Writing about Psalm 100 and noting its place in closing the small group of psalms 93-110, Derek Kidner helpfully notes that it “brings this group…up to an unclouded summit.” Earlier psalms had sounded the alarm, had pointed to the darkening skies but, as we take the final steps to the summit, those clouds clear and the view is stunning.
Which is just what we need.
The clarity of this beloved psalm runs through every line. We’ll notice just a few of its calming features.
i. Enter his gates with thanksgiving A call and an invitation, to come into his presence and to refresh our hearts in worshipping the One who is alone worthy of all our praise and adoration. This isn’t tippy-toeing into his space with a feeling that we really oughtn’t to be there; it is a glad exultation in the presence of the living God, the perfectly proper and entirely apt response of our hearts to his radiant Being. Singing joyfully, with an amazed sense of privilege and with the deepest pleasure that can ever be known.
A recent newsletter from the City to City church-plating network makes the point that “The presence of God is not the absence of tension…”. Quite so. We do ourselves and others a disservice if we pretend that we can only know the nearness of the Lord if our lives are free of trouble. We can genuinely know and rejoice in the presence of the living God even amid the ongoing turmoil of life in this world.
What limits and ultimately defuses the impact of that tension is the merciful intervention of the God into whose presence we have been ushered, the grace in which we now stand.
ii. It is he who made us and we are his We have a place to belong, a home where we are welcomed and settled. And we are “the sheep of his pasture”, sought and saved from all our wanton wanderings and the folly of our blind arrogance. The sins that separated us from him shall never be able to do so again because the sinless one gave himself for us, opening up a new and living way by which we may enter his brightness and not be consumed.
We are his flock, cared for and nurtured in all the fullness of life in the Spirit.
iii. What he is and what he does endures forever He is good; he doesn’t need to become good or grow into it. This is his fundamental character. And in his elemental goodness he always acts with covenant love and in covenant faithfulness. Every aspect of his every involvement with us is governed by his unceasing, sacrificial love and his undaunted, undimmed commitment. This is simply and stunningly who he is.
These are the cloud-busting qualities that re-order our days and give renewed clarity to our skies. “His love, not mine, the resting-place, His truth, not mine, the tie” (Horatius Bonar). Come, then, into his presence - the summit is just ahead.
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Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
sing and praise your God and mine!
Great the Lord in love and wisdom,
might and majesty divine!
He who framed the starry heavens
Knows and names them as they shine!
Praise the Lord, his people, praise him!
Wounded souls his comfort know.
Those who fear him find his mercies,
peace for pain and joy for woe;
humble hearts are high exalted,
human pride and power laid low.
Praise the Lord for times and seasons,
cloud and sunshine, wind and rain;
spring to melt the snows of winter
till the waters flow again;
grass upon the mountain pastures,
golden valleys thick with grain.
Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
peace and plenty crown your days;
love his laws, declare his judgements,
walk in all his words and ways,
he the Lord and we his children;
praise the Lord, all people, praise!
(© Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1926-)
