Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Psalm 100: 1-5
“1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. 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. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. 5 For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Understand:
Verse three begins with “Know that the LORD is God” and verse five says “for the LORD is good.”
To “know” means to signify acknowledgement or confession. This is what the psalmist is doing when he says “the LORD.” He is referring to the one and only God, Yahweh, the covenant Lord. It’s like he is saying, “Know that the One true God, the One who made a covenant with His people, He is in complete control of the universe.” There are no other gods. The LORD alone is the One who made us; we belong to Him. No other theory can adequately explain the existence of mankind. Naturalism, deism, universalism or any other -ism out there all fall short in answering the questions concerning the meaning of life.
The psalmist also wants us to remember that the LORD is good. One way that all other gods fall short and how we know they are false is because people worship them out of fear or obligation. They have to talk or act in a certain way to get their gods to have mercy on them. Not our God; He is good and His love endures forever. Think about it…He is good to His people who are sinners. We all have fallen short of His righteousness. God’s grace is counter to what the false gods of the world would say; it doesn’t make sense. It’s this grace of God that leaves us in awe of His faithfulness to us. It’s what leads the psalmist to break out in praise and worship of the LORD. It’s the same thing that leads us to breakout in worship as well!
Apply:
As followers of Christ, we can be drawn into praises of thanksgiving as we contemplate all that Jesus has done for us. Remember what John tells us about Jesus in the opening chapter of his gospel, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth… No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.” We know all this to be true because Jesus did everything He said He would do. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! He is good and worthy of our praise. His love for us endures forever; He is a firm foundation for us, a foundation that fills our hearts with gratitude and praise!
How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
“Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,
for I am your God, and will still give you aid;
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
Take a moment and worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.