The Worship Of A Grateful Heart (Psalm 100)

The Worship Of A Grateful Heart

Psalm 100

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence.  The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it.

Terrified, the one shouted to the other, “Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!” 

John answered, “I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life.”

“But you must!” implored his companion. “The bull is catching up to us.”

 “All right,” panted John, “I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ‘O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.

What Gratitude Is: 

Essentially it is praising someone for some good they’ve done to you.  Biblically it means acknowledging God’s goodness to you and praising Him for it.   Acknowledging God’s gifts, recognizing Him for His goodness, Praising Him for His Generosity, Holding Him in High Esteem for His blessings, crediting Him for all you have.  It is the joyfully appreciative response back to the one who’s been good to you.

Gratitude is being intentionally aware of how good God is – and has been – to you.  That awareness produces an enlarged love and adoration towards Him

Re-Read Psalm 100

The Old 100th

The only Psalm specifically designated for thanksgiving

Why is Gratitude to God such a great thing?

Gratitude is so important in the Christian faith.  Turn to Colossians 3:15-17 with me.  Ephesians 5:4 says that rather than obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking, which are out of place, we are to give thanks.  Our Lord Jesus Christ gave thanks to the Father when he fed the 5,000 and when he instituted the Last Supper.  Here are some reasons why we see here in Psalm 100 why we see Gratitude is so important:  

First, it magnifies the greatness of God.  Can you “feel” that in this Psalm?  It’s telling the readers two things:  1) to come before God because He is great and 2) in coming before God they all – we all – are to be keenly aware of how great God is.  Gratitude, thanksgiving to God, treats God like His goodness is real.  Think about it in the opposite:  ingratitude is a refusal to approach your life in light of God’s character – His “good” character.

APPLICATION:  Practicing gratitude is one way we keep reminding ourselves of who God is.  It forces us to focus on God, on His goodness – towards us, and his faithfulness – his faithfulness towards us.  It makes us recount His personal interaction with our lives and all the credit he deserves for doing so.  And the more we do that the more our eyes and hearts open towards Him.  Specifically:

• Gratitude magnifies God as our Creator.  Notice verse 3, “It is he who made us…”  The Psalmist  reminds his readers that God is not just “the” Creator, but he makes sure they see how personal that is supposed to be to them, “Hey, your very life has come from Him.  You exist because of Him.  We exist because of Him.”  I’m reminded of Paul’s sermon to the Athenians in Acts 17, “The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth…He is not served by human hands as if he needed anything.  Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  Our life comes from Him.  And our life is owed to Him.
  
• Gratitude magnifies God as our Shepherd.  Look at verse 3, “we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”  The famous Psalm 23 focuses on God being our shepherd, “The LORD is my shepherd…” whereas here the focus is on us being His flock, “we are the sheep of his pasture.”  This is one of the most tender and comforting (and constant!) throughout the whole Bible.  It conveys how God is loving us, caring for us, and guiding us in life.  Through His Word God emphasizes to us that He approaches us as a tender Pastor (“Shepherd”), and he wants us, because we see in His word, to see Him as a tender Pastor – OUR tender pastor.  “I am the Good Shepherd” Jesus said.  Which literally means “I am the Good Pastor.”  

APPLICATION:  Let each of us live with the confidence that the LORD is our shepherd, and we are the sheep of his pasture.  This is not only a good thing, it is obligatory.  When Israel was led out of Egypt and brought to the borders of the Promised Land, they refused to go in.  They were afraid of going into it because they were afraid of the people living there.  Their fear made them disobey the Lord’s command to go in.  They forgot the faithfulness of God all throughout their journey.  In other words, they did not see God as a faithful shepherd faithfully leading them even though that is exactly what he was and exactly what he did.  Let none of us live with a mindset that says God hates us and doesn’t care for us.he imagery of God being our shepherd is the answer to anyone who is incorrectly assuming God cares nothing for them. –

• Gratitude magnifies God’s character (v5)

Good means His heart is set on us and He will bless us.    Psalm 106, 107, 118, and 136 all begin with the same call, “Give thanks to the LORD for He is good, His love endures forever.”  Faithful means He will keep His word and He will do all things for His glory and our good.  

So first, gratitude magnifies the greatness of God.  He is our Creator, our Shepherd, and He is good and faithful.

Second, gratitude makes us have a worshipful mindset.  

1. Verse 2 says, “Come before Him with…”
2. Verse 3 says “know that the Lord is….”  
3. Verse 4 says , “Enter His gates with….”

He is saying that the way we see God will affect how we approach Him.  We ought to view out at the world and ourselves in light of God’s goodness and faithfulness.  Being grateful means that we live with the perspective that He does in fact love us and is good to us.  And that has a profound impact on us every day.  We will “come before Him”, and “Enter His gates” when we know in our hearts that the Lord is God” and from Him come every blessing.

Third, worship is the response of a grateful heart.  There is no worship like thankful worship.  Knowing God is the Source of our blessing makes us adore Him.  

4. Shout for joy.  I think we need to incorporate into our Sunday services a joyful “shout!”  Let’s try it:  I will say:  “The LORD is good and worthy to be praised” and all of you respond with a big “Hoorah!” or “He is!” 
   
5. Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come to the LORD because you are glad in Him – and come away from being made glad from worshipping Him.
   
6. Bring joyful songs.  I love somber, deep, reverent songs, but I love the ones that put your hands in the air too.  I would never raise my hands for “Stricken, Smitten & Afflicted,” its not that kind of song.  Its the kind of song that brings you to your knees in humble anguish for the Son of God’s crucifixion.  But other songs are joyful songs expressing our happiness in Christ.
   
7. Intelligent worship, “Know the Lord is God, is good, is faithful is loving and is all these things forever and ever” etc.  You know why you are worshipping Him – your mind and heart are together in adoring God
   
8. Thankfulness
   
9. Praise

Thanksgiving Robbers

Don’t let your thanksgiving be burglarized. Keep a watch out for things that will rob you of a thankful heart.

First, an attitude of entitlement. If you believe you are entitled to things, you will feel slighted when you don’t get them. The problem is that you focus all your attention on what you don’t have and feel you deserve while becoming blind to all that you do have.

Start by changing your attitude to say, “I deserve nothing, and, if all that I have I have received as a gracious gift from God.” First Corinthians 4:7 says “what do you have that you did not receive?” Then start listing all your blessings. Then go through the NT and list all the blessings you have in Christ.

Second, watch out for anger. James 1:20 says, “Be slow to become angry, because man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.”  Anger usually comes from an attitude that says I’ve been wronged, or haven’t been given what I deserve. Our attention focuses so much on how we’ve been wronged or deprived and the emotion of anger then is so dominating, we find that where there should be gratitude for what God has given us, we are angry instead. Don’t let anger rob your gratitude.  Ephesians 4 says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”  

Thirdly, watch out for unforgiveness. “Colossians 3:13 says, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you havRefusing to forgive someone for how they have hurt you will cause anger and bitterness in your own heart. There will be no room for thanksgiving when we won’t forgive. Give forgiveness. In Colossians 3:13, in the same context as our verse this morning, Paul says this, “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Forgiveness is the key to being rid of anger and making room for the overflowing thankfulness and joy that Paul speaks of.

Fourthly, watch out for Pride. “Pride goes before a fall” Proverbs warns.  Jesus promised, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.”  Pride says I have to be first, the best, the most important, the most noticed and the most admired. Pride makes us think that we got it all on our own and did all by ourselves. Pride makes us think that what we have been given actually we deserved. It was owed to us. Pride makes us so self-absorbed that we become totally insensitive to and unmoved by the nice things we have received. They’re taken for granted.  Pride robs us of a thankful heart.  Pride makes us unworshipful.  

Gifts to You from Gratitude:

When you let gratitude in here are some gifts she will bring to you:

First, Joy.  Joy is a gift that gratitude gives you.  Can you see the joyful mood of Psalm 100?  If you were to read it according to its mood how would it sound?  Not somber or sad or depressing.  But Joyful, exuberant, cheerful!  

Second, gratitude gifts you with freedom from self-pity. 

Third, freedom from selfishness and self-centeredness.  An obsession with yourself dissolves when you practice gratitude

Fourth, gratitude gifts you with usefulness.  Think of it, you stop with your pre-occupation with yourself and you can begin to think of others and then be used by God in their lives to bless them.  

Fifth, gratitude shifts your focus to see your blessings and the many reasons you have to be content.  Meditate on the good things you do have and stop overlooking them (Take note of all the green lights, not just the red ones!)

CONCLUSION

Scottish minister Alexander Whyte was known for his uplifting prayers in the pulpit. He always found something for which to be grateful. One Sunday morning the weather was so gloomy that one church member thought to himself, “Certainly the preacher won’t think of anything for which to thank the Lord on a wretched day like this.” Much to his surprise, however, Whyte began by praying, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.”

May this Thanksgiving be one where you worship God with your gratitude.