Welcome to today's Daily PBJ devotional. Read Leviticus 14, Proverbs 28, and Psalm 100. This devotional is about Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into His presence with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good, and His loving devotion endures forever. His faithfulness continues to all generations. This is God's Word. This simple song oozes with joy. Verse 1 calls all the earth to, quote, shout for joy, according to the NIV's reading. And verse 2 commands us to worship Him with gladness, and come before Him in worship with joyful songs. Joy is an attractive emotion. But why should we do all this shouting and singing and worshiping with joy? The answer is in verse 3. That verse is the hinge on which this psalm turns. We should worship joyfully because we belong to God. Verse 3a says, He is God and He made us. That's in verse 3b. Therefore, we belong to Him. That's in verse 3c. What you make, you own, and what you own, you control. We belong to God because He's God and we're His creation. But the verse goes on and says this, we are His people, according to verse 3D. This refers to God's covenant with Israel. His promises to Abraham and Abraham's descendants formed a unique relationship that made all Israelites His people. in a more significant sense than His by creation, which was what the first part of the psalm talked about. This promise to Israel still stands, but we Gentiles have been grafted into it by the grace of God, and you can see Romans 11, verses 13 through 17. But then after describing how we belong to God by creation and by grace, the psalm writer says this, we are the sheep of His pasture. This image suggests God's care for us. He provides for us His pasture, which we need in order to be nourished and healthy. He protects us from predators and cares about our spiritual well-being. We're in good hands because they are God's hands, the hands of a perfect shepherd. Because we belong to God, He watches over and cares for us. What more reason, then, does a person need to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, as verse 4 in the NIV says. Verse 5 affirms that God is good. He is loyally loving and he is faithful. Why? Because we belong to him. This is directly opposite to how we think. We think in our own sinful thought patterns, that is, That to belong to God means to be controlled, manipulated, subjected, harassed by rules, and punished severely. But this psalm argues the opposite. Because we belong to God, He will take care of us. Most dog owners will feed and water and care for their dog, because it belongs to them. Most of those same people won't do anything for the stray dog that goes wandering through their backyard. The stray dog may be free to do what it wants, but he becomes dirty and starved in the process. The dog that is truly free is the one that is loved and cared for by a good owner. And that's who we are. This is why we rejoice. We belong to God, but he loves us and will provide everything that is good for us, like a great shepherd provides for his sheep. This is something to be joyful and bring glad praise for today. Verse four says, approach him with thanksgiving. Have you done that yet? If not, do that next. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. I hope you have a great day today.