PSALM 100 (NKJV) A Psalm of Thanksgiving
1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He Who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His Name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
How do we approach God? Psalm 100 tells you how step by step.
We come to Him with a joyful shout (7321) , which in Hebrew is rua; it means to shout, to sound a blast; the action of shouting or a loud noise. It can be a war cry or a cry of joy in response to the Lord’s activity to His people.
We come before His presence with singing. We sing about His Holy Name; about His attributes. We sing about His acts toward His human family.
We enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Thanksgiving (8426) in Hebrew is todah. It means praise, thanksgiving. It describes an offering of thanks or the sacrifice of thanksgiving. It depicts worship by singing songs of thanksgiving and praise that described the mighty acts of the Lord.
Praise (9416) in Hebrew is tehillah. It means praise, a song of praise. It is the adoration and thanksgiving that humanity gives to God, but especially for God’s character and attributes.
We are to be thankful to Him. Thankful (3034) in Hebrew is yada; it means to acknowledge, to praise, to give thanks, to confess, to cast. The essential meaning is acknowledging what is right about God in praise and thanksgiving. It can also mean acknowledging of oneself before God in confessing sin to Him.
Thus the Lord God says: Thanksgiving is a person’s ability to bless Me and to enter My gates to be able to talk with Me. Placing adoration before you covers you, especially when you praise My Son Jesus about His Sacrifice for you. This Blood of My Son which covers your sins and washes them away once you confess the sin. The Blood wipes them out completely; meaning forever no more shall it be remembered. But in order to come into My presence and acknowledge your sin, you need to praise Me, thank Me first, kneel before Me, and confess your sins. Then and only then, can we go on to other things. I cannot listen to you as long as your sin is before Me. I am holy therefore you must be holy.
Approach Me in the right way with singing of praises and thanksgiving. I gave you the Psalms. Now use them!!!