He Has Made Us Glad!
As I returned to the church building this past week to worship and praise and hear the Word of the Lord opened and exposed to me in person, I was exceedingly happy in my heart. I almost felt like dancing or skipping as I walked up to the front of the building to enter. It had been so long since I had been able to do these things that I couldn’t help thinking of the account of King David shamelessly dancing in the streets as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the city of Jerusalem recorded for us in 2 Samuel chapter six. I felt as though for the first time I could understand a little better what was in David’s heart that day.
My mind was also filled with the words of the 100th Psalm, known as a Psalm of Thanksgiving, and one of the first scriptures I recall memorizing as a young child.
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
I love this Psalm for many reasons but being an analytical thinker I appreciate the What and Why format that it is written in. The first of what we are instructed to do here is make joyful noises to the Lord, in other words be vocally happy about who he is and the fact that we have relationship with Him. We are also instructed to serve Him with gladness in our hearts, and we are to have a song in our spirit and upon our lips when we come before him, in church, in our prayer closets, or anytime we approach His throne. Then comes the first why. Because He is God, He is our Lord, He is our creator…and He cares for us and watches over us as intently as a shepherd watches over his sheep. So why should we act as if He is Awesome…because He is…and He thinks we are too! The final instructions written here of what to do are; be thankful to Him (in all things James 1:2), be full of praise for Him, and bless His name! And finally why should we do this? God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good! God is always being so, so good to us! Beyond that, His mercy toward us and for us never runs out! It is new every morning! (Lamentations 3:23) Moreover, His truth stands up to any argument or worldly wisdom and always, always wins, and His truth is all about love!
As I pondered all of this…my joy at being able to worship with others once again, King David’s joy at seeing the Ark enter the city, the wonderful instruction and truth contained in this Psalm as to the relationship between us and our God, another thought of gratefulness entered my mind. The church has not been closed…only the place it gathers. The relationship with God has not been interrupted, He and I have walked together closely throughout the past three months, as I am sure He has with you as well. This latest plan of Satan to stop the church has only made her stronger, more resilient, more determined to Love and serve her Lord and Master!
♬ We will enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts, we will enter His courts with praise…We will say this is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice for He has made us glad. He has made us glad oh He has made us glad, we will rejoice for he has made us glad…He has made us glad oh He has made us glad, we will rejoice for He has made us glad! ♬