Thursday Psalms: Don't Steal My Joy!

You might be thinking the psalmist who wrote Psalm 100 was just having a really good day, or perhaps just ignoring the world around him.  At first glance, doesn't he seem like the proverbial ostrich, with his "head in the sand"?  We can certainly commend him for calling us to joyful gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praising and blessing, but you might say "He doesn't live in my world!"  From where does all this happiness come?

PSALM 100     A Psalm for giving thanks.

¹ Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

² Serve the Lord with gladness!

   Come into His presence with singing!

³ Know that the Lord, He is God!

   It is He who made us, and we are His;

      we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!

   Give thanks to Him; bless His name!

⁵ For the Lord is good;

   His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. 

Look at verse three, which simply and clearly points us to the Lord.  This verse contains the foundation of the faith the Lord has given to you or wants to give to you.  He is God!  The Lord, is not a god, not one of many gods, but the Lord is God, the only one, true God.   

It is He who made us, along with all things in this world and in the entire universe and any other possible universes around us!  He is Creator of all things; by definition and by His creation, we are His.  We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.  God named you and claimed you in your baptism, where He gave you faith to believe in Jesus, your Savior.  And as God's created & claimed people, God provides for us all that we need to support our bodies and lives.  

Of course, Satan the great deceiver and destroyer works quite successfully to take away our  joyful gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praising and blessing.  He and his minions in the culture around us scream loudly and often:

• God is no god, He is a made-up character.
• God did not create us; our complex bodies and the world around us just evolved out of primeval sludge by lots of random events which cannot be proven or demonstrated.
• You are your own person, and nobody, neither God nor anyone else can claim you or tell you who you are.
• God neither provides for us nor shepherds us; we should look to ourselves, the government or whoever we choose to give us what we want.

None of these lies produces any lasting  joyful gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praising or blessing.  They only produce corruption and death, and they separate us from the one true God.  They deny what the Lord God does, that He loves you, He has saved you from Satan and all your sins, and He has prepared a mansion for you in heaven where you will stay with Him forever.  

So today and each day of the coming week, I commend you to sing/pray/meditate on Psalm 100, and give thanks to God, always remembering:

   ³ Know that the Lord, He is God!

   It is He who made us, and we are His;

      we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, LCMS    Burton, Michigan

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

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Soli Deo Gloria

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…”  Psalm 37:7