Good evening. It's good to see everybody out. Glad to be able to be with you guys as opposed to being in the back. So I was mentioning coming in on a Wednesday night is kind of foreign to me. I don't even know if I'm going about things the right way, but thankfully you guys are here to set me straight if I go astray. So we are gonna go ahead and sing a hymn. I know we're gonna do it acapella, but I think it's only appropriate given our point of discussion tonight. So we're gonna sing 173, blessed be the name, and hopefully that's familiar, and we'll just sing it acapella, and we'll sing, we'll sing all three verses. All praise to him who reigns above in majesty supreme, who gave his son born and to die that he might be redeemed. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall stand. ♪ Exalted more and more ♪ ♪ At God the Father's own right hand ♪ ♪ Where angel hosts adore ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ His name shall be the counselor ♪ ♪ The mighty prince of peace ♪ ♪ Of all earth's kingdoms conqueror ♪ ♪ Whose reign shall never cease ♪ Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. That's good. All right, we're in Psalm 100. this evening, Psalm 100. I know Pastor has been doing a series going through the Sermon on the Mount. I thought tonight would be appropriate that we take some time and think about how we can praise God. So if you come back next week, be back in the Sermon on the Mount. But tonight we're just in Psalm, Psalm 100. And it's funny, we were just talking this morning, or sometime during the day, about churches that sing acapella as the norm. And those churches tend to be filled with very, very good singers. I feel like they kind of have to be, because of the lack of instruments. But you guys sang pretty well tonight, I appreciate it. All right, so Psalm 100. Psalm 100, let's just go ahead and read it, very short psalm, and we're gonna go through all of it. And we're gonna note that it is a psalm of praise. Verse one says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then we'll get into our song. Father, I thank you so much for allowing us to gather here midweek to pause and meditate on the truths of your word, to come together as your people and lift up our voices in prayer and in praise. I ask tonight that you would give us a refreshed idea of how we can praise you as the psalmist so just explains it so profoundly before us. And we are looking forward to all that you are able to accomplish in our lives that we can give you the praise for, for you're worthy and we give you all that honor due to you in Christ's name, amen. So Psalm 100, this is a psalm of thanksgiving. In fact, if you'll note, the very beginning does say it is a psalm of praise. And I don't know if, you probably already know this, but it was only recently that I realized that those little subheadings are part of the inspired text. So it is a psalm of praise, and that word praise is also translated thanksgiving. We'll look at that word later on. So this psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving in which the psalmist exhorts to the world to praise God through several various means. We're gonna look at each of those means. In fact, there's really four with one underlying purpose or thing driving all of those means. And we're gonna see that they're very different, but they all point us in a way to honor God in every aspect of our lives. So, we're gonna see how God wants us to know how we can praise Him. And obviously this is not exhaustive, but it gives us a good, good means of direction as far as how we can praise God. First way we see that we can praise God is that we can praise God with shouts of praise. And right off the bat, I want to say, I'm not saying we need to come into church and start hooting and hollering and yelling and having like a dedicated, you know, shouting time in our service. But notice what the psalmist says in verse one. He says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Now I want to note that he's appealing to all of humanity. Before we actually talk about the shouts of praise, the psalmist is appealing to all of humanity here. The word lands is the word Aretz or Eretz, and it can refer to either the whole earth like it does in Genesis 1-1, or to lands as in countries or regions as it does here. In a greater sense, it really is not a stretch to say the psalmist is calling for all of humanity to praise God. Now there's obviously some messianic overtones with this. I mean, if we were to look over in Genesis 22, 18, we see God promising Abraham, through your seed will all the nations, all the families of the earth be blessed. So that all families, all nations will have a purpose, a reason to praise God through the promised seed of Abraham, that is Jesus Christ. And this is the desire of God in the overall plan of redemption, that mankind be redeemed to Him from every tribe, tongue, and nation. I'll read to you Isaiah 66, verses 18 to 21. Isaiah writes, for I know the Gentiles' works and their thoughts. It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lod, that draw the bow, to Debal and Javan, to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. Matthew 8-11, Christ himself says, We even see this ultimately fulfilled, or even prophesied, I should say, in Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10, where he says, After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. God has a desire that all of humanity come to worship and praise him. And with that in mind, it sets really the tone for this whole psalm. We see the psalmist calling humanity to make a joyful noise. Now the phrase joyful noise isn't really a euphemism for bad singing. I think that's kind of how we use it a lot. In fact, the word has nothing to do with singing at all, actually. The noise is a word that's commonly used for either loud shouting or for trumpeting. So a perfect illustration of this, in fact, there's two. There's one wherein the trumpet is being played by a watchman on the wall, and he sees the enemy afar off, and he blows that trumpet, and everybody hears it and does something about it. They either panic or they get ready for the enemy. It's a call. It's something that draws attention. The other way it's used is actually when the Israelites were going around Jericho. And Joshua, at the very end of that week that they're going around and around and around and around, he says, shout for the Lord has delivered Jericho into your hands. And what do they do? They shouted and they shouted. And that's the word being used here, a joyful noise. You can say a joyful shout, if you will. It's very interesting and very graphic. And as I said, I'm not advocating we include a shouting segment in our worship service. But really, it implies two things that we should really consider when it comes to praising God in our day-to-day lives. The first is this, that visible emotion should play a part in our praise. It should be a part of our declaring of God and His goodness and who He is. Emotion isn't something to stifle. It isn't something to hide away. God gave us emotion to use for His glory. And this is one of the most important areas in which we can use it. Then there's a second implication here, and I think this is the primary implication here, is that the joyful noise isn't so much about making a noise It's about drawing attention to God. And that's what praise is about. If our praise is about us, or about our abilities, or about anything concerning us, we've lost the point. We've lost the purpose of praise. Praise is for God. And that joyful noise is there not to point attention to ourselves, that's, if you will, modest. It's selfish, it's prideful. No, a joyful noise is one that says God is worthy of praise. Let me declare unto you God and His goodness. I think a great illustration of that implication is in Isaiah 6. You know the scene, and it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, with 20 covered his face, with 20 covered his feet, and with 20 did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And here's kind of the picturesque part of it. The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the whole house was filled with smoke. That noise shook the very foundations of the throne room. And that's the kind of praise we should have. Not one that draws attention to ourselves, but one that full of fervor and joy points to the one who is worthy. A God whom we can praise with shouts of praise. And that's one way in which we can praise God. Now notice in verse two, we see the second way. It says, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. The second way in which we can praise God is by joyful service. And a psalmist is exhorting the world to serve the Lord in his presence. And this is very interesting. Because keep in mind, the psalmist is writing really directly to Israelites. And in the Israelites' mind, when they're thinking the presence of the Lord, what are they thinking of? They're thinking of the temple. So they're thinking, wait, wait, wait, you're telling me all nations come into God's presence in the temple? That's exactly what the psalmist is implying. He's saying the temple is the place in which, especially at that time, that's where people came into the physical presence of God. And he's saying all people come into this presence. Now that was a unique time and place. We no longer serve in the temple. We are the temple. As believers, we can worship anywhere, everywhere, and be in the presence of the Lord. Why? Because we have the Spirit with us. And the psalmist exhorts the world to serve the Lord with gladness. So, trying to draw it back here because I'm getting ahead of myself. Service to God. For Israel, service to God was a tremendous privilege. Who was allowed to serve in the temple? Was it just anybody? Any of the 12 tribes? It's the Levites. Yep. The Levites were the ones who were able to serve in the temple. In fact, even the most lowliest positions, the doorkeepers, the sons of Korah, they too were Levites. It's a very privileged position. And you know what? As the local church, as the body of Christ, we too are in a very privileged position. We get to serve God, not only in the local church, but beyond. Speaking of the local church, you and I have tremendous opportunity to serve God by being engaged with one another in this local assembly. And I'm not just limiting it to Sunday school. I'm not talking about just serving in the choir. I'm talking about just being in each other's homes, praying with one another, being a part of each other's lives, listening to one another, praying with one another, bearing one another's burden. That's some of the means in which we can serve the Lord with gladness in the local church. But of course we serve God outside of the local church as well, do we not? Because I hope we do. Colossians 3.23, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men. If you have a job, And it's a drudgery, not that anybody has a job like that. And you hate it, you despise it. Ask yourself this question. Are you able to serve the Lord with gladness in that job? It's a question I have to ask myself sometimes. I'm not saying I hate my job. But I have to ask myself this question. Am I serving the Lord with gladness in what I'm doing? Am I doing it hardly as to the Lord? I'm not even talking about a gladness that's determined by those around you or determined by various other factors. I'm talking about a gladness that recognizes that God has redeemed you, that he's given you new life so you can live eternally serving him. If you live in light of that, you'll see opportunity anywhere. even some of the most difficult places. And trust me, there are some seriously difficult circumstances in which we can find ourselves in when it comes to work. Regardless, there are infinite opportunities to serve Him. But what allows those opportunities to be seen is whether or not our heart's desire is to do just that. Do we recognize how privileged we are to have work, to not only supply for our basic human needs, but also to do it heartily, ask to the Lord and not unto men. All of that, our work, our service in the church and among other people, all of that is a direct praise to God. Why? Because if we do it heartily as with the Lord, that is acknowledging who he is, what he has done. And it draws attention away from us, especially in some of those most difficult jobs, and points it directly to him. We can praise God in our service to him, at his joyful service. Verse three, we see yet another means in which we can serve or praise God. It says, know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. The third way in which we can praise God according to Psalm 100 is simply in knowing him. And the psalmist here is exhorting the world to know that the Lord is the creator, and not just the creator, but he's specifically the creator of Israel. Now naturally, God wants all the world to know who he is and that he created the world and all that's in it. That's why we have creation, it's the point. All creation speaks to the creator, points to the creator. But here, we see the psalmist is noting that it is God that hath made us, that is Israel. He's speaking of Israel. Remember, this is a psalm that would be sung by Israelites. God hath made us. So what does that mean? Well, what was Israel's mission? What was their purpose as a nation? Was it just to simply exist? Here we are, we're God's people. That's to point people to God. Come and see, taste and see that the Lord is good. Come and see the works of God. And so what is significant here is that the psalmist acknowledges a very important truth about Israel, that Israel as a nation, with its history and all of the privilege that it's had, is not the result of any group of people's effort. It is solely the providential hand of the Almighty that brought Israel into existence and ultimately would even bring the world its Redeemer. So the psalmist says, know that the Lord is the creator of us, that is Israel. But a major part of that is not only knowing that God created Israel, but the psalmist wants the world to know who that God is. He exhorts the world, know who God is. Now we know that we should be actively pursuing a knowledge of God, but let's consider some truths here. First, if we're called to praise God, shouldn't we learn about the God in whom we are praising? Makes sense, right? It's true. I know it's hard on a Wednesday. We're all tired. It's true. We ought to know who we are praising. If we are learning who he is from the scriptures, then we have God himself telling us who he is so that we can mindfully, we can intellectually be able to praise him with accuracy. But the second implication, or truth, I should say, is that if we are actively learning who he is, shouldn't we be actively praising him as a result? So if we have biblical accuracy concerning our knowledge of God, that not only can we acknowledge who He is accurately, but we can begin seeing, as we live this Christian life, how God is personally involved in our lives. And it's not a subjective thing. We can point to Scripture and say, yes, this is how God is working in my life, this is how He's maturing me, this is how He's bearing fruit in my life, this is how His providential hand is actively working in my life. It may not be pinpoint, you may not be able to say, oh man, God woke me up and gave me this cup of coffee just to be a blessing to me. I'm not saying that. But we know that God in his providence provides for your needs. We know God in his providence supplies you with food, raiment, place to live, job, all these different things. Why? Because scriptures teach us this. God takes care of his people. And you can point to things in your life and say, yes, that points to that truth. That points to that reality. That points to that characteristic of my God. My God cares for me. My God is working in me. He's working in my life. And I know this based on the scriptures. I know who my God is. And I can praise him for that. So you see, a knowledge of God is paramount to properly praising God. I mean, it's no wonder this is found in the center of the psalm. If you remember how Hebrew poetry works, what you can typically see at the very center is where the focal point is. Here he says, know ye that the Lord, he is God. That is a paramount focus in this psalm. It's really what praise is centered around, knowing who God is. But that's not the only way in which we can praise God. So far we've seen that we can praise God through joyful noise, we can praise God by knowing who he is, we can praise God through our joyful service, but then we can praise God without spoken gratitude. Verse four, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise and be thankful unto him and bless his name. Now the word Thanksgiving is the very same word that we see at the very top of the psalm, a psalm of praise or psalm of Thanksgiving. So it's very interesting here that the King James translators chose to make this Thanksgiving, and I think with good reason. Because here the psalmist is talking about bringing something that is substantial, talking about something that is very evident, something you can see, something you can experience. So the psalmist here is exhorting mankind really to enter even into the temple. He says the gates and the courts, that was what you should enter into. And there are clear indications that the psalmist is talking about people coming directly to the temple, into the presence of God. Of course, the temple itself was just a structure, just a building. What made it special was the fact that God was there. It's where God lived. It's where God dwelt with mankind, specifically with his people, Israel. I don't think there's a greater example of God dwelling among his people apart from his incarnation as Christ, perhaps even the indwelling of the Spirit. But naturally, we should conclude And God wants all mankind to have the same proximity with Him in His physical presence. We saw this before when I referenced Revelation 7-9, where we see that all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. God wants all people to be in His presence. But not just to be there. But as the psalmist exhorts all of mankind to do, to bring thanksgiving. I'm not talking about turkey and cranberry sauce. The psalmist is exhorting people to bring thanksgiving, praise into the presence of God. In other words, outspoken gratitude. Now this sounds all well and good, but kind of consider this tonight, and this is a bit of a rebuke to myself. When we come to that time where we start praying with one another, and we pull out our inserts, we look at that insert, we look at the praise section, and you're like, oh, that's nice. Then you focus all your attention on the prayer requests and the updates. It's understandable, but usually in my mind I'm thinking, let me just lump all these praises together and focus on the prayer requests. Is that how you think, or is that just me? It could just be me. No, we ought to be bringing outspoken praise and thanksgiving to God. Lord, thank you for blessing so-and-so. Thank you for working in this person's life. Thank you for all that you're doing. It really should be a reality in our life, that we are outspokenly praising God for what He does. We shouldn't hesitate to thank God for His blessings. In fact, if we just look at a couple of Psalms nearby, if we were to look at Psalm 103 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth thine iniquities, who healeth thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Even Psalm 104, bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, thou art very great, thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who covers thyself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angel spirits, his ministers a flaming fire, who lay the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. Psalm 105, O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people, sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works, glory ye in His holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Psalm 106, praise ye the Lord, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all His praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment. and he that doeth righteousness at all times." If we are God's people, we have every right, every opportunity, every privilege, every exhortation to lift up our voice to God and cry out, thank you. And if you can't think of anything else to thank God for, we'll consider our last verse in our psalm this evening, verse five. Really what you can say is the basis in which we can praise God. The Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. I mean, let's just consider God being good for a second. If we were to look at the world purely from the perspective of a person who doesn't know God, would you honestly think that God is good? If you don't know God or anything about him, Would you think that he is good based on what you see in this world? You look at the crime, the violence, the perversions, the disease, the drama, the injustice, the hatred, the deceit, all this sin that is in this world. How can anyone think that a good God would allow all this and not do anything about it? But we know God. As his people, we know that he's done something about it. We know that he took on flesh. He humiliated himself through the incarnation. He died an undeserving death and took on the whole of humanity's sin and judgment for the sake of every individual soul and rose the third day in triumph over death, hell, and the grave. Why? So that we can be his people. So that he can be our God. Our God, high and lifted up, sovereign ruler of the universe, loves us so much. that He would die and redeem for Himself a people who would eternally live with Him and know His goodness forever. God is good. And His mercy is everlasting. And evidence of this, we have all this goodness really because of God's eternal mercy. We who should have been on the very cross that Christ was on, We have been graciously offered mercy in spite of who and what we are. And keep in mind that God's mercy doesn't come with strings attached. He's not sitting there waiting for us to slip up so he can yank back that mercy and say, see, you didn't deserve it. Because that's the whole nature of mercy to begin with. It's undeserving. We don't deserve his mercy. He doesn't need to prove that anymore than we can disprove it. That mercy is everlasting. And we who are His people, we are blessed to know that as God's people, we get to enjoy that mercy forever. Finally, we know that all of this is true, not because somebody thought, hey, this sounds like a good idea. Hey, this sounds like it'd be a good religious system, No, it's because God's truth endureth to all generations. How can we give weight to anything pointing us to praise God? It's because God has given us truth. We can walk through a forest and we can hear the birds and think, what a great God who created all this. But I'm gonna tell you, those trees and those birds are not eternal. All of this will pass away, all that will remain is the truth of God's word and the soul of man. So I ask you tonight, do you know God's truth? Can you say with the widow of Zarephath, the word of the Lord is truth? Can you attest to the sanctification of God's truth in your life? As Christ said in the garden, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. I hope you can. whether you're sitting in here or you're watching on the live stream, because by knowing God's truth and His mercy and His goodness, there is no reason why we shouldn't praise Him. Look at all the ways in which we can do this. Let's praise Him in all that we do, knowing that here are just a few ways in which we can do that. Father, I thank you for Psalm tonight, I thank you for your encouraging word that allows us to look into it and see in very practical ways in which we can offer up our praise to you, for you are infinitely worthy of all praise and all glory. We ask, Lord, that you would continue to be with us this night, be with those who are traveling, both those that are at camp, pray you would be with our teens as you're under the preaching of God's word, and help us here tonight to be joined together in prayer and in unity as we lift up our voices of prayer as well as praise. We ask this all in Christ's name, amen.