Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving
Final thougths on “Thanksgiving In America”, as we go from Plymonth Rock to the Manger lets remember the words of the Lord.
FIVE THANKSGIVING COMMANDS
If we look more carefully at Psalm 100, we find that there is a series of 5 commands given.
- The first command is in vs. 1, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.”
It means to “shout with the force of a trumpet blast,” a shout of joy to the Lord that comes from the very depths of your being. Maybe He solved your problem. Maybe He has given you the direction to go. Maybe He has provided a blessing, & you realize that it has come from God. So from the depths of your being you proclaim your praise.
Roland Allen, aan english missionary tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself & said, “I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they grew older.”
But this missionary had developed a treatment which would stop progressive blindness. So people came to him & he performed his treatment, & they would leave realizing that they would have become completely blind, but because of him their sight had been saved. He said that they never said, “Thank you,” because that phrase was not in their dialect.
Instead, they spoke a word that meant, “I will tell your name.” Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
And that is what the Psalmist is saying. “Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside any more. From the depths of your being you shout your joy unto the Lord.”
The third command is, “Come before Him with joyful songs.” Psalm 98:4 says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”
Have you noticed? In these first 3 commands, God has said, “I want you to be happy. Shout with joy, serve with gladness, & come with joyful songs.” Now just take a moment & look at the people around you. Do they look happy? Or are they just sitting there with scowls on their faces? The Psalmist says, “Come before Him & serve Him & sing His praise with joy in your heart.”
Command #4 is, “Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, & we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”
God took every bone, every joint, & He welded them together with sinews & muscles & covered them with skin & gave us eyes that see, brains that think, & fingers that can pick things up. God made us, inside & out. He made you the way He wanted you to be. And He made me the way He wanted me to be.
That is a mystery, isn’t it? I don’t understand why, but somehow in God’s providence He decided that He wanted a medium sized man, not too good looking, not outstanding in anything, but just a faithful father & husband who would keep plodding along. So He made me. Someplace along the way He had you in mind, & He made you.
And He is still making us. That is important to realize, too. He’s not satisfied with the unfinished product. He’s not satisfied with your temper. He’s not satisfied with the weak areas of your life where you are giving in to temptation. So He’s still making us. He’s still working on our lives. God is your maker, & you are created in His image. Therefore give Him thanks for who you are.
Then He says, “We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” Most of us want to be shepherds, not sheep. “It’s not any fun being sheep,” we say. But the problem is, we don’t know where the still waters & green pastures are. And every time we go out searching for them, we invariably end up in the far country.
He is saying, “You be the sheep. Let me be the shepherd, & I will lead you beside the still waters & the green pastures. Just let me lead.”
Command #5 is this, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, & His courts with praise; give thanks to Him & praise His name. For the Lord is good & His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
In the O.T. the temple symbolized the presence of God. So whenever the people came to the temple & entered the courtyards they knew that they had come into the presence of God.
Now that temple no longer exists. But oftentimes the place where we meet to worship God is called a “sanctuary,” indicating that God is there. But God is everywhere. You know that. He is with you as you drive on the highway. He is with you when you work. He is with you as you care for your children. He is with you every moment of your life.
That is the source of our thanksgiving, isn’t it? But I’m worried. What if God began to treat us like we so often treat Him? What if God met our needs to the same extent that we give Him our lives?
Now that temple no longer exists. But oftentimes the place where we meet to worship God is called a “sanctuary,” indicating that God is there. But God is everywhere. You know that. He is with you as you drive on the highway. He is with you when you work. He is with you as you care for your children. He is with you every moment of your life.
That is the source of our thanksgiving, isn’t it? But I’m worried. What if God began to treat us like we so often treat Him? What if God met our needs to the same extent that we give Him our lives?
O Lord, help us to be thankful that you do “not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” Psalm 103:10.
I pray that this will be a meaningful Thanksgiving season for you & all your family for our nation. Take time to read the 100th Psalm again. And if we heed those commands, our hearts will overflow with thanksgiving to the Lord.
Happy Thanksgiving from Elisha Ministries
