Psalm 100: Be Thankful

For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations. | Psalm 100:5 (CSB)

For some time now, I’ve found myself reading Psalm 100 each morning near the end of my daily Scripture and prayer time with the Lord. Many years ago, I had written the five verses from Psalm 100 on an index card and used it as a bookmark with the purpose of seeing that section of God’s Word on a consistent basis. My hope in reading Psalm 100 as often as possible was for the Holy Spirit to speak this psalm of thanksgiving into my life. Truthfully, I don’t recall how effective or ineffective that was when I first wrote those words on that index card but in recent weeks and months, God has proven faithful to deliver on that hope while meeting me in that daily repetition.

Life is never easy. More specifically, life is hard. We see the results of sin and brokenness all around us. For families like mine, with a loved one impacted by disability, we know we live in an imperfect world that isn’t designed with the best interests of our loved ones in mind. And as followers of Jesus, we know there is an enemy to our Savior and an enemy to us who wants nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy us. But we have hope because we know Christ came not only to give us life but so we could have it abundantly (John 10:10).

Truthfully, the last few months have included plenty of moments of exhaustion, confusion, discouragement, pain and sadness for me and my family and that abundant life we see in John 10:10 has seemed all too elusive. And while that’s a very common reality for anyone on the day-to-day journey of caring for someone with a disability, we know it’s not isolated to one area of life or one group of people. In the same way Satan is an equal opportunity enemy to every person, the deepest and darkest valleys of life also do not discriminate based on any category or label we’ve created as humans. For my family, the most difficult challenges in life will often trigger the grief cycle, which takes us back to some of the heaviest moments of pain we’ve encountered, especially in the areas of disability – from diagnosis to health emergencies to missed milestones to church hurt and everything in between. And that’s where our family has landed at various moments over the last few months.

I don’t remember consciously making the decision earlier this year to restart the routine of reading Psalm 100 each day but I know it was prompted by the Holy Spirit and the timing of it has been perfect because God has used that section of Scripture to consistently remind me of the truths of who He is and who I am (through Christ) in the midst of some dark days and nights. Despite being only five verses, God has packed so much power in Psalm 100 to guide me down a path in overcoming those moments of exhaustion, confusion, discouragement, pain, sadness and any other emotion God has hardwired us to feel.

Psalm 100
Be Thankful
A psalm of thanksgiving
1 Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his — his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.

There are so many words that jump off the page when I read Psalm 100 and I’ve highlighted a few of them on the index card I read through each day. Today, I want to focus for a moment on triumphantly, gladness, joyful, thanksgiving, praise and bless because of the call to action in those words and this psalm of thanksgiving for us as believers and followers of Jesus. Oftentimes, when life delivers some of its toughest gut punches, my flesh wants to push back on the call to praise and I’ll even ask myself and the Lord “how am I supposed to praise right now while I’m going through this?” But we’re reminded throughout Scripture that those are the precise moments when we should be praising and worshiping with gladness and joy because of the grace and love poured out to us by Jesus through his perfect life, his sacrificial death and his victorious resurrection. It is in that praise and worship where God will recenter our hearts and minds on him as the Lord of our lives and will remind us that Jesus already has victory in this life (John 16:33).

And so, God has been gracious to give me Psalm 100 as a reminder of what he wants for me in this life and the posture needed for me to experience his presence. Shout triumphantly to the Lord; serve the Lord with gladness; Come to him with joyful songs; acknowledge the Lord is God; enter his presence with thanksgiving and praise; give thanks to him and bless his name!

And why should I do all of those things? The answer is right there in verse 5: “For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.” God is good, his faithful love does endure forever and those truths are worthy of praise and worship with gladness and joy from each of us!

As I’ve read those words in Psalm 100 day after day and month after month since early this year, the Holy Spirit has reminded me that the circumstances of this life, from the highs to the lows, pale in comparison to the eternal love and goodness poured out on me through my relationship with Jesus Christ and through the loving faithfulness of the Lord. So as you continue on your own journey in this life and as you face the inevitable valleys that are sure to come, I encourage you to open the Bible and allow God’s Word to point you to the places where you can find hope and joy in this life and beyond. I hope you too will hold firmly to the truths of Psalm 100 and remember the Lord is God and the Lord is good!