A Heavenly Call to Worship

Herman Bavink once famously said, God and God alone is man's highest good.

Similarly, our Westminster Shorter Catechism in its first question asks what man's purpose

is on this earth, and the answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

However, as we come to Psalm 100, it could certainly be said that these ideas of glorifying

God are put to the center.

I am sure many of you, if not most of you, are familiar with these words.

This is the old 100, and I remember on various occasions I have been in crowds, vast crowds

sometimes of thousands, thousands of voices lifted up singing these words.

It is a psalm rich with the splendor of God.

It is a psalm ringing with joy and gladness.

And it is a psalm which brings home the reality that the worship of God for the believer is

sweetness and joy.

This psalm is made up of four stanzas, which if you are using an ESV is clearer, and each

of these stanzas are very rich in their contents.

Verses 1 and 2 make up the first, then verse 3 the second, verse 4 the third, and verse

5 the fourth.

And in this psalm, in this famous psalm, a scene is depicted where the faithful are worshiping

God, the king of the temple, with joy and gladness where they worship him under his rule

and protection.

And through reflecting on this, my prayer is that we will find more and more joy in the

worship of our God and an assurance that we will enjoy him for all eternity.

So we will consider this psalm stanza by stanza.

Firstly, in verses 1 to 2, we are to worship the Lord with joy.

In verse 3, we worship the Lord as king.

In verse 4, we worship the Lord in his temple.

And finally, in verse 5, we worship the Lord for eternity.

So firstly, in verses 1 to 2, we worship the Lord with joy.

We worship the Lord with joy.

Read verse 1.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him with joyful songs.

In these verses, we are commanded to do three things.

Firstly, we are commanded to shout for joy to the Lord.

And the shout in view here is a loud, jubilant shout.

It is often used in the context of battle.

And it is not just limited to the human voice.

Sometimes it is used to refer to that of a trumpet.

I don't know if many of you have been in a relatively small space and you hear a trumpet blast.

Or maybe in Scotland, a bagpipe go off.

It can be absolutely definite, can't it?

And this is the kind of volume and tone in view here when we are called to shout for joy to the Lord.

It is a loud and triumphant shout.

And when we consider all that our Lord has done for us, how much reason we have to shout for joy to the Lord.

He is the one who, according to his foreknowledge, has saved us and purchased us with the blood of Christ.

He defeated the powers of this present evil age by the cross.

And he has freed us from our bondage to sin.

I recall a few weeks ago walking to church here.

And just across the road before we arrived, we could hear cheering and celebrations.

Now, if you can hear that at this time in the year, you know there is a fairly good chance that the English national football team are playing.

And that they have probably just lost a goal.

And that's exactly what happened.

I looked up my phone and right enough, that's exactly what happened.

Sorry if there are any English people here.

This is probably too soon.

But we know what this type of triumphant celebration is like.

And that's football.

This is our eternal salvation and a glory that we will share in for all eternity.

How much reason we have to shout for joy to the Lord.

In verse 2, we are commanded to worship Him with gladness.

Worship the Lord with gladness, it says.

If you are using an ESV, it may say serve the Lord with gladness.

But the idea here is really the same.

Throughout the Old Testament, Israel were to serve and worship the true God, Yahweh.

We are to worship Him alone.

We are to worship Him as He has demanded.

We are to give Him the praise due to His name.

Throughout the Old Testament, we read the Israelites were so often guilty of doing this in all the wrong places.

They so often serve the false gods and other idols.

But the call here is to serve and worship Yahweh, the Lord, not all these other false gods.

And we are to do so with gladness.

We are to do so with gladness because worshiping the God, worshiping the Lord is a good thing.

It is the reason why we were made.

And it is the only thing in which our hearts can know rest and satisfaction.

And when our hearts are rightly tuned to this truth, oh, how blessed we are.

In Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins.

He redeems our life from the pit and crowns us with love and compassion.

Oh, how much does that enrich our hearts in worship.

Charles Spurgeon writes,

The invitation to worship here is given is not a melancholy one,

as though adoration were a funeral solemnity,

but a cheery, gladsome exhortation,

as though we were bidden to a marriage feast.

Now, I know for many of us who are Presbyterian and proud,

this may be a hard one to hear.

But how true it is.

How true it is.

We have been made co-heirs of the kingdom of God.

And very often we come to church as though someone had just died.

I certainly fall into this trap so often.

It could be said that though we are spiritually millionaires,

we very often come to church and sing as though we were paupers.

Now, let me be clear.

I am not commending a certain style of worship over another.

I am not saying we must come to church and lift the hands right in the air in every song.

You know, for some of us, including myself, that's just not in our DNA.

But the question I want to ask you this evening is,

as you worship and sing to the Lord,

is your heart filled with gladness?

Is your heart filled with thankfulness for the joys

and the wonders that your Lord has shown to you?

In verse 3, we are also called to enter His presence with joyful songs.

We are to come before Him.

And the idea here, as the ESV captures well,

is to come into His presence with joyful songs.

Psalm 84, which we sung, verse 2, captures a similar idea.

If you'd flick over a few pages,

Psalm 84, verse 2 says,

Psalms 84:2

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

As we think about coming into God's presence with joyful songs and gladness,

can I ask, do you come into His presence longingly?

Do you yearn to enter into His presence?

I remember when in the UK we have had hot weather.

Yes, I know the one week of the year that happens.

I have sometimes decided to go out for walks,

and I think, huh, it's the UK.

It's fine.

I don't need to bring a water bottle with me.

I go out on the walk, and my mouth goes dry very, very quickly,

and I'm absolutely dying to get back home for a drink.

Maybe you've had similar experiences too.

But in a similar way, does your soul long to be in the presence of the Lord?

Or do you long to be elsewhere?

Maybe there are other things that would take away your attention from the worship of our Lord on His day.

Maybe it's something that would take you away from church, but maybe it's not.

And even in church, it's a distraction on your hearts and minds.

Do you long to gather together as a body of believers as you receive Christ in His Word and sacrament?

Because that is what is happening this evening.

As we gather together, God is present among us by His Word.

And if we know this, how we should not neglect to gather together.

How wonderful is this opportunity week by week to enjoy His presence in worship.

So we worship the Lord with joy.

Moving on to verse 3, we worship the Lord as King.

We worship the Lord as King.

Verse 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.

For those of you who know your Bibles well, you will know that when you see Lord in all capitals,

that is standing in place for the covenantal name of God, Yahweh.

This is the name which He revealed Himself by at the burning bush to Moses in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And the call here is to know that He is God.

It is not all the other false gods.

It is He, Him, and it is Him alone.

And this theme is a theme which has occurred many times before in the Scriptures.

In Genesis chapter 1, one of the chief purposes of Genesis chapter 1, the account of creation,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Genesis 1 · chapter mention

is to establish the covenantal Lord Yahweh as King of creation.

This was supposed to be in sharp contrast to all the pagan gods.

The pagans, of course, had a God for just about everything.

They had a God for the seas.

They had a God for the sun.

They had a God for the stars.

And just about anything you could imagine.

And I suppose that in this way we may say that Genesis chapter 1 has a polemical function.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

That is, it is attacking all of these other false gods, and it is asserting Yahweh as King of creation.

And this, we know, is the foundation for the covenant relationship that Yahweh has with His people.

In Exodus chapter 19 and 20, it is because God rescued the Israelites and showed Himself to be the one true God above all other false gods that they are to be set apart to Him.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

We see, and we see something similar in Psalm 100.

In verse 3, we read it as He who made us, and we are His.

It is because He is the maker of heaven and earth that He alone deserves our worship.

This is the foundation of our relationship with our maker.

It is because He is our creator that we can trust He will be a faithful Lord to us.

Verse 3 continues, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

And when we read texts such as this, we like to think of images of cuddly sheep following after a relatively good-looking guy.

But we need to understand what this biblical metaphor is beyond face value.

Throughout the scriptures, the shepherd metaphor is used to communicate kingship.

In Jeremiah chapter 13, verse 20, it says,

Jeremiah 13:20

Look up and see those who are coming from the north.

Where is your flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?

Ezekiel chapter 34 gives us a similar idea where it describes to us the bad shepherds.

Ezekiel 34 · chapter mention

In other words, the bad leaders of Israel who abused their people.

And in the Bible, this metaphor is used and it is applied to the Lord, to Yahweh.

And it is used in contrast to all of these bad shepherds.

Notably, if you flick the page over to Psalm 95,

in verse 3, God is described as the great king above all other gods.

And then in verse 7, it describes his subjects as the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

And of course, this language was used famously in Psalm 23 to describe the unique relationship between God and his people Israel.

But notice that in verse 3 in Psalm 100, this covenantal language is used in reference to all the earth.

We lose the gravity of this.

For the Israelite, the idea that the pagan nations would worship God would be absolutely mind-blowing.

It would be like if you turned up to your workplace this coming week

and you found all your colleagues or classmates worshiping the Lord,

you would probably be a little bit confused.

But the wonder of Christianity and the mystery of the Scriptures

is that God has broken down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.

He has destroyed human divisions and has united for himself a people in Christ,

which is the New Testament church.

So with God as our covenantal king,

we know that as we gather to worship him,

we are in safe hands.

We face many persecutions and pressures as brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you keep up with Open Doors or other missionary organizations,

you will know about some of the horrendous persecutions,

some bear for bearing the name of Christ.

Even in our own lands,

you may face tremendous persecution or pressure

to conform to this world's way of thinking and living.

A few weeks ago, I was preaching on Psalm 29,

where God rules over creation by his powerful and majestic voice.

And Christian, this is your God.

This is your God.

He's enthroned over the world,

in this world that so often seems chaotic and evil,

that seemingly prevails.

You are his.

Read that again.

Verse 3,

And we are his.

And because of this,

be assured that you are held by him.

And as you participate in his worship,

you anticipate the day in glory

when no evil power will ever touch you again.

And until then,

you are surely held by his loving arms.

The psalm envisages a scenario

where God's people worship him

as king under his rule and protection.

And this is what we will do for all eternity.

We worship the Lord with joy.

We worship the Lord as king.

And thirdly, in verse 4,

we worship the Lord in his temple.

We worship the Lord in his temple.

Verse 4,

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

As we found in verses 1 to 2,

we come with joyful songs

to the presence of the Lord.

And here in verse 4,

we find that we are coming to his temple.

The language in verses 1 and 2

does hint towards this.

Many of the praise,

much of the praise described in verses 1 and 2

is often used of the priests

in Old Testament worship.

And here we find this idea

that we worship God

in his temple much, much clearer.

The temple in the Old Testament

was where God dwelt.

It was his house among his people.

If you want fun bedtime reading,

you could go and read Exodus chapters 25 to 30

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

or perhaps 1 Kings chapters 5 to 8

1 Kings 5 · chapter mention

where the very detailed instructions

for the tabernacle and the temple are given.

And we see in these passages

that these were magnificent structures

overlaid with gold.

It was made as a place for God to dwell.

Of course, not even the highest heavens

could contain God,

but in his grace,

he has chosen and has been pleased

to condescend to dwell with his people,

to dwell with sinners in these holy places

which signified the temple in heaven

where he dwells in light inaccessible.

And this is the scene

which we have before us.

We read of his gates.

We read of his courts.

These were features of the temple.

And we enter his gates

with thanksgiving.

Again, another image of temple worship.

The idea here may be similar

to that of the thank offerings

made in the Old Testament,

such as in Leviticus chapter 7, verse 12,

Leviticus 7:12

where this kind of thankfulness

is used in the context

of sacrifices at the temple.

And the picture here

is that of God's dwelling in heaven,

which is where we believers

are headed towards.

The new creation is depicted as a temple.

It is a place where we will worship God

in his presence for all eternity.

Friends, this is where we come to in worship.

We come to the heavenly temple of our God,

and we come to worship

in none other than the dwelling place of God.

As we gather this evening,

we join in this worship.

We join in the eternal song.

We also have to understand

that this stanza follows from the last.

That is, the stanza which proclaims to us

the royalty and kingship of God

is followed by the one

which describes to us a temple scene.

It is a common theme,

especially in this altar,

that God is king in his temple.

It is his temple where he sits

enthroned as king

over his people,

giving them his peace

and protection.

History and circumstances,

they change,

but God's rule over his dwelling place

will never cease.

Friends,

if you worship the one true God,

he cannot disappoint you.

He cannot disappoint.

If you worship other things,

they will fail you.

You know,

in the world,

we have many general elections going on,

and in these elections,

these can sometimes

completely take over us.

People on both sides,

or not on all sides,

are prone to view their candidate

as some sort of Messiah figure.

Governments will pass.

political candidates will pass.

But God's rule

in his heavenly dwellings

will never fail or pass.

It will never cease.

And therefore,

we can approach his dwellings

with thanksgiving,

and we can enter his courts

with praise and bless

his holy name.

Finally,

in verse 5,

we worship the Lord

for eternity.

We worship the Lord

for eternity.

Verse 5,

for the Lord is good,

and his love

endures forever.

His faithfulness

continues

through all

generations.

And how the Bible

is a witness

to these things,

where time and time again

God saves

his people

from their distress.

How he was faithful

to his promise

to Abraham

in sending

Christ the Son,

the only mediator

between God and man,

to die

as a ransom

for many.

How we experience

and know

his mercies

anew

every day.

Charles Spurgeon

again says,

on this verse,

this sums up

his character

and contains

a mass of reasons

for praise.

He is good,

gracious,

kind,

bountiful,

loving,

yea,

God is love.

John Calvin,

likewise,

verse 5 points out,

there will always

be cause for praise.

What base

ingratitude,

therefore,

for us to weary

in giving thanks.

Yet so foolish

are we

that God

must open

his holy lips

to declare

his care for us,

though he silently

maintains it

every day.

how prone

we can be

to forget

the grace

of God.

How easy

it is

to fail

to render

the praise

that is due

to his name.

Christian,

God

is good.

Let us not

forget this truth.

God is good.

Let us not forget

the love

that he has shown

us in Christ Jesus

in saving us

from our bondage

to sin,

and let us not

forget his work

in sustaining us

every day

as our great

high priest.

His love

endures

forever,

and this is what

we find

throughout the rest

of the scriptures.

This psalm

leaves us

with an element

of anticipation.

We have to realize

that as we read

these verses

that the believers

reading this psalm

before the advent

of Christ,

or we're singing

it rather,

we're not singing

with our New Testament

perspectives.

This psalm

envisages

all the earth

praising God,

but as we will know,

this had not

happened yet.

Of course,

throughout Old Testament

history,

it was anticipated

that by the

Abrahamic promise

that all the nations

would be blessed

in that promise,

the time

was not yet.

And as we have

seen,

this psalm

also has

the language

of victory.

In verse 1,

we saw that

the shout

was often used

as a battle cry.

It is military

language.

But when we read

the psalms

in the Old Testament

history books,

we read that

the Israelites

did not always

enjoy this victory.

even just

the psalms.

Psalm 100

is in book 4.

And before

book 4

is book 3,

where Israel

suffered much

devastation.

Psalm 88

gives us

but a glimpse

into their suffering,

where it ends

in verse 18,

you have taken

from me

friend and neighbor.

Darkness

is my closest

friend.

Friend.

The people

of Israel

were longing

for the

restoration

of their kingdom.

They were

yearning for

the day

when God's

promises

would fully

and finally

be fulfilled.

Psalm 20

Psalms 20:5

verse 5

would express

this desire,

may we

shout

for joy

over your

victory.

And of course,

a few psalms

later we read

of the,

we read

Psalm 24,

where the

Messiah is

exalted

as king

in his

victory.

And as we

read our

New Testaments,

we begin to see

this picture

as fulfilled.

After Jesus

died

and rose

from,

died on the

cross

and rose

from the

dead,

he achieved

victory

for his

people.

Colossians

Colossians 2:15

chapter 2

verse 15,

Christ triumphed

over the

powers of

this age

by triumphing

over them

by the

cross.

After this,

Christ was

exalted

as king

in his

ascension.

And after

he sent

the promised

Holy Spirit,

we read

something very

striking in

Acts chapter 2

Acts 2:46

verse 46.

Turn with me

in your Bibles

to Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

Acts 2.

Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

after Peter

has given

his sermon

to the crowds,

where in

verse 41,

those who

accepted his

message were

baptized and

about 3,000

were added to

their number

that day.

We read this

from verse 42.

They devoted

themselves to

the apostles'

teaching and

to fellowship,

to the breaking

of bread and

to prayer.

Everyone was

filled with

awe at the

many wonders

and signs

performed by

the apostles.

All the

believers were

together and

had everything

in common.

They sold

property and

possessions to

give to anyone

who had need.

Every day,

they continued

to meet together

in the temple

courts.

They broke

bread in their

homes and

ate together

with glad

and sincere

hearts,

praising God

and enjoying

the favor

of all the

people.

And the

Lord added

to their

number daily

those who

were being

saved.

After the

exaltation of

Christ, we

read that the

New Testament

church were

depicted as

the worshiping

temple community

of Yahweh.

We find in

verse 46 of

Acts 2 that

they were

serving one

another with

gladness.

In the

picture, we

have an

Acts, and

in the

wider New

Testament, is

the fulfillment

of Psalm

100.

As we

gather together

this evening,

we are joining

in the worship

presented by

this psalm in

light of the

victory that

Christ, by

His blood,

has bought

for us.

How marvelous,

marvelous, how

wonderful, and

my song shall

ever be.

How marvelous,

how wonderful

is my Savior's

love for me.

Friends, as we

read our New

Testaments, we

read that Christ

is the one who

is King in the

heavenly temple.

He is the

object of our

worship and the

one in whom we

are secure.

Our lives are

hidden with

Christ, our

good shepherd

in God.

However, the

picture in

Psalm 100 is

only partially

fulfilled.

The final

fulfillment of

Psalm 100,

where all the

earth worships

the Lord in

His presence,

is depicted

by Revelation

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5,

where in

verse 9, it

says, you

are worthy

to take the

scroll and

to open

its seals,

because you

are slain.

And with

your blood,

you purchase

for God

persons from

every tribe

and language

and people

and nation.

You have

made them

to be a

kingdom of

priests, to

serve our

God, and

they will reign

on earth.

Christ, Christian,

this is what

Christ is

guiding you

towards.

You are

His, and

He will keep

you secure

until that

day when

He comes

again in

glory, where

you will

worship Him

with all the

joy and

with all the

gladness that

you could

imagine.

as I

close, let

me close

with the

words of

the famous

hymn.

When He

comes, our

glorious King,

all His

ransomed home

to bring,

then anew

the song

will sing,

hallelujah,

what a

Savior.

Let us

pray.

Amen.