He has made us glad

DEVOTION

PSALMS

HE HAS MADE US GLAD

Ps 100

100:1 A psalm. For giving thanks.

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.

NIV

How appropriate to be on this psalm on a Sunday morning when we are preparing to enter his house to worship and give praise and thanksgiving to God. Some services will be more liturgical than others, but the whole body of Christ will be at worship. This is the key word, worship. During the time we are in the house of the Lord it can become a little traditional in some sense. Each service has its pattern and it might become easy for us to just go through the motions, in hope it will end on time so we can get about our day, maybe go out for breakfast or hurry home to turn on the game. But this is a time within the house of God we should worship with gladness, to come before him with joyful songs. But then, of course, that should be our daily activity as well. It should not be reserved for Sunday only. Our whole life should be a song of worship with gladness, for he is the LORD God who made us. Our life would not be had he not made us. It might be easy to approach our life from a humanistic view, our birth as a result of a union of our parents. However it was God who knit us together in our mother’s womb.

Ps 139:13

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

NIV

It is the LORD God who made the first made with his own hands, kneeling in the dirt, making mud or clay and forming Adam into the God’s own image, then breathing into him God’s very breath. This is our heritage, he also made us, and gives us breath and life and our very being. We are his image, we should always remember it was the LORD God who created us for his purpose, so we worship and praise him with gladness of heart, and we come before him each day with thanksgiving and praise. Yes, we yearn for the day we step into eternity to be in his presence forever, but for now we still have the breath of life, and are here for his purpose. So we are glad for this day, and each day we awake to give praise and thanksgiving for this is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

We will enter His gates with thanksgiving in our heart We will enter his courts with praise We will say this is the day the Lord has made We rejoice for He has made us glad He has made us glad, HE has made us glad We will rejoice for HE has made us glad

We could see that song two ways. One that he has made us from sad to glad because of calling us out of darkness into the light, for giving us eternal life. Two, that he formed us in our mother’s womb glad. He designed us to be glad, to live life gladly, without sadness. But many people bring sadness unto themselves. It was not how God designed our life.  He designed us to have a glad heart, a glad life, filled with his joy and peace. He has made us glad.