Psalm 100:1-5 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands.… This psalm, which comes at the close of the magnificent series of royal psalms, which tell of the reign of Christ Jehovah, has been called their doxology. It seems to have been sung during the thank offering in the temple service (Leviticus 7:12). "Luther would have immortalized his name had he done no more than written the majestic air and harmony to which we are accustomed to sing this psalm, and which, when the mind is in a truly worshipping frame, seems to bring heaven down to earth, and to raise earth to heaven, giving us anticipations of the pure and sublime delights of that noble and general assembly in which saints and angels shall forever celebrate the praises of God." The psalm "is all ablaze with grateful adoration, and has, for this reason, been a great favourite with the people of God ever since it was written." It bids us "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." It means "a glad shout, such as loyal subjects give when their king appears among them." Now, let us consider this subject of thankful praise which it brings so prominently before us. Let us glance at - I. THE HOLY DUTY TO WHICH WE ARE SUMMONED. 1. Our hearts are to be full of thanksgiving. It is no mere outside worship which is told of here, but such as wells up from the deepest fountains of a grateful and glad heart. 2. We are to openly avow that thankfulness. It is not, though beginning in the heart, to stay there. Openly, loudly, joyfully, we are to let all men know our delight in God. 3. We are to join with others in this service of praise. There is to be no standing aloof or pleading that we can worship God as well at home. We are to go with the multitude to keep holy day. 4. And it is to be all unto the Lord. Choirs and congregations alike are to remember this. II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS SUMMONS IS BASED. 1. "The Lord, he is God. Our Jehovah, so good and gracious, is God Almighty also. Not only a Saviour who would fain bless and save us; but who has all power - is mighty to save. 2. He is our Creator, and so responsible for our being. It is he that hath made us," etc. (ver. 3). This is a most blessed fact. When we see what men and women are, so corrupt and evil, we often wonder wherefore God perpetuates the race. But he does so; he takes all the responsibility of it. What treasure store of hope for humanity lies in this act! 3. He is our King and Shepherd. "We are his people, and," etc. (ver. 3.) We are under his wise, holy, strong government; we are provided for by his loving care, led along as his sheep in his pasture. 4. He is good, eternally merciful, and true. (Ver. 5.) III. THE CULTIVATION OF THIS THANKFUL SPIRIT. Many sadly fail here. They have no song, only a perpetual dirge, and against many the condemnation is written, "Neither were they thankful." Now, how may we cultivate this thankful spirit? 1. We must remove the hindrances. They are such as these: The miserable habit of looking enviously at what other people have, but which we have not, forgetting all the while what of good we nevertheless have. What folly this! and yet how common! and what a fruitful source of unhappiness, and of unthankfulness it is! And many are wont to look habitually on the dark side of their experience, and scarcely at all on the other and bright side. This is why St. Paul bids us, amid our prayers and supplications, to mingle thanksgivings, since this compels us to look at the bright side, in order to find out what we have to be thankful for. And then, too, our sad habit of regarding our ordinary mercies as mere matters of course is another sad hindrance of the thankful spirit. When health is restored after sore illness, how thankful we are! but the months and years of health which may follow give ample time to forget our thankfulness, and to let our gratitude die because we do not see anything extraordinary about our experience of God's goodness. Now, we must set ourselves to get rid of these evil ways if we would be habitually thankful. 2. Then there are positive aids to this blessed spirit. Such as taking right views of life, remembering its brevity and its educational purpose. We are not at home here, and we cannot expect on a journey the comforts of home. And a school - and such is this life - is certainly not as a home, as his father's house, to a child. Then think much of our mercies. Accustom yourself to go over them in your thoughts, and to render thanksgiving for them. And when misfortunes come, make the best, not the worst, of them. Remember bow much worse it might have been. It is told that "when the New England colonies were first planted, the settlers endured many privations and difficulties. Being piously disposed, they laid their distresses before God in frequent days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation on such topics kept their minds gloomy and discontented, and made them disposed even to return to their Fatherland with all its persecutions. At length, when it was proposed to appoint a day of fasting and prayer, a plain, common sense old colonist was in the meeting, and remarked that he thought they had brooded long enough over their misfortunes, and that it seemed high time they should consider some of their mercies - that the colony was growing strong, the fields increasing in harvests, the rivers full of fish, and the woods of game, the air sweet, the climate salubrious, and their homes happy; above all that, they possessed what they came for, full civil and religious liberty. And therefore, on the whole, he would amend their resolution for a fast, and propose in its stead a day of thanksgiving, His advice was taken, and from that day to this the festival has been an annual one." Ah! would that we had men of this spirit, and would make the best, not the worst, of our misfortunes! "The bee when in a flower from which it cannot get nectar, gets the golden farina, out of which it builds its cells, and so it rolls up its little legs against the stamens, till they look large and loaded as golden store, and, thanking the flower as sweetly as if it had been full of honey, gladly humming, it flies home with its wax. Yes, and herein lies God's moral. If our flowers have no honey, let us be glad of the wax." The same writer who gives the above illustrations tells how the good, though self-willed, George III., when he had lost all our American colonies, and thousands of our troops had been slain, and millions upon millions of debt incurred, nevertheless, not to be outdone in piety by the Americans, ordered a day of thanksgiving. He was asked by a pious clergyman what the thanksgiving was to be for - was it to be for any of the above-named facts? He pressed the king for an answer, who replied energetically, "Thank God it is not any worse." Yes; there is something to be thankful for in all circumstances, if we will only be open eyed to note it. Remember, too, that our evils are but blessings in disguise. "Light afflictions" - so St. Paul called them - "which are but for a moment, and which work for us," etc. Above all, let us give our hearts to Christ. Yield them to him, as he bids us do; and as he will by his blessed Spirit fill them with all other good things, so he will shed abroad in them this grace also, the spirit of thankfulness. IV. REASONS FOR SUCH CULTIVATION. 1. Our circumstances demand it: we have cause for thankfulness. 2. It will greatly bless others. For a glad, thankful spirit is winsome and attractive Christwards, whilst the opposite spirit cannot but repel. 3. For our own sake. It will brighten all our life, whilst if, owl-like, we dwell in darkness, we shall come to love it, and be as dim-sighted and night haunting as they. 4. And does not the Lord our God and Saviour deserve all our praise? Therefore, jubilate. - S.C. Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of praise.} Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. |
    |