The Gates Into God's Presence

Psalm 100

Imagine that you were privileged to be granted an audience to meet with one of the most highest ranking people in the world, perhaps the Queen, or someone else at that exclusive level.  First you probably would plan what you would wear, spending some time to make sure you had just the right outfit, and your hair was done just right.  Equally important is making sure that you conduct yourself correctly, acting in an appropriate way.  No cracking silly jokes or making obtuse comments.  Though most of us will never have that opportunity, as believers we have an even more glorious invitation, and that is to come into the heavenly royal courts of the mighty God of the universe.  Our psalm reading for this week, Psalm 100, is just such an invitation.  In addition to being an invitation for us, the psalm also gives us instructions of how we should present ourselves before the Lord.

The first instruction our psalm gives us for how we should present ourselves before the Lord is that we should give a shout of gladness to the Lord (vs. 1).   Many of us have seen parades given in honor of a hero or a winning sports team, either in person or on TV.  Everyone is shouting out their praise with joy, with no restraint.  This is how the Lord wants us to be when we come before Him, joyfully shouting His praise.

We are to enter His presence with singing (vs. 2).  Maybe you feel that you cannot sing well.  However, our Scripture doesn’t say to sing only if you have a trained voice.  It tells us to come before His presence with singing.  We are to sing praises to the Lord for being our Creator and Shepherd (vs. 3), for His goodness, His mercy, and His truth (vs. 5).

We are to come to God in worship, with thanksgiving in our hearts (vs. 4).  Praising Him is the first step towards entering the presence of God.  We need to be doing that every moment of every day.  If we want to see God’s glory, thanksgiving is the door that will lead us into His throne room.  Our psalmist tells us that to pass through the gates into God’s kingdom, we must have thanksgiving in our hearts.  To enter into the royal courts of the Heavenly King, we must come with praise.   God is worthy of our worship.  Come into His presence with joy.  Don’t just go through the motions.  He should be praised and trusted by believers because He is holy, good, and perfect.

God is our Creator, and the Creator of all we have.  He made all, and provides us with what we need.  For that we can sing and praise Him.  God is also our Shepherd, and we are His sheep.  He is our Father, and we are His children if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior.  Believers are part of God’s family, His sons and daughters.  They belong, body and soul, to the one true God and Savior.  We can “know” and be assured of this truth (vs. 3).  Yahweh is the one and only true God.

God is the source and perfect example of all goodness (vs. 5).  He is absolutely perfect and holy.  He is the standard of all righteousness.  All God does is just and right.  He cannot change.  He is good, even when we are not.  Every breath comes from God.  He watches over and provides for all of our needs.  Because of this, we should cultivate a grateful heart.  One of the signs of the last days will be ingratitude (II Timothy 3:1-5).  Are we grateful to Him for answering our prayers?  The Lord is all-knowing and all-powerful. We should be praising Him for being faithful and trustworthy.  God’s children need to recognize that His Name is higher than any other name.  As our psalm tells us, we need to give thanks and bless His Name.  God is the ultimate expression of love itself.

This short psalm is often used in many churches as a call to worship.  It has also been used as the inspiration for many hymns.  As we read through this song in our Bible, let us remember that the gates into God’s presence are still open, inviting us to come and worship.