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My Favorite Psalms: Psalm 100

Ray Ortlund
Immanuel Church
Nashville, Tennessee
18 August 2019

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Psalm 100:1

What kind of church will prevail in these hard times and against all earthly
powers? Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, . . . it is no
longer good for anything” (Matthew 5:13). So, how can we stay tasty and good for
something? Some Christians and churches think the answer is politics. But a pastor
recently tweeted this re-make of “On Christ the solid rock I stand”:

My hope is built on nothing more

Than politics and culture war
I dare not trust in gospel truth
But wholly lean on voting booths
On party politics I stand
Even though it is sinking sand
Even though it is sinking sand

Politics is an honorable calling. But if we, as a church, long for earthly power,
then it doesn’t matter which party we align with, we’ve lost. The greatest power in
America today is coming down from above. Our power lies in these surprising
intangibles: a spirit of faith (Psalm 23), a spirit of repentance (Psalm 51), a spirit of
revival (Psalm 85), and today, a spirit of praise (Psalm 100). These other-worldly powers
are the most relevant to our world. We display Jesus by our faith in a world of panic, our
repentance in a world of blaming, our revival in a world of exhaustion, and our praising
in a world of self-pity.

My purpose today is to persuade you that a spirit of praise to God, a spirit of

rejoicing in God and thanks to God and singing our fool heads off to God is a really big
deal. In the Old Testament, when King Jehoshaphat was attacked by a powerful enemy,
he put the singers out in front of his army – and he won (2 Chronicles 20:1-23). In the
New Testament, when Paul and Silas were thrown in prison, at midnight they were
singing and praising God – and they were released (Acts 16:16-26). And Martin Luther
wrote:

I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ! I truly desire that all
Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a
precious, worthy and costly treasure given to mankind by God. Next to the Word
of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our
thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits. A person who does not regard music as a
marvelous creation of God must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to
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be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying
of asses and the grunting of hogs.

God has designed reality in such a way that we praise our way into a better future.
How many of us walked in here today believing that? So I want you today to decide that
you will give your life to praising Jesus Christ, come what may. Which of these two will
do more good for you and for America: tweeting a scathing exposé of a political enemy,
or singing loud praises to your Lord Jesus Christ? Let’s all make up our minds today.

We might have thought God wouldn’t mind if we treat praise and thanks and
rejoicing as icing on the cake, an optional extra, when we have some emotion left over
after giving ourselves to the urgent issues of the day. But God wants us to know that a
spirit of praise strengthens us to keep going and keep going and keep going through the
adversity of our times. A church set apart to God by a spirit of praise will always be
prophetic in this world, and until Christ returns.

There are two reasons why a spirit of praise deserves to set the tone of this church
above announcements and everything else that claims too much for itself. One reason is
moral authority. Look at the superscription here: “A Psalm for giving thanks.” The
Psalter was the hymnbook of God’s people back in the Old Testament days. So
apparently, giving thanks wasn’t left to their moody ups and downs, it wasn’t crowded
out by the announcements, but giving thanks was written into the script of their regular
worship in a way that lesser things were not. Why? Because Christianity shows us
something profound. Moment by moment, we are either centered on God or we are
centered on ourselves. There is no alternative. Either God is the revered center of our
world and we have humbly adjusted to him, or we have exalted ourselves as the center
and we are expecting everyone else, including God, to orbit around us and for us. But
nothing is more miserable than self-centered obliviousness, and nothing is more
liberating and happy and compelling than letting go of our brooding and our agendas and
lifting up the Lord and praising him that he is God and we are not. And if we don’t make
sure that happens here in church, where will it happen in all this world? But if we will
humble ourselves and reverently keep the Lord at the center, we will have energy for
fighting on. It’s what these gospel stalwarts way back in Old Testament times, who
hadn’t even seen Jesus yet, understood. To them, it seemed obvious to write “A Psalm
for giving thanks.”

In our own time, Francis Schaeffer helped us see that our inner world is not what
we should obey; our inner world is what we should diagnose. What’s really going on
inside us reveals whether we’re treating Jesus as real. Here is the diagnostic question:
Are we thankful, or are we fretful?

In Romans chapter 1 Paul traces all our various forms of evil down to this root
cause: “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him”
(Romans 1:21). We think God has to go “over and above” before he deserves our thanks.
And we rarely see God as rising to such a level of performance that we stop and say,
“Well, that was amazing! Thank you!” And the point is, there is the source of all our
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evil and misery: the lack of a thankful heart. The worst thing about us is not blatant
idolatry, not sexual insanity, not murderous rage, but this: “They did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him.” And after we’ve lost a simple heart of thanks to God, then
we also start envying one another and resenting one another and getting pushy with one
another, and then everything starts breaking down, and we do end up in blatant idolatry
and sexual insanity and murderous rage, and all the rest. But the really big bad sin is not
the one we think. It’s this: “They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.”
Francis Schaeffer wrote: “A heart giving thanks at any given moment is the real test of
the extent to which we love God at that moment.” No wonder the Bible includes “A
Psalm for giving thanks.” So, realizing the moral authority of this, we grab ourselves by
the scruff of the neck and say to our self-pity, “Hey there little mood, you will come with
me back to praising God – or at least back to a longing for it!” A church like that has
something to offer this world.

The other reason a spirit of praise matters is personal health and vitality and
buoyancy. Praising God is the kale of the soul. Or the Krispy Kreme of the soul. “Serve
the Lord with gladness” in verse 2 is saying, “Let the layers of frustration and sulking and
pouting peel off of you. Let it go, look to the Lord, and your heart will come alive
again.”

C. S. Lewis understood this. Lewis had wondered why God wants us to praise
him. The Old Testament word translated “praise” means to rave about someone. For
example, when the officials of the Egyptian Pharaoh saw Abraham’s wife Sarah, “they
praised her to Pharaoh” (Genesis 12:15). In other words, they raved about her. That’s
praise. But Lewis wanted to know, Why does God want that from us? If we’re feeling
bad about ourselves, we don’t fish for compliments from ants. Then it dawned on Lewis:

The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely

escaped me. I thought of praise in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving
of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into
praise. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers
their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside – praise of weather, wines,
dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children,
flowers, mountains, rare stamps, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not
noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious
minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least.
Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.

Psalm 100 plants the flag of God’s authority here in our city, and Psalm 100
creates an oasis of life here in our city. The outline is simple:

A1 How: make a joyful noise, serve, come (1-2)

B1 Why: he is God, he made us, we are his (3)
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A How: enter, give thanks, bless (4)
B2 Why: he is good, he is loving, he is faithful (5)
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Psalm 100 coaches us in the how and the why of praising God. Each section has three
parts built into it.

How we praise God

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

Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! Psalm 100:1-2

First, this verb translated “make a joyful noise” is used elsewhere in the Old
Testament for raising a war cry or shouting in applause – like a standing ovation and
yelling our heads off at the end of an amazing concert. This word is not dainty. It is
raucous.

Second, “serve the Lord with gladness” means “worship the Lord with
merriment.” Psalm 100 has traditionally been sung as a hymn. The Genevan Psalter of
1561 got the meaning right: “. . . him serve with mirth.” But some hymnals later changed
it to say, “. . . him serve with fear.” Serving the Lord with fear is a good thing. But it
isn’t what Psalm 100 says. And who gave us the right to change the Bible? Heaven is
filled with gladness and mirth and merriment. And when we’re praising the Lord with
merriment, it’s heaven on earth! Isn’t that what this poor world needs? Why hold back?

Third, “come into his presence with singing” is like the movie “The Black
Stallion Returns” when Alec wins the horse race, and the Bedouin women are cheering
for him with that ringing, trilling cry they’re so good at. Again, it isn’t religious. It’s the
kind of thing we all do when the good guy wins!

Why we praise God

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. Psalm 100:3

Three reasons to praise the Lord Jesus. One, he is God – which is controversial,
of course. It was then, and it is now. And we can respond to the controversy today by
asking this question when a friend pushes back against this part of the gospel: “If you say
there cannot be one absolute truth, that denial itself claims an absolute truth. But your
counter-truth is pretending to be more modest. And why should anyone privilege that
over Jesus?” Our Lord came right out and said it: “I am the truth” (John 14:6). And
Psalm 100 says he is God. If he is, it’s a good reason to praise him.

Second, he made us, and we are his. How great when a church can say, as we at
Immanuel can certainly say, “He made us. So we are his.” It’s We didn’t make this. He
did. And we love being his ongoing miracle! Self-made churches are boring. Why
should anyone care? Why should God care?
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Third, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. And we know why sheep
were brought into the temple: for sacrifice. Here’s how crazy we Christians are: We like
it when our lives count for Jesus, no matter what. We’re so done with our insular self-
protection that we feel freed when we’re living and dying for him.

How we praise God

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4

Do you see how the psalm invites us further in, more and more deeply and
intimately – from the gates, to the courts, to the Lord himself, his very name? Here’s
how a church can tank. It’s when the heart of a church starts feeling, “We want Jesus,
but we don’t want too much of him – not so much that he takes over.” Jesus knows when
he isn’t wanted any more. And America doesn’t need even one more Bible-believing,
dead church. So we stay open and eager for more of his glory in the gospel.

Why we praise God

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:5

At his cross Jesus opened his veins to prove that God is for us, that he is good and
steadfast and faithful for the long haul. Jesus died to prove to us that God will never get
tired of being good to us and loving us and standing by us. It’s not a decision God makes
on a case-by-case basis, so that you never know which way he’s going to go. Goodness,
love and faithfulness are just who God is to us sinners who come to him holding out the
empty hands of faith. We don’t know how events will unfold, but we do know who God
is.

So let’s never tell ourselves, “When my schedule is less stressful and I have more
space in my life, sure, I’ll get around to praising God.” The fact is, the people happiest
about Jesus have always been the ones facing the deepest hardship. John Bunyan, author
of The Pilgrim’s Progress, tells us in his autobiography how those people turned him
around:

The good providence of God brought me to Bedford for work. And walking
down the street one day I met three or four poor women sitting in a doorway,
talking about the things of God. I drew near to listen, being a pretty good talker
on religion myself. But they were far out of my reach. Their talk was of a new
birth, the work of God on their hearts, and their tragic condition in themselves.
They talked about how God had visited their souls with his love in the Lord Jesus
and how they had been refreshed, comforted and supported. And it seemed that
joy itself did make them speak. They seemed to me to have found a new world.
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So I often made it my business to go visit those poor people, for I couldn’t stay
away.

One year from today, there can be people in among us who aren’t here today but
who by then are saying, “I couldn’t stay away. Those people at Immanuel – it seemed
that joy itself made them speak and sing and weep and laugh and pray. I was so fed up
with life. But they weren’t. They had life from beyond this life. And I couldn’t stay
away.” That’s why Psalm 100 is in the Bible.