Praising God

       Psalm 100

¹Make a joyful noise to the Lord,

     all the earth.

²Worship the Lord with gladness;

come into his presence

with singing.

³Know that the Lord is God.

It is he that made us,

and we are his;

we are his people,

and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name.

⁵For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

Today, we have Psalm of Thanksgiving or Hymn of Praise.  As you might imagine, many of our psalms fit this category, and Psalm 100 is a short, elegant poem steeped in theological implications as it informs us the essentials of praise.

First, please note that the psalmist uses seven verbs to begin the phrases that invite us to praise the Lord.  Seven is one of those magic numbers in the Bible.  We talk about the seven days of creation.  Seven denotes completeness.  If this is a psalm that tells us how to praise God, by using exactly seven verbs, the psalmist is trying to tell us this is what you have to do, this explains it all, this is what it means to praise God—do these seven things, leave nothing out, then you will get it right.

A Make

B Worship

C Come

D Know

c Enter

b Give thanks

a Bless

Make a joyful noise: jubilant cry of celebration, acknowledging God as sovereign, as Lord; note that God claims all the earth, not just Israel.

Worship the Lord with gladness: in Hebrew, the word worship, literally means to serve, or be a slave to; to worship God means to serve God; again to acknowledge Lord as master, sovereign

Come into his presence with singing: come into his sanctuary

Know God.  By placing “know God” in the center of the Psalm, the writer adds emphasis.  This is focus of the psalm and what it means to praise.  To know someone, in the Biblical sense, is to know them intimately, and the word often is connected with sexual intercourse.  So knowing God is about intimacy, about a personal relationship, about love.  To know God is to know that God made us; we are the Lord’s—we are God’s children; we belong to the Lord, like sheep belong to a shepherd.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise: enter sanctuary again—this is where God’s business is conducted, God’s justice, where the Lord is worshiped and served

Give thanks to him: not only an act of gratitude but a public acknowledgement of loyalty—you are showing who your heart belongs to

Bless his name: an act of assigning God the capacity for well-being.  We do something similar every time we say Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.”

Note the processional quality of the hymn

Note the connections between A and a, B and b, C and c (similar verbs)

The last verse of the psalm sums up the reasons for praise:

God is good

God offers steadfast love (hesed, sometimes translated mercy)

God is faithful

This is who God is.

So what does this say to us?

First off, you have to worship God.  God wants us to worship him.  Do you think the psalmist thinks you can be Christian by simply praying or getting away to nature?  “I don’t need the church; I can be Christian without going to church.”  Absolutely not.  As followers of God, we must gather to praise him—worship is very important.

To praise God is to worship him, to serve him, to know him.  All that we do, all that we are, must testify to the glory of God.

At the heart of this psalm is that to praise God means to have that intimate, personal relationship with your savior.  The psalm talks of having a complete dependence on God, but also a complete trust.

Ron Trimmer is pastor of Hope United, a new church in Georgetown, Texas.  Click here to visit Hope United’s website.

God's Anointed

Today we will look at Psalm 72, a Royal Psalm, and consider what it means to rule as God’s Anointed. Here the psalmist asks God to bless the king of Israel, to offer the king guidance and support. The psalm also reminds the king of his/her responsibilities with the promise of a continued presence. But even though these royal psalms sometimes take on a kind of “political propaganda” slant, they still remind us what God expects from God’s anointed.  Indeed, sometimes these psalms even remind us of what will happen if Israel (or any nation for that matter) does not follow the way of the Lord.  God will anoint a king to rule over Israel, but that king is answerable to God.  The king of Israel must fulfill God’s will for Israel.  The king of Israel must care about those issues that God cares about.  And if the king doesn’t—well, then the kingdom will fail.  Wise words, although presidents and kings may not like to hear them, for the Lord will have God’s justice.

Click here to read the entire Psalm 72.

¹Give the king your justice, O God,
   and your righteousness

   to a king’s son.
²May he judge your people

   with righteousness,
   and your poor with justice.
³May the mountains yield

   prosperity for the people,
   and the hills,

   in righteousness.
⁴May he defend the cause of

   the poor of the people,
   give deliverance to the

   needy, and crush

   the oppressor

What are the things God wants to see from God’s anointed king?  From the nation of Israel?  What did you hear?

• Justice
• Righteousness
• Concern for poor—justice again.
• Mountains yield prosperity (or peace); hills righteousness
• Defend cause of the poor
• Deliver the needy
• Crush the oppressor

Is it starting to sink in what this king, God’s anointed must be about?  Justice and caring for the little guy?  God has always held a special place in God’s heart for the poor, for the widow and the orphan; the Lord told the people not to oppress the alien, for they were once aliens.

And here’s the thing: the king must be concerned about such matters—about the poor, about justice, about making sure there is fairness and that no one is left without.  God’s anointed must ensure that no one is in need, that the blessings of God are shared with equity, with justice.  And if the nations of the world do not care for the most vulnerable, if they turn a blind eye to the needs of the poor and downcast, if they neglect the widow and the orphan, then they are answerable to God and God will step in to establish justice, even if God has to move against God’s own people.  Even Israel is not above the law of the Lord.  Even those nations who claim to be “God fearing,” if their practices are not in line with what God wants, they will fall.

In the book Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, author Paul Kennedy comments on the rise and fall of superpowers (Portugal, Netherlands, Great Britain) from 16th century to present day.  And his thesis is basically this: Every nation has just so much population, territory, and chemical resources to work with and to keep in balance, and if the nation militarily over-extends themselves, then the great power disappears.  It has happened to every superpower.  Whenever you get too swept up with military conquests and protecting your national interests, whenever you are motivated by greed and profit, then you are doomed to fail.

Although it is interesting to look at history, for although we often fail to learn from history and thus repeat it, there is an even more important source of guidance.  It’s the Word of God, and over and over again, God reminds us that if a nation is not concerned about justice and about caring for the least fortunate, if a nation gets wrapped up in itself, neglecting the widow and the poor and the orphan, it will fail.

Dr. Walter Brueggemann, from a lecture on the three prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, reminds us that superpowers like to think of themselves as the ultimate power in the universe.  It’s very easy to do.  Indeed, often nations even with the most noble and God-fearing intentions, with the rise of success and wealth and power, begin to think of themselves as outside the normal rules of justice and fairness.  This has happened many times throughout the history of Israel, and every time, God called them to accountability.

Although powers think of themselves as the ultimate power, they must remember—they must remember that God is the ultimate power.

Even the United States is not above the Lord’s justice, and we must never forget that, although, sadly, I must confess, I believe we already have.   

But let us put our trust in the Lord, for God is the one who is the ultimate power in the world and in our lives, who will see justice established and the poor taken care of.

The Lord is pouring God’s Spirit upon us, anointing us for God’s work: to establish justice and help the downtrodden, to work for a society that takes care of the least fortunate.

As the Psalmist tells us in verse 12 of God’s anointed:

¹²For he delivers the needy

     when they call,
     the poor and those

     who have no helper.
¹³He has pity on the weak

     and the needy,
     and saves the lives

     of the needy.
¹⁴From oppression and violence

     he redeems their life;
     and precious is their

     blood in his sight.

God cares about justice, about equity, about helping folks who cry out for deliverance.  It is in God’s nature to bring salvation.  Let us trust in the Lord, our true sovereign.

Ron Trimmer is pastor of Hope United, a new church in Georgetown, Texas. Click here to visit Hope United's website.