Very good evening to you. Good to have you with us tonight for our midweek Bible study and prayer meeting. If you have your Bible at hand, we are in the book of Psalms yet again, Psalm 100 tonight, Psalm 100. And we're going to begin reading in verse one, just five short verses of scripture together as we look into this particular passage this evening. Psalm 100 and verse one, where the psalmist writes, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. We trust the Lord will bless the reading of his precious and eternal word to our hearts tonight. Psalm 100 is actually a psalm that you probably know very well. You've sung it many times in church, perhaps without realising it was this psalm that you were singing. All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, serve him with joy, his praises tell. These words were sung at the coronation of our monarch, Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. It was actually the first coronation in British history. which involved the congregation in the singing of a hymn in which they were asked to participate and its tune actually was rearranged by the composer Vaughan Williams who actually was a great-great-great grandson of Josiah Wedgwood. So there's a link there with the potteries. Sometimes this psalm is called the Church's National Anthem, and we can see why. Its tutan was originally written in the 1500s and known as the Old 100th, and it has this rather grand tone to it, this very regal sound, and no doubt this too was a factor in its choice for singing by the congregation at the coronation of our monarch. But this psalm isn't a royal psalm. It's a psalm for every man. Indeed, this psalm was used and is used daily in the synagogues. In fact, the only time it may not be heard in the synagogues is on special occasions, on feast days and in Jewish festivals. It's a psalm for every day. It's a psalm for every man. Now notice its little title there. at the very beginning of the psalm the little superscription says a psalm of praise literally a psalm of thanksgiving or a psalm of thanks offering this is the only psalm of the 150 psalms that bears this particular title and notice too that it was written not to Israel alone but all ye lands, everywhere, everyone, all the time, ought to be thankful for the mercies of the Lord. You know, among the characteristics of the last days generation is the unseemly quality of being unthankful. I think that is increasingly so in our generation. People who feel entitled, have very little room for gratitude, and how we must watch as Christians, as believers, as followers of the Lord Jesus against having an ungrateful or indeed a thankless heart. And we need to cultivate within that spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude to the Lord. Well, let's look at this little psalm together. And essentially what we find in this psalm is seven attributes of God, seven commands of the believer and it's those commands to which I want to refer and draw your attention this evening and the first command is given to us in the first verse it is the command to shout that's what the word noise means here make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands it intimates a cry A victory cry. You know, when the Israelites were marching around Jericho during the time of Joshua, their commander told them, you shall not shout nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout. Then shall you shout. And when that time came, he commanded, shout, for the Lord hath given you the sitting. Now that's the idea. The Christian is on the victory side. And I love that old hymn that we sing sometimes in church that kind of highlights this idea. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Particularly the chorus. I hope you remember the song. We are never, never weary of the grand old song. Glory to God. Hallelujah. We can sing it loud as ever. with our faith more strong. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Oh the children of the Lord have a right to shout and sing for the way is growing bright and our souls are on the wing. We are going by and by to the palace of a king. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And again, notice this psalm, though it's recorded in the context of the Old Testament, is calling every man to glory in God, every man to make that joyful noise, every man to give that shout of victory. The old Scottish commentator Alexander McLaren says, Israel was meant to be a sacred hearth on which a fire is kindled that was to warm all the house. God revealed himself in Israel but to the world. And when this psalm was first written, of course, Israel was the focal point of true worship upon the earth. But there's coming a day when all the earth shall worship him, and every man shall cry out and proclaim the same victory. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 9 pictures the redeemed gathered around the throne of the lamb and there we read they sung a new song thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation make a joyful noise unto the Lord All ye lands. A command to shout with victory. But then there's a command to serve. If you notice in verse 2, serve the Lord with gladness. The Lord must be served. Why? Well, because He is God. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. Verse 3, because he is sovereign over all as God, because he is creator. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. And because he is Lord, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. But we mustn't serve him out of duty alone, nor indeed should we serve him driven by fear. Fear is the currency of the cults. No, we serve him with gladness, literally with joy. It is our joy. to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We come and we serve him with gladness. Paul wrote, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. but be filled with the Spirit. And listen to what he says now. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord, giving thanks for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That encapsulates the thought of this psalm. I am to come into his presence with gladness. I am to come into his presence with joy. and to be making melody in my heart. You know the Christian ought to be the happiest fellow on the earth, yet sadly that's not often reflected in our worship or in our services. One of the great privileges that I have always enjoyed is going with the North Staffs Choir into our local prisons and singing to prisoners at Easter time, at Christmas time. And it always crosses my mind when I go in there, when you see the response of the prison community, when you see those prisoners and their faces are beaming as you're singing. And when you close the service off, they're coming up to you and they're so grateful that you came. I mean these are tough men and women. These are people who've you know, have been through some very difficult and hard things in their lives, and yet they're filled with just happiness and joy that you're there. And it often crosses my mind that the people in the prison look how people in church ought to look, and the people in the churches, sadly, often look how prisoners ought to look. Let us serve the Lord with gladness, for that is what we're commanded to do. And then notice we have the command to sing also in verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. You know we're not able to sing right now as a congregation and that's one of the hardest parts of being together as a church at this present time. But we shouldn't feel too sorry for ourselves, for brethren in other parts of the world people are being put to death for their faith. Nor should we feel that we're being persecuted. The government hasn't singled out churches alone in this respect, but concert halls and theatres are in exactly the same boat. So the church is not being selected here for a particular form. of treatment by the powers that be. But as a church we love to sing. Our church is known as the singing church and we're finding, I think, that aspect of worship a bit of a struggle right now. Perhaps, you know, our present circumstances highlight the importance of singing as a part of our worship. You know song does so much for us as believers. It first of all lets us sink roots right into the word of God. You know even as we've seen already in that hymn, all people that on earth do dwell. Here we've been singing this song, singing it unto the Lord and all the while we have been learning and been educating ourselves by song in the truths of God's word. We're learning Psalm 100 without even realizing that's what's going on. By singing we encourage one another. Ephesians 5 again Paul reminds us that we're not only singing to the Lord but singing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And then singing forms part of our arsenal in the spiritual battlefield, in the spiritual warfare. Do you ever think about that? In Colossians chapter 3 verses 13 through 16 the Apostle brings an exhortation to sing right on the back of telling us to be long-suffering with one another, to forgive one another, to be putting on love, to being united as the body of Christ and teaching God's Word one to another. He says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Paul is challenging these Colossians literally to put sin to death and to mortify it in their lives, to kill sin. And so all the commands of love and peace and forgiveness and forbearance and teaching and singing are attitudes and actions and habits that the believer creates that will help mortify the flesh. Singing helps us in spiritual battle. And then spiritual song strengthens us for trials. You remember Paul and Silas when they were arrested in Philippi? Put in stocks and chains and left to languish overnight. What did they do? Well, Acts 16 tells at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. You know, that's the testimony of the persecuted church down through the centuries. In recent times, the persecuted church in communist lands testified, when we were in prison, we sang almost every day because Christ was alive in us. They put chains on our hands and feet. They chained us to add to our grief. Yet we discovered that chains are splendid musical instruments. When we clanged them together in rhythm, we could sing, this is the day, clink, clank. This is the day, clink, clank. This is the day that the Lord hath made clink clank, which the Lord hath made clink clank. That's what they say. Our singing not only strengthens us for trials but it also leads us into even deeper joy and gladness of heart. Psalms chapter 5 and verse 11 we read, but let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful unto thee. Psalm 9 and verse 2 says, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thy most high. Psalm 51. The penitential psalm of David and he says this in verse 4 against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight and that thou mightest be justified when I speakest and be clear when I judgest And then he gets down to verse 14, he says, Again, Psalm 59, and verse 16, it says, Yeah, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of trouble. And Psalm 63 and verse 7, because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. I will rejoice. You know, you think about what James wrote in James chapter 5. He said, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. Let him sing songs. And ultimately, of course, when we sing, we glorify God. God's people are a singing people, and we're commanded to sing, to come into his presence with singing. Not only are we commanded to sing, but also we're commanded to know. Look what it says there in verse 3. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. The word know here means to know in a personal and experiential way, to know by way of God's day-to-day dealings in my life, to understand every day that he is sovereign over all, that he is in control. You know when we recognize that, that the Lord is in charge, it leads us to a place of trust and rest. You know when you think about it, if you've ever traveled abroad and you've got on an aircraft, you'll know that before you go anywhere or shortly into the flight, the pilot, the captain will come on and he will speak to you, say this is your captain speaking and you'll listen to his little talk and he will give you details about the flight, about the speed that he intends to fly the aircraft at, the altitude that you're going to reach, if there's likely to be any turbulence on route and ultimately he tells you about the weather at your destination. He does all of this in a very calm and reassuring way and the idea is to let you know that He has it all in hand, that He knows what He's doing. Everything is under His control. And they always end that little talk by saying something along these lines. Now, just sit back, relax and enjoy your journey. And that's what you should do. But friends, that's what the Lord wants us to do in this life. He wants us to sit back and trust Him and enjoy the journey. We need to recognize that He's the one in the cockpit of life, that He's in charge. Know that He is God. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. He is God, we are not God. And as such, He has creative rights over us. This too is part of his sovereignty, he can do in our lives whatever he so pleases. You know, men have sadly forgotten that God is their creator. Sadly, many believe now that they are the chance outcome of a stirring of some cosmic soup somewhere in the heavens, even though there wouldn't be a heavens without the cosmic soup, but somewhere in the distant past, billions of years ago, all these chemicals, where did the chemicals come from? All these chemicals got together and they made this rather interesting mixture and boom, the universe occurred. It takes a lot more faith to believe that than to believe that the Lord hath made us and not we ourselves. But as a consequence of that belief many today are unthankful. They are that last days generation that are marked out by ingratitude to God. But understand that God takes his role as creator very very seriously and he wants man to acknowledge him as his maker. Revelation chapter 14 we read of God's final gracious call to mankind in which he dispatches three angels from the heavens carrying with them the everlasting gospel and we read in verses 6 through 7 of that chapter these words and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach on to them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and listen and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters God calls men to worship Him in the end, not only as their Redeemer, but on the basis of His creation. He exercises His creative rights and He demands of all upon the earth that they worship Him as the Maker of heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. We are his people. The sheep of his pasture, the psalmist goes on. Now we find that not only is he sovereign, but he's also pastoral. He's the shepherd and bishop of our souls, the one who watches over us, the one who lovingly provides for us, the one who meets our needs day by day. You know, we've so much to be thankful for, for the same one who created the entire world by the word of his mouth, now comes into our lives as a daily presence and provides for us and watches over us aren't we a blessed and privileged people then in verse 4 we find the command to enter enter into his gates with thanksgiving now this verse i believe has prophetic significance as all the lands have been called upon now to share in the joy of the Lord as their enthroned Redeemer. And of course Isaiah prophesies this in Isaiah 56 when he says, mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. And the Lord Jesus in Mark chapter 11 quoting that verse says, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer. we're called upon to enter into that house. Sometime in the future, of course, the Lord will dwell in his own house and all nations will come on to him and worship and pray before him. But today, God dwells in a temple made without hands, his church, and we have a holy obligation to it, to enter into it, to be part of it. Now let me Give a practical word to some of you who are watching and have been watching these last four or five months online. Those of you who are shielding, you need to make church a priority just as soon as those restrictions are lifted. You know, just as soon as you can, you make your way back to church. To those of you who are staying away from church for other reasons, you don't have that letter from the National Health Service, but you're choosing to stay away of your own volition, and yet with all, perhaps you're going to the shops, or you're going to work, or someone in your house is going to work, or your children have been going to school, or you're going to the park, or you're going on days out, let me tell you something, you need to get back to church. You need to get back to church. Because if you don't get back now, chances are you might never come back. And I can tell you here and now, there is no point in relying on online ministry for the edification of your soul. You see, we're called upon to enter his gates with thanksgiving. In the words of one writer, publicly worship God and when you come to the house of prayer, be thankful that you have such a privilege. And when you enter his courts, praise him for the permission. In New Testament language, we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. You know, the psalmist states it positively. Enter into his courts with thanksgiving. The writer of Hebrews states it negatively. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the matter of some is. You see, you ultimately do your savior, your brethren, and your own soul a disservice when you stay at home and you determine to rely entirely on online ministry. Get back to church, friends. and that at the earliest possible opportunity we sing it in that song oh enter his courts with praise approach with joy his courts unto praise lord and bless his name always for it is seemingly so to do then there's the command to be thankful in verse four be thankful unto him If God did not make us, we have no cause for thankfulness. We become self-made men and women. We become demigods who will naturally have an inclination to self-entitlement. The words of Spurgeon perhaps sum it up well when he says, some men live as if they had made themselves. They call themselves self-made men and they adore their supposed creators. Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18 gives the church this exhortation. The spiritual Christian will look for the good in every situation. or at least look for the good that God brings to every situation, to see what God is going to do with the matter, that he will recognise that in every trial and every turn, God is sovereign over all. And then finally there's the command to honour. Look in verse 4 again. He says, and bless his name. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. You know the word bless there means to kneel, to kneel before his name. to honour His name, to bow before Him. Why? Well the rest of the psalm sums it up. Because according to verse 5, He is good. He is goodness itself. He embodies goodness. He is all that goodness is. He personifies goodness. He is merciful. That again is an attribute of God. He is full of mercy. and he is true, he is faithful, his truth endureth to all generations. You know as we come to prayer this evening friends, I wonder could we not stop before we bring our petitions tonight, every one of us, and this is my challenge to us tonight, stop before we bring our petitions to the Lord and let's first think about his blessings this day, or this week, or past Sunday, or in recent times. and offer him a word of gratitude. Offer him a word of praise, not just for our soul's salvation, which is in itself worthy of his praise, but also for his daily provisions and blessings. For why? The Lord our God is good. His mercy is forever sure. His truth at all times firmly stood and shall from age to age endure. May God bless these thoughts to your hearts this evening and I look forward to meeting with you in a few moments around the throne of grace together. God bless you.