November 19, 2024

Psalm 100…Three Reasons to Praise Him

August 9, 2014 by

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Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His Presence with singing!
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.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!
Give thanks to Him; bless His name!
For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100

‘Make a joyful noise!’  Oh, you don’t have to tell me twice!  (And sometimes it is just that—a joyful noise.)   Don’t we just love to sing our praises to the Lord God?!?  We have so many, many reasons to praise Him, to thank Him, to bless His Holy Name.  Here in Psalm 100, verse 5 offers three extremely compelling reasons to praise Him:

He is good

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in Him.
Nahum 1:7

This we know…in fact, isn’t there a praise chorus that we love to sing: ‘God is good ALL the time! And ALL the time, God is good!’

His love endures forever

Give thanks to the God of Heaven for His steadfast love endures forever.
Psalms 136:26

Twenty-six (yes, 26!) times in Psalm 136, this praise is exclaimed! (Here’s a link to read the whole psalm.)  Throughout the entire history of mankind from Adam & Eve, all the way along through the Scriptures, we read of the myriad of ways that our Great God has manifested His steadfast love.  AND He has made promise after promise to His children (us! you and me!) that His love will endure for eternity!

He is faithful to all generations

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:9

What a promise of hope He has made—His ‘covenant of love’ to those who love Him and obey! Our God always brings to pass His promises! What a faithful God!

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Dear Lord,
We love to make a joyful noise, Lord, singing Your praises!  You are the Almighty God Who deserves all the praise there is to give!  Thank You for Your faithfulness, Your goodness, and Your love!  HalleluJAH!  Amen.

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His Faithfulness Continues….

August 8, 2014 by

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Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth!
Worship the LORD with gladness.
Come before Him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the LORD is God!
He made us, and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving;
go into His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the LORD is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and His faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 100

I’ve heard this passage my entire life…in church, in songs, through preaching, and in regular conversation.  A wonderful thing about God’s Word is that with each reading, a passage can reveal something new.  It may seem as if you’re reading the words for the very first time—when in fact it may be the hundredth time.

This passage did the same for me this time.  As I read the words, the last line stood out.  I know that God’s Word speaks to you in your seasons; and in this season of being a mother I need as much guidance from God as I can get.  For those of us who are sending our children back to school, or off to work, or out in the world—whatever stage of life our children may be walking into—there can be a good deal of worry associated with the actions of our kids.  “…And His faithfulness continues to each generation” (verse 5).

This line alone makes me want to shout thanks to the Lord!  It reminds me that He will be equally as faithful to my children as He has been to me.  Sometimes when I’m reminded of His promises such as this one, all I can say is “God is good! The Lord is good!”  Simple words that say so much. His promise to myself and to my children is reason enough to live this passage on a daily basis…but He has done so much more than that.  He has done more than I could ever imagine.  I want to live these verses not because of what He has done in my life, but for who He is to the world.  He is faithful, He is loving, and for this I thank Him.

Let’s Pray: Lord, Your words bring peace…they bring joy…they bring security. Words could never truly honor You as You deserve; but, Lord, we promise to make the best effort we possibly can.  I pray these words are written on the hearts of all the women reading this, and that we live these words in good times and in bad.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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Celebration

August 7, 2014 by

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Shout triumphantly to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that Yahweh is God. He made us, and we are His— His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.  For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations.

Psalms 100:1-5 HCSB

How wonderful and glorious is the Lord our God!  Each morning is a new day, a new opportunity to praise His name and to celebrate His Creation.  How many times have we strayed and He has welcomed us back with open, loving arms?  Just like the prodigal son, God loves us so very much! Please enjoy this song!

I Will Enter His Gates

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart
I will enter His courts with praise
I will say this is the day that the Lord had made
I will rejoice for He has made me glad
He has made me glad
He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad
He has made me glad
He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad

–  Leona Von Brethorst, 1976 Maranatha Music  –

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A Call To Praise

August 6, 2014 by

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Psalm 100 AMP
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!
Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God!
It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]!
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering
and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him,
bless and affectionately praise His name!
For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting,
His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.

Psalm 100 is a psalm of praise.  It calls us to “Make a joyful noise to the Lord.”  We are to “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving” in our hearts and enter into “His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him and praise His name.”  We can praise God anytime, anywhere, publicly or privately, silently or aloud.  Praise is to be offered with gladness, willingly and not grudgingly.  We are to offer it because we want to, and because He is God our Creator and the Lord of All.

You may be thinking “Well that’s all well and good…but you don’t know my story, my circumstances, my life right now.  There isn’t much to be thankful for!”  True, I don’t.  We all have issues.  But, if you are reading this right now, you are still breathing, right?  God holds our breath in His hands.  As Acts 17:25b (AMP) states: “…it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all.”  Praise Him for that.  Since you are reading this, you can still see, right?  Praise Him for that.  And if you are still reading this, your brain stills work, right?  Praise Him for that.

Okay, you get my point.  At this point I am preaching to myself as much as anyone.  So let’s stop focusing on what is wrong and what we DON’T have and, instead, offer up praise to God for what is right and all we DO have.

It may be a challenge for you to praise Him right now.  At times it has been for me.  Think of it as a sacrifice, an offering.  We are no longer required to offer sacrifices to God since Christ became our ultimate Sacrifice.  Hebrews 13:15 (HCSB) puts it like this: “Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name.”  Praise reminds us we owe God everything.  If we chose to willingly offer Him praise, even in the most difficult of times, think of how much it pleases God.  And, best of all, it reminds us of the life to come.  As Isaiah 35:10 (HCSB) puts it:

…and the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing,
crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee.

And, oh! what a day that will be!

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Father, thank You for everything.  All we are, all we have, all the blessings You have bestowed upon us.  Let us never take them for granted.  May we always praise Your Holy name with gladness and joy in our hearts—no matter the circumstances. Thank You for all that has been, will be, and is to come.  In the precious name of Jesus I pray, Amen – so be it!

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Thankful For the Past

August 5, 2014 by

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Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
Psalm 100:4

Recently, while sitting in my room, I began to do a reflection of my current life—the relationships I have, the job(s), the decisions that need to be made, and the character flaws that need fixing.  I found myself wishing that I could go back in time and deal with the problems of previous times; you know the problems that I now know exactly how to deal with.  In that moment I laughed at myself.  Every season we enter has its benefits and its trials and seasons are constantly changing. What’s important to remember about each season of our lives is to “Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.”

I was informed that this devotional is the one year anniversary of the Seeking Him devotional blog.  I’m actually very surprised…it doesn’t seem like a year has passed.  Looking back, I can see how I’ve grown and changed.  I can see things in me that are still the same that I would love to change but, overall, I’m moving forward.  And I think this is what God wants us to do—move forward and be thankful while doing so.  I find it difficult to move forward when I am regretting or disappointed about something in the past. When I address the situation and let God shed light on it, I find that I am more capable of thanking Him for the learning experience.  Paul said it like this in Philippians 3:13 and 14,

But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
I press toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We have so much going on around us and so much that we want to accomplish or to make different.  We have lives we want to live and dreams we want to come to pass.  If done correctly, the past is a good place for us to learn how to improve our present and our future.  For this reason I feel we should be thankful to God that we have a past to say that we made it through.  Without a past there is no present.  Nobody’s past is perfect.  There are things in my past that I don’t feel I should have ever had to deal with, but God says, “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

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Lord, thank You for where I have been, because I would not be the person I am today without my past. You are an all-knowing God and You guide my future. Thank You for being so amazing!  Amen.

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The Shepherd and His Sheep

August 4, 2014 by

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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.
Psalm 100:3

Have you ever noticed that you are put in other people’s lives for a reason?  My mother always believed that God put her with my father because she has vision problems and he can see (and now I that I am married can see her point).  My father was put with her because he has hearing loss, and she can hear.  In September they will have been married for 36 years.  Now that is a long time by today’s standards!   As for me and my husband, he lays something down, and I can usually tell him right where it is.  The same goes when I lay something down. My husband knows my moods, and I know his.  We have only been married for a few years, but we are still learning about each other.

I am the good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me,
just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:14-15

The Lord is our Shepherd.  He created us.  God knew who we were and where we were going before we were even born.  He knows us better than we do ourselves. That is why our prayers are answered the way that they are when we pray.  We may pray for something, but God may not think that an affirmative answer would be beneficial to us.  God then tells us ‘No.’ for our own good because He knows us.

When we accept Christ into our hearts, we begin to know our heavenly Father.  He knew us before we even turned from our sin and returned to Him.  When Christ went to the Cross, He already knew who He was dying for that day.  He knew us before we were even twinkles in our parents’ eyes. God knows who His sheep are even before they walk this Earth.  God had plans for all of eternity even before He created Adam and Eve.  He already knew who we would be.  It is part of our responsibility to know Him better.

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Dear Heavenly Father, You knew us before You wove us together in our mothers’ wombs.  We are Your children, and You know us like parents know their children. Thank You for giving us the gift of eternal life through the gift of Your Holy Son.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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God’s People

August 3, 2014 by

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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.
Psalm 100:3

This is spiritual knowledge that He created us.  We did not make ourselves.  We are His. And the people of His pasture.

There are times that we, as Christians, tend to forget who created us by:

  • Doing our own things in our own ways thinking we can do without Him when we cannot
  • Worshipping our jobs, our husbands, our businesses, etc. We tend to praise more the material things without attaching it to the steadfast love of our Creator, the One Who made us.

If God was able to create us, is He not the Author of what we call ‘wisdom?’  He gave us this gift of wisdom, too, for us to be able to add or sum up things for our daily living.  And yet sometimes when we prosper, we forget all of this and start praising ourselves, our husbands, our jobs, etc.  Have we ever thought what would happen if our husbands were to die, and we don’t have jobs and the businesses we work for collapses.  God will still be God…all things will pass but He will still remain.

The Word (in verse 3) is saying that we are the ‘sheep of His pasture.’  We are His very own. G od is our good Shepherd; if we are of His pasture then we can lack nothing.  He is able to take us to the green pastures (Psalm 23), He will lead us beside the still waters.  According to Philippians 4:19, He is able to provide to the sheep (you and I) by His riches in His glory.  What shall we then lack?  Nothing.  We have everything in our God.

He even supplied us salvation through our Savior Jesus. Without the Cross of Calvary we would have been dead by now, I guess.

We are God’s people (Luke 1:17 and Acts 15:14 and also Titus 2:14) who He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do for them what is good.

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Knowing that we are God’s people, shall we pray:
Dear heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name, in all the earth You are known to be a Great God, the great I AM, Mighty Warrior, great in battle.  We worship You for who You are, dear God.  You are a loving Father and to You be the honor and glory!  We feel loved more today for we have been reminded that we are Your very own and that You care for Your very own.  However, Lord, we pray for forgiveness for sometimes we have made You too small in our lives.  May You wash us with hyssop; let us be clean from all iniquities.  Bless us and bless us indeed!  Enlarge our territories, Lord.  Knowing You are there to provide makes us boast in You!  Be glorified!  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!

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Be Exalted, O God

August 2, 2014 by

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I will praise and give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your mercy and loving-kindness are great, reaching to the heavens,
and Your truth and faithfulness to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let Your glory be over all the earth.
Psalms 57:9-11

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As our Ann so succinctly laid out in the devotional she wrote earlier this week …

Why do we exalt Him?

  • He is a great God who created the heavens and the earth. His supremacy is beyond our imagination. He must be glorified.

Be exalted O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth
Psalm 108:5

  • He is Holy.

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool, He is holy.
Psalm 99:5

  • He is my God in whom I trust. For He is faithful and loves us unconditionally.

You are my God and I will give thanks; You are my God and I will exalt You.
Psalm118:28

  • He has done great things. You know God has done so many great things in our lives. We are alive today because of His grace and mercy and favour, protection. He must be exalted for all this.

Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt You and praise Your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
You have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
Isaiah 25:1

  • He is a God of justice and covered with righteousness. And this righteousness it was imputed in us when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The Lord is exalted for He dwells on high, He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
Isaiah 33:5

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I pray that as you listen to the following song that your hearts will be drawn to rise up and praise and EXALT our Great God.

May He be exalted above all else in our lives!

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The Condition of the Heart

August 1, 2014 by

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My heart, O God, is steadfast,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise You, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of You among the peoples.
For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let Your glory be over all the earth.
Psalms 57:7-11 NIV

The first two lines of this week’s passage struck me the hardest. It wasn’t about what God was doing for me or about my enemies or the adversities I was facing. It was about me. It was about my heart.

I looked at some other versions of this week’s selection and saw other descriptions of the condition of our heart—the word, steadfast.  Some of these other descriptions were“fixed, ready, confident.” Although they have different definitions they sum up well what we need to possess in order to be able to live out the rest of the passage.

Steadfast
• firmly fixed in place
• not subject to change
• firm in belief, determination, or adherence

Now here in other versions, ‘steadfast’ is translated a little differently:
Fixed (KJV)
• placed or attached in a way that does not move easily
Ready (MSG)
• prepared mentally or physically for some experience or action
• prepared for immediate use
• willingly disposed
• likely to do something indicated
• displayed readily and spontaneously
Confident (NLT)
• having a feeling, belief that you can do something well, succeed at something
∙ having confidence
• showing that you have confidence
• certain that something will happen or that something is true

As with most instructions God gives us, along with the directives He places on our lives, there is one thing we need to make sure of— that our hearts are where they need to be. And that the condition of our hearts allows for the task to be completed. That is an example to others of the love of God and of His influence in our lives.

This week I want to focus on my heart.

I want to focus on what it looks like…to God and to others.

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Dear Heavenly Father,
The condition of our hearts may not be something we look at on a daily basis, it may be something that we take for granted. But Lord, this week I pray that we take a closer look. I pray that we take the steps needed to have our hearts be a reflection of You. I pray that we work towards becoming steadfast, fixed, ready, and confident. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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Wake

July 31, 2014 by

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I’m ready, God, so ready,
    ready from head to toe,
Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune:
    “Wake up, soul!
Wake up, harp! wake up, lute!
    Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!”

I’m thanking you, God, out loud in the streets,
    singing your praises in town and country.
The deeper your love, the higher it goes;
    every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.

Soar high in the skies, O God!
    Cover the whole earth with your glory!

Psalms 57:7-11 (The Message)

David was so thankful!  David grew up relying on God’s great strength and guidance.  Whatever was placed in David’s way, God was there.  All David had to do was to call upon the name of the Lord.

Who is on your speed dial when trouble arises? Most likely it is a trusted friend or a parent. Sometimes it can be a counselor or our pastor. It should be our Lord.  We are human. We have a need to discuss our shortcomings and our fears with each other. A girlfriend and I were discussing our children and our fears for them. She was saying how she was afraid her son was going to make wrong decisions again and was holding on to him so tightly that he was suffocating. I explained to her how she needed to release those fears and give them to God. If we don’t do that, especially if they are older, they will run at the first opportunity they get. She mentioned how, now that her daughter in on her own, she does not worry so much about her. But because her son is still home, she does.

Maturity occurs at different stages for each of us. I did not move out until I was 23. Her daughter moved out at 21 and my son moved out at 22. My step-daughter moved in with us at 25 and has since moved into an apartment with a friend at 27. Life is an adventure that we should embrace and praise Him for. We need to find positives about each stage we and others are at in our lives.

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Father, thank You for Your unconditional love!  I give You praise for what has and what will happen.  Good or bad…You are always there, standing, watching, sending your Holy Spirit to prompt us when we need it.  Give us David’s heart and love he had for You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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