“Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing,” Psalm 100:2.
This verse is all about ‘serving and singing’.
I. THE WORLD DOES NOT THINK OF THE SERVICE OF GOD AS SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT!
- Since the fall of man into sin it was so! Adam and Eve ‘hid’ from the Lord, Genesis 3:8. There was nothing pleasant about the presence of the Lord or of His Word! Likewise, Cain had no delight in the worship ordained by God, Genesis 4:3.
- Mankind rejects the Word of God and seeks to replace it. “Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing,” Hosea 8:11-12. God’s Word is counted a ‘foreign’ thing, even an enemy!
- So it will continue to the end of this age. “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army,” Revelation 19:19.
II. IN TRUTH, THERE CAN BE NO JOY EXCEPT IT BE FOUND IN THE SERVICE OF GOD.
- Conversion to Christ entails joy. “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance,” Acts 2:28. That is how the Christian life begins and how it will conclude. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” Jude 1:24.
- Obedience to God always brings joy. Acts 8:6, 8, 13:52, 15:3; Romans 14:17. Even when persecuted, 1 Thess 1:6.
- Such joy is a wonder to the world. See Luke 5:25-26.
- Disobedience always ends in tears. No better example is that of Peter! “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly,” Matthew 26:75. It was a sorrow unequalled, the word only appears in connection with Peter’s repentance!
III. WE SHOULD REMEMBER THESE WORDS EVERY TIME WE COME INTO GOD’S HOUSE TO WORSHIP
It is there we encounter His presence. Matthew 18:20. He likes to hear us sing!