Sheep Of The Flawless God

Psalm 100

Our psalm for today is possibly one of the most upbeat and positive psalms in the Bible.  Look at some of the words throughout this passage, and see if you agree - joyful, gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praise, thankful, bless, good, mercy, truth.  All of that in a short psalm of only five verses. It is certainly not a psalm for any whiners.

There are always days when our troubles surround us, and life doesn’t look very pleasant or chipper.  No one is immune to problems, and that would include this psalmist. How could he manage to stay so upbeat?  The message that he gives us is to give the Lord praise and thanksgiving. A sure cure for the blues is to be grateful and thankful to the Lord for all that He has done for us, and to give Him praise.

When we come into the presence of the Lord, whether it is in group worship at church, or it is in our own private prayer and devotions, it should be with thanksgiving and praise in our hearts (vs. 2, 4).  We should start each day with praise. God wants to hear our praises and our singing to Him. I know that isn’t always easy. I have a collection of hymn books, and I go through one hymn each day with my morning prayer and Bible time.  As the psalmist said in Psalm 118:24 - “This is the day the LORD has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Thanksgiving is what opens the door to God’s throne room (vs. 4). That is what will bring God’s glory into our life.

We see a lot of ungratefulness going around today.  So many people have an entitlement attitude, thinking they are owed a good life and pleasant things. When they are given a blessing in their life, they are not thankful, thinking it is only their due.  Being ungrateful is not only selfish and a sin, it is contrary to Scripture. Paul states that being unthankful or ungrateful is one of the signs of the last days (II Timothy 3:1-5).

Our psalmist also emphasises here that God is a good God (vs. 5). His love for us who are His blood-bought children, goes on forever. God is absolutely perfect and holy. All God does is just and right. This cannot be said of the false gods of the heathen.  First, they don’t really exist. However, in the way their devotees would portray them they were not good or loving to those who worshipped them.  They were often fickle, harsh, and cruel, and had to be appeased with sacrifices, sometimes including human sacrifices. They often are portrayed as having the vices humans are prone to, only in gigantic proportions.  Rarely are they portrayed as having true love and compassion on mankind.

Contrariwise, Yahweh, the Lord God, is a good God.  All that He does is good. There is no spot or wrong or evil in Him.  Even when He must give discipline to us when we go astray, it is not done to crush us.  Rather it is to restore the broken relationship. He has love and mercy upon His creation, so much so that He sent His only Son to die for the sins of man.  And His truth, which is contained in the Scriptures, will never end.

My final observation from Psalm 100 is taken from verse 3.  The psalmist here speaks a reminder to people to keep a proper perspective in their lives between God and themselves.  This is a good admonition today, as well, since arrogance is so common. Our psalmist reminds us that God is the Creator, and we are His creation. God is our God, our Father, and we are His children. He is the Shepherd, and we are His sheep. Too often people seem to get that reversed, thinking they are in charge, and can walk up to God and tell Him what to do. Yes, God is a good and loving Creator, Father, and Shepherd, and He loves us. All the same, though, He is in charge, He is God, not us.  We are not the center of the universe. Everything is not all about us, but rather, it is all about Him.