“1 <<A Psalm of praise.>> Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 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. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:1-5).

     My children all memorized this Psalm when they were very young. When still very small children they would quote it at our family gatherings before the lost and the redeemed. The words of this Psalm should reflect the innermost reality of the heart of every truly born again child of God. We should live our lives in humble adoration and gratefulness for the love of God that reached into this sewer of decadence we call humanity in order to rescue us from an eminent destiny of eternal condemnation.

     In that same sense, Psalm 100 tests the reality of our faith in God, the reality of our understanding of Who He is, and what He has done to redeem us. If the spirit of this Psalm is not the reality of our lives, our lives are missing something that should be a critical part of every true believer’s life. The spirit of this Psalm reflects a genuine spirit of worship. The spirit of this Psalm reflects a heartfelt life of praise and thankfulness to God.

     We cannot read the words of Psalm 100 without a sure understanding that the Lord to Whom they direct praise was a reality in their lives. They had a personal relationship with Him. That relationship was not one of endless obligations lived in pretension. Their relationship with the Lord was a source of joyful, exuberant celebration that flooded their lives.

     How few Christians rise to the heights of worship reflected in Psalm 100. The words of this Psalm reflect an attitude; an attitude of thankfulness and praise that translates the person who truly believes them into a thanks-living, God praising, soul winning celebration of life. I love to be around the kind of person that lives Psalms 100. The overflowing joy from lives like this touch everyone.

     Everything the Psalm 100 Christian says or does translates into a Praise the Lord testimony. There is a fountain of joy and enthusiasm for life that springs from their souls and nothing seems to be able to hinder it because its source is a sweet and precious relationship with their heavenly Father that is able to transcend any problem that the world throws at them. The world and its adversaries may be able to knock them down occasionally, but they will be back on their feet in a few hours or days with a new smile on their faces and praising the Lord.

     We all may occasionally allow the cares of this world, the troubles, trials and pressures of life, difficulties and failures to steal away from us the joys of knowing the Lord Jesus and the joys of serving Him. However, Psalm 100 is the Psalm of the way things ought to be. When the attitude of Psalm 100 is the natural, unforced, unpretentious attitude flowing from a knowledge of Who God is, what He has done and is doing in our lives, there will be a righteous exhibition of a life lived in celebration of that relationship. This is the true spirit of worship that eradicates the humdrum and droll of our “under the sun” existence and translates life into a moment-by-moment fire works celebration of praise to the glory of God.

     If your Christian life has become mundane, it is because your focus has been misdirected to the mundane things of life. Learn what it means to worship God and you will learn what it means to celebrate life.

     Worship that is not a celebration of praise to God is a warped distortion of what real worship should be and a warped distortion of what real Christianity is all about.

“1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 12 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing” (Psalm 100:1-2).

     The words “make a joyful noise” is from the Hebrew word ruwa` (roo-ah'). It means to shout out in rejoicing like the people of today give a standing ovation in applause for a great performance. The idea is that of an impulsive shout of joyful exuberation. A true “joyful noise” cannot be manufactured.

“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

     A true “joyful noise” is spontaneous rejoicing that overflows from a heart filled with joy in the Lord. The word “joy” in Galatians 5:22 is from the Greek word chara (khar-ah'), which refers to a cause or occasion for joyous celebration. Notice that this kind of joy is a “fruit” of being filled with the Spirit of God. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to overflow with all that the Holy Spirit is.

     We can blame no one but ourselves if we allow anything or anyone to rob us of the joy of our salvation and the joy of living in intimate fellowship with the Creator of the Universe.

“6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:6-7).

     We are fools to allow anything to interrupt this intimate fellowship with our heavenly Father that is ours through the Blood of Jesus Christ (I John 1:7). Once a Christian has experienced this joy, he will never be satisfied with anything else. However, this kind of joy will only be experienced by Christians who habitually live fully surrendered to God’s will. If you have that kind of joy in your life, it will not be a burden to be in Sunday School or in a preaching service. You will long for any opportunity or vehicle to truly lift your voice in praise to God and make a joyful noise.

     Ministry is another vehicle to express praise and appreciation to the God of our salvation.

“Serve the LORD with gladness” (Psalm 100:2).

     Nothing will wear you out faster then trying to force a smile on your face when there is no smile in your heart. There is no harder, more unpleasant, task than the task of doing something you hate to do. The oil of “gladness” can lubricate almost any impossible task. When you truly love someone, doing things that you normally would not find joyful suddenly become miraculously pleasant if you know they bring joy to the person you love. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves about this. The central reason why doing things that God commands are a burden to us is because we do not really love Him the way we should.

“1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (I John 5:1-3).

     Have you ever gone to restaurant to eat and gotten horrible service? You knew the food would be excellent because it always is and you looked forward to it in joyful anticipation. The atmosphere was pleasant. It was quiet and relaxed, but the waiter was irritable and grouchy. He moped around and threw your plate of food down on the table. Then, when you did not reward him for ruining your time of relaxation, he publicly confronted you about not leaving a large enough tip. That is the way many people serve the Lord; grudgingly not gladly.

     I would rather have no servant at all than one to whom service is irksome and an inconvenience. None of us would dare condone this kind of behavior and still dare call it service. There is a name for that kind of Christian service. It is called SIN.

     We will never learn to serve the Lord with gladness until we get the joy of our salvation out of our heads and into our hearts. Sometimes I think Christians think Psalm 100:1 says, “Make a doleful noise unto the Lord.”

     What is the source of this wellspring of joy and gladness; the source of this spark of life that jumpstarts our hearts to sing praises to God?

“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” (Psalm 100:3).

     The source of all of this is an intimate knowledge of God. The source of this joy and gladness is knowing the Lord as a personal friend, as a Father, and as a companion in all circumstances of life. The source of this joy and gladness is knowing this One Who knows everything there is to know about you and who continues to love you anyway.

     People everywhere are seeking for joy and gladness in every avenue of life but the one avenue that can provide it. There is no joy or gladness in this life apart from knowing the Lord and loving Him.

“10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11).

     If your life and your Christianity do not overflow with joy and gladness and are not a celebration of praise, perhaps you have lost your focus. Perhaps you do not know the God of the Bible the way you think you do. If worship and serving the Lord are a burden to you, perhaps you need to re-examine the intimacy of the professed relationship you say you have with the Lord.

     If coming to church services is a burden to you, you will never give God the worship He deserves. If obedience to God’s will and faithfulness in service is forced labor to you, the problem is that your relationship with God is forced and pretentious.
If a person does not want to spend time with the Lord, it is self-deception to think he loves Him. You do not love someone if you do not want to spend time with him or if you do not want increased intimacy with him. You do not love someone if you do not find joy in being with him. You do not love someone if you do not want to make him as happy as he makes you.

“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 in thee” (Psalm 5:11).