to us God's new life free from sin, we for Him, with Him, and by Him. We follow our Lord and praise His name. 

His Steadfast Loves Endures

God will always, always, always love us. There is never a time in our lives that He does not. At the same time, God love includes a time of discipline, correction, and rebuking. God, because He loves us, allows us to fall and fail because we are sinful and sinners. He does it to lead us to repentance, to contrition, and to FORGIVENESS.  And because God loves us, He sent Jesus to be the sacrifice of sacrifices that forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. God, through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, gives us a new life to believe, know, and follow Him. And thereby praise Him for all that He's done.

So let us make a joyful noise for all God has done, and continues to do, for us.

​

---