Psalm 100 may have been the first Psalm I memorized. I’m pretty sure it had everything to do with its shortness.
But the Psalm has stayed with me. It lifts me up and changes the direction of my mood whenever I reflect on it seriously.
While it describes the way we should come to worship, it is describing so much more than the worship assembly. We are the temple of God. These blessings belong to each believer. The Psalm is a mix of emotions and the reasons for them. It’s cause and effect. We think of the cause and we get the effect.
The emotions—joy, gladness, a song in the heart, thanksgiving and praise.
The cause is God. He has made us and we are His. He is good and His love endures forever and His faithfulness is to all generations.
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. (Ps. 100:1-5 NIV)