Psalm 100 - Enter His gates

Read: Psalm 100 vs 1-5

If you’ve ever been on a long journey you will know what it is to stop and ‘take a breather’. It might be driving down through England and stopping for lunch at a motorway service station, it could be a cyclist out on the road and pausing to get a drink, or maybe an older person out for a walk on a hot day stopping to sit on a wall and catch their breath. 

Our journey through the Psalms is a log journey. The quickest route (simply reading one each day) takes 150 days, but allowing a bit more for the more lengthy Psalms means the route we have planned will take about two weeks longer than that.

Today we come to Psalm 100. Seeing that sign is a bit like arriving at that motorway service station, a bit like getting off the bike after the hill climb, a bit like sitting on the wall to catch our breath. We come to a place this morning where there are many Psalms behind us (we’re been on the road for 15 weeks) and yet a good long stretch, God willing, that is still ahead (another 50 Psalms to go including some of the longer ones).

There is a refreshing quality about Psalm 100, a restfulness about its call:

‘Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful songs.’

There are many things we don’t know, many things that we do not understand. The Psalms that we have been in so far have taken us through lots of different territory. Here however is a focus on what we do know (vs 3):

‘Know that the LORD is God.

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

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.’ 

So as we enter this Psalm we walk into a place of thanksgiving and praise (vs 4). The LORD is good, His love endures forever, His faithfulness continues through all generations. (vs 5) With these words in our hearts, and these truths in our minds, we get ready again to take the road that lies ahead.