Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
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.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
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.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
A couple of weeks ago I saw that the price of a ticket to
the Super Bowl had climbed to about $1500 for the cheapest seats. Thousands of
people gladly ponied up that price and, in many cases, much, much more for the
chance to be part of the extravagant spectacle that is the Super Bowl.
So what’s
the price for entering into the presence of the God of the universe?
The Psalm writer says:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with
praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
See that? We don’t
have to buy a ticket to experience God! In fact, there’s no amount of money that can purchase
entrance to his glorious presence. All we have to bring is thanksgiving and
praise.
In
Psalm 51 we read:
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.…
While
giving of our wealth is certainly to be part of our worship, and generosity is
an expression of both obedience and worship, God is not overly impressed with
our money. Neither is he particularly interested in the style of music we
employ in our worship. At FBCG we are blessed to be able to offer several
styles of music to compliment our worship; from mostly traditional to mostly
contemporary to somewhere in between. Interestingly, none of this seems to
matter much to God! What he wants most is our hearts.
The
two postures of heart mentioned in this Psalm are thanksgiving and praise.
I
think we are being taught that we cannot even begin to worship God; we cannot
experience his presence and glory; until we offer thanksgiving and praise.
It
seems to me that this is so because we can only offer thanksgiving and praise
by humbling ourselves. We are thankful because we have received gifts we do not
deserve; and we offer praise because we are approaching one who is greater than
ourselves.
The
Psalm is teaching us that our worship is not dependent on our musical style or
singing ability; our worship is not about the size of the check we put in the
offering plate; our worship is about the posture of our hearts before God.
Lord God, teach me to begin and end each day with thanksgiving
on my lips and in my heart. Teach me to praise you with my heart, my words, my
actions and my very life.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment