The Lord, He is God

Psalm 100:1-2 ESV

 

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

   Serve the Lord with gladness!

    Come into his presence with singing!”

 

A joyful noise has nothing to do with how professional sounding the singing is to human ears. It has nothing to do with professional arrangements of songs or great orchestration or a cool sound. It has everything to do with a tender heart sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit expressing pure unadulterated praise and thanksgiving to God. Amen!

 

The reason I say this is that so many people today are following a cool sound or a talented band to lead them in what they call worship of God, but which may or may not be true worship of God. It may just be emotionalism, for music has a way of moving our emotions.

 

True worship of God comes from hearts committed to Jesus Christ and to his service. It is to give our lives to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable worship of him. And it is to be no longer conformed to the ways of this sinful world but to be transformed in heart and mind so that we discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.

 

So many people have this idea of worship, thus, as just singing Christian songs or lifting their hands in the air or dancing, etc. But if true worship is not present in our lives, according to Romans 12:1-2, then we are not truly worshiping the Lord. We are just singing and moving to the music. And the feeling we have is just our emotions, not true praise to God.

 

A joyful noise to the Lord, thus, may be different than a joyful noise to our ears. For what the Lord wants to hear from us is not just lip service, but he wants lives committed to following him in every way. Yes, singing is definitely part of our worship, but it must come from hearts surrendered to Jesus Christ who are worshiping him with their actions, not just with words.

 

Psalm 100:3 ESV

 

“Know that the Lord, he is God!

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

 

This truth is also critical to our true worship of God. We need to recognize that God is truly God. If we do, none of us will have the idea that we can live however we want and that we can still go to heaven when we die.

 

If we truly see God for who he is, we will weep over our sins like Isaiah did (Is 6:5). We will not have this casual approach to God as so many do who profess faith in Jesus Christ. And we will say with Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me.” We will have lives committed to the Lord and to his service.

 

Too many people, though, who profess faith in Jesus Christ, are treating Almighty God with contempt. For they believe they don’t have to honor him as Lord of their lives, that they don’t have to forsake their lives of sin, and that they don’t have to walk in obedience to his commands.

 

But if we truly see God for who he is, and if we see ourselves for who we truly are outside of faith in Jesus Christ, and if we fully recognize what Jesus did for us in dying on that cross for our sins, we will surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and we will become his sheep with him as our Master.

 

We will accept the fact that our lives are no longer our own to be lived however we want for now we are the Lord’s possession and now he is boss over our lives. For he died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, not that we would go on living in sin.

 

Psalm 100:4 ESV

 

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

    and his courts with praise!

    Give thanks to him; bless his name!”

 

We can only enter into the gates of the Lord through dying with Christ to sin, being reborn of the Spirit of God, and being given new lives in Christ Jesus created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 2:20).

 

Then, we truly can be thankful to him for delivering us out of our slavery to sin and for giving us new lives in him to be lived to him and to his righteousness. We can thank him and praise him for setting us free from our addiction to sin and for freeing us to now walk in his holiness and purity.

 

We can thank him and praise him for these new lives he has given to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord, that are to be for his glory, honor, and praise. We can thank him for giving us life now with purpose and direction, and for giving us the faith to believe in him and for granting us repentance unto eternal life.

 

We can thank and praise him for how much he loves us that he would willingly die for us to see us go free from our slavery to sin so we could now be empowered of the Spirit of God to become slaves of his righteousness.

 

And we can thank and praise him for his watch and care over us and for leading us in the path of righteousness for his name’s sake. We can now give him honor and glory for all that he has done, and for all that he is now doing in and through our lives for his glory and praise.

 

Psalm 100:5 ESV

 

“For the Lord is good;

    his steadfast love endures forever,

    and his faithfulness to all generations.”

 

Amen! The Lord is good! All the time! Even when bad things happen to us in this world, God is still good. His love for us is without end. He will never fail us. And he will never abandon those who are truly his. He is completely faithful in all that he does! Amen!

 

Humans will desert us. They will lie to us, cheat us, hate us, reject us, do evil to us, persecute us and even put us to death for our faith in Jesus Christ. But our Lord will be there with us through it all giving us his strength, his wisdom, and his comfort and encouragement.

 

We just need to love our Lord in return by obeying his commands and by being faithful in service to him in doing what he has called us to do.

 

For, if we do not obey him, and if we do not follow him with our lives, then we don’t have a relationship with him nor do we have the hope of eternal life with God (Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; 2 Co 5:10).

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

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