Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving
Psalm 100
1. It was at the gates of a city that the people of the Middle East went for legal business, conversation,
bargaining, and news (Ps 69:12).
• Markets were held at the gate, and the main item sold there often gave its name to the gate ("Sheep Gate," Neh 3:1; "Fish Gate," Neh 3:3; "Horse Gate," Neh 3:28).
• The gate was the place where people met to hear an important announcement (2 Chron 32:6; Jer 7:2; 17:19-27) or the reading of the law (Neh 8:1, 3) or where the elders transacted legal business (Deut 16:18; 21:18-20; Josh 20:4; Ruth 4:1-2, 11).
• The gate was also the king's or chief's place of audience (2 Sam 19:8; 1 Kings 22:10; Dan 2:48-49 KJV; NIV "royal court").
• Gates were used for many things Some of the greatest sites and cities in the world are entered through famous gates. The gates of Jerusalem had a still deeper meaning, however. For those pilgrims traveling to the city from faraway places, entering the gates meant entering into the holy city and the temple, the dwelling place of God. To enter the gates of Jerusalem, was to enter into the very presence of God, which was cause for great songs like Psalm 100.
• One might say Gates were everything God may be saying to us it means everything to enter my gates with thanksgiving. Why shouldn’t we enter the gates with Thanksgiving for all God has done?
2. It means everything to enter the gates with joyful noise.
• Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing" (v. 1).
----A "joyful noise" was the appropriate greeting for a monarch in the ancient world, and, in this case, it is "all the earth" that cries out in joy at the presence of the Creator.
We make a Joyful Noise because of what is inside the gates
Inside the gates is
----It's the kind of joyful noise we might make when we enter the front door of the family home after a long absence; the excited cry of being home at last.
- Do we make a "joyful noise" when we come to worship, or do we settle for sighs of boredom or the sharp sound of complaint?
- Do we worship the Lord with "gladness," or do we do so out of obligation?
- Do we come into his presence with singing, or are we largely silent?
3. It means everything to enter his gates with thanksgiving because of who God is
• Verse 3"Know that the LORD is God," says the psalmist. "It is he that made us and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."
• we enter his gates with praise and thanksgiving because of who we are
• inside the walls of God's presence, we remember who we are and to whom we belong. We are "the sheep of his pasture," and it is God's presence that provides us protection and care better than any defensive wall ever could. Worship reminds us that our identity begins and ends with God, the one who made us and cares for us.
4. It means everything to enter his gates with praise and thanksgiving because we know our God's gates are
open to various travelers His gates are always open
• There the weary traveler finds at his gates Gods Goodness vs 5 for the lord is good
• The weary traveler finds love that endures over sin such as drunkenness, homosexuality, lost ness
• The weary traveler finds faithfulness to a wretch like me vs 5
• (v. 5). We praise God because God is good, and
• we give thanks because God's love, grace and faithfulness have extended across the generations, even when God's people sometimes forget their identity.
• When "the sheep of his pasture" are wandering, God is still the shepherd who will keep searching until all of them are back in the fold (Luke 15:1-7).
The gate remains open because the gatekeeper wants his sheep to come in and live an abundant life (John 10:7-10).
We are invited into God's presence, and that's a great reason for thanksgiving!
