Praise and thanksgiving is a natural attitude of gratitude that flows from our innermost being. Psalm 100 gives a lesson on thanksgiving.
Psalm 100:1-5 NIV84 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
This lesson tells us that the whole earth should join in and give God thanks. Before we enter into His courts for petition or prayer, we should be filled with love and appreciation toward God. Consider what He has done for us. God’s great care is beyond our personal ability to receive. He made us and we are the sheep of His pasture.
What does that mean?
God is carefully watching over every one of us. In His great goodness and love, God faithfully cares for His children, the sheep of His pasture.
The Psalmist tells the whole earth to enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Psalms 103 celebrates the Lord’s perfection, compassion, forgiveness, and goodness. This joyful song of praise is offered up to God with every faculty, power and property of the Psalmist’s being.
Psalm 103:1-2 NKJV Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:
This thanksgiving, worship and praise starts in the souls and encompasses everything that is within. This is not some light or trivial praise to God. The soul is the seat of the intellect and emotion. It is the part of us that is on the inside. The Bible tells us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. Our thanksgiving, worship and praise involves both spirit and body. It is not just thanksgiving and praise that is an external celebration. That is too narrow. It involves everything, both spirit and body. All that is within me blesses the holy name of the Lord.
“Forget not all His benefits!”
All His benefits reaches far beyond our individual or personal experiences. “All His benefits” incorporates all of the Divine interventions of God. It involves God’s compassion, mercy and grace that is extended to the most depraved among us. It involves every blessing that is extended by God’s covenants to His children. It involves God’s providential control over all creation.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Do you feel that praise and thanksgiving arising within your soul? You should give Him praise. All of God’s benefits reveal His compassionate, forgiving, loving and merciful character.
Read this verse out loud with me.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:”
Just in case you cannot remember all of His benefits, the Psalmist introduces us to the wonderful things that God has done.
Psalm 103:3 NKJV Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
All is a massive amount of God’s forgiveness and healing.
Psalm 103:4-5 NKJV Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Praise and worship takes into account everything the Lord has done. It remembers the goodness and mercy of the Lord God. Praise and worship digs down into the depths of our emotional being involving the spirit and soul.
Remember the things He has done.
Have your iniquities been forgiven? He has taken our sins and cast them away from us.
Has God healed your mind, body or emotions? You are not continually carrying the burdens of your past sicknesses and heavy load of your distresses.
Has He kept and shielded you from destruction? Satan does not have free access to pillage and destroy.
Have you experienced His lovingkindness and tender mercies?
Do you see how God has supplied all your need? You thought you were going down, but God strengthened, renewed and restored your soul.
He satisfied your mouth with good things.
Praise and thanksgiving naturally and normally fill the presence of God.
The Bible tells us that angels around the throne of God are constantly filled with praise and worship. The mighty cherubim and seraphim continually sing praise unto our God. The throne room of heaven is filled with the sound and song of praise. The doorposts of the heavenly temple are moved at the sound of their praise and worship.
Psalm 103:20-21 NKJV Bless the Lord, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.
The Psalmist was so caught up in the praise and thanksgiving that he called for all of creation to worship God.
Psalm 103:22 NKJV Bless the Lord, all His works, In all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
The Psalmist said: “All that is within me.” This is more than an outward form of worship. It is more than a program or a plan of worship.
Praise is proper for all of God’s creation.
Where does praise originate in you?
Praise and worship flows out from all that is “within me.” Notice the destination and direction of thanksgiving. It starts within us, includes every place of God’s dominion and rises to the throne and person of God. Corporate praise and worship must originate within us. True worship and praise is more than learned phrases. It comes from the inside out. It is a condition and attitude we have. It is personal and it is spiritual. It is a result of something that has happened to us. It springs from a heart of gratitude for the mercy of the Lord that is from everlasting to everlasting. All that God has done for us impacts our soul so dramatically that we must worship Him.
The Psalmist said: “sing unto the Lord.”
Isaiah 42:10 NKJV Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise from the ends of the earth!
Psalm 66:2 NKJV Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
We should celebrate in praise with musical instruments and songs of praise.
1 Chronicles 15:16 NKJV Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.
Lift up your heads and sing to the Lord with vibrant joy. Sing aloud and rejoice in the Lord with musical instruments. Our praise should be offered to God with a merry heart. Your praise should be offered to God with all that is in you.
Psalm 134:2 NKJV Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people lifted their voices to God with the sounds of music and praise to the Lord.
2 Chronicles 5:13a NKJV Indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord,
Unity in praise and thanksgiving is important. With instruments and their voices they made one sound in worshipping God.
2 Chronicles 5:13b-14 NKJV and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
When the congregation began lifting up their voices with the musical instruments and praising God, the glory of God filled the house. We should give God all of the glory and the praise for what He has done. Praise Him for He is good and His mercy endures forever.
Let me remind you.
- He forgives all our iniquities.
- He heals all our diseases
- He redeems our life from destruction.
- He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
- He satisfies our mouth with good things.
- He renews our youth.
His supply is always in the present tense.
Right now He is doing this for us. He is forgiving and healing. He is redeeming and giving mercy. He is satisfying all our need and renewing our life.
