Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 100

 

! Introduction

Rod Cooper writes, “I used to be the chaplain for the Astros and the Oilers when I was in Houston, Texas.

After I'd do a chapel, they'd give me tickets.

One time in the Astrodome I watched Earl Campbell run over everybody, his own men included, to get to the goal line.

When he got to the goal line, he put the ball down.

The place went crazy.

People were giving high fives and jumping around.

The same thing happened when the Astros hit a home run.

“I'm not saying that when you come to church you need to give each other high fives or do cartwheels down the aisle, but worship is a time of anticipation and expectation.

We come together because all week God has been knocking home runs and scoring touchdowns in our lives.

Worship is a time to celebrate what God has done for us.”

I have often wondered about that myself.

I cheer, or watch people cheer at a sports event, but at church, I am quite subdued.

What is the nature of your relationship with God?

Is it serious, dutiful, strictly obedient, solemn or is it joyful, worshipful, celebrating?

Psalm 100 is the only Psalm which is identified as “A Psalm of Thanksgiving.”

It invites us to a faith that celebrates God, that is open about expressing the goodness of God.

Since God’s goodness is seen in every land, it invites us to praise Him in every land.

!

I. Joyful Worship Psalm 100:1-3

!! A. The Call To Joyful Worship

            This Psalm calls us to express worship.

First of all it says “shout.”

Now I have to confess that I have not often shouted to the Lord, certainly not in church.

If I have, it was quietly so I would not disturb anyone.

But the Bible says that we are to shout to the Lord.

Shouting starts way down deep in our hearts.

It arises in a conviction within us.

I am sure that most of us have the conviction, the sense of wonder about God in our hearts.

But notice that the emotion and power of the conviction is not to stay in our hearts.

It is to come out of our mouth with a shout.

Have you ever shouted to God?

The second thing it says is that we are to serve the Lord.

The word serve means to function as a slave or work for someone.

It can also mean to worship.

If shouting involves our heart and our mouth, serving involves our heart and our hands.

This tells us once again that our convictions about God are to be acted upon.

It is more than a thought in our minds, it is more than a feeling in our hearts.

Worship is something we do - an expression of our love for God, our admiration for His power and majesty that is acted upon when we do something for Him.

George Bowen said, God’s servant “eats, he drinks, he sleeps, he walks, he discourses, he finds recreation, all by the way of serving God.”

But please notice that there is one word which permeates these verses.

Our shouting and our serving are to be done with joy.

Joy and gladness are in each line of the first two verses of Psalm 100.

Do we have such joy in the presence of the Lord?

When we come before the Lord, is there a scowl on our face?

Is there a frown on our mouth?

Or is our whole being one big smile?

Joy must certainly come out if it is present in our hearts.

!! B. The Reason For Joyful Worship

Why such joyful worship?

Please look at verse 3 which says, “know.”

You don’t come up to a complete stranger on the street and sing his praises.

You praise someone when you know them.

Someone has written, “knowledge is the mother of devotion.”

It is as we know the Lord, that such joyful praise and thanksgiving are birthed within us.

So the Psalm invites us in verse 3 to know the Lord.

What is it that we are to know?

We are to know that the Lord is God.

There are a lot of things that put themselves up as symbols of power, as being in charge, as representing the greatest thing there is.

In former days there were physical idols which were worshipped.

Today, it is governments, military installations, terrorists and dollars.

But none of these things is eternal, infinite, all powerful or sovereign.

God, however, is.

He is God.

As Charles Spurgeon says, “He is God - the only living and true God.

Infinitely perfect, self existent and self sufficient and the fountain of all being…”

                        We also worship Him because He is our creator.

In verse 3, we read, “It is he who made us.”

Today is Mother’s Day and we have an expectation that we ought to honor the woman who brought us into the world, or if you are a mother, you hope that your children will appreciate you because you brought them into the world.

How much more is it right for us to appreciate the one who has made every one of us, our creator.

When we add to that thought, the realization which the Psalmist has in Psalm 139:14 when he says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” we have even more reason to praise, to shout and to worship God.

Probably the thing that I have spent the most time making and am most proud of is my canoe.

In my pocket computer, which has pictures of Carla, my children and my mom, I also have a picture of my canoe.

I made it and I care for it.

In a similar way, the one who made us cares for us.

If he had a wallet, God would carry a picture of us in that wallet.

I think that is an appropriate thought which comes from the statements made next in which the Psalmist says, “we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

All of these images together, communicate the care of the owner for his creation.

We have recently seen God’s care for us in some very practical ways.

Our daughter came to live with us recently.

She had a really nice car, but knew that the wise thing to do would be to sell it.

Since she came from Alberta, it had insurance and registration from Alberta and the Alberta insurance ran out on March 31.

We had tried to sell it from the beginning of March, but it had not sold and we knew that on April 1, we would have to pay to register it in Manitoba.

Well, on April 1, before we registered it, it sold.

I thought at the time, this is more than coincidence.

If it had sold 3 or 4 days earlier or later, we would have said thank you, but because it sold exactly on April 1, we saw that as an act of God’s caring.

An act of the loving shepherd.

James Denney wrote, "The important thing in religion is not to believe that God is omniscient but to experience that God knows me.

The important thing is not that God is everywhere but that wherever I am, God is with me."

In the song, We’re Marching to Zion the words of the second verse are, “Let those refuse to sing, who never knew our God.

But children of the heavenly King May speak their joys abroad.”

!

II.

Worship In His Presence Psalm 100:4-5

!! A. The Call To Worship In His Presence

            The second part of the Psalm, in verses 4,5, once again calls us to worship.

Here we have words that we are a little more comfortable with.

We are invited to thanksgiving and to praise.

Praise is acknowledging God for who He is.

Thanksgiving is acknowledging the specific benefits we have received from Him.

But there is an interesting thing we need to take note of in this Psalm.