How do we enter "his gates with thanksgiving?" That is something I am living with right now. What does that mean for how we live our lives?
In Twelve Step programs the participants often talk about gratitude. I think the Psalm may be describing an "attitude of gratitude." This way of being is how we are called to live our lives. In church we are so often serious; being serious is fine, but often the presence of joy is not experienced. When we have an attitude of gratitude we are kind, generous, loving, open, embracing, peaceful, patient - the gifts of the Spirit. But we must cultivate this attitude.
Any other thoughts, please?
Yes, I do have some more thoughts.
It sounds like you are on the road to a really powerful sermon. Remember, this is the sunday that comes before Thanksgiving.
Note the progression in this brief psalm.
1) Command, Make a joyful noise to God
2) This is how you fulfill the command
A) Worship God
B) Know tht God is good
C) THEN (and only then) can we enter God's gates.
3) This is why: For God is good.
I see the problem as one of prioirity. We don't do the steps in the right order or for the right reason.
Some questions:
What makes us glad? Worship, or a hot new purchase?
When we doubt our knowlege of God's goodness, have we spent time worshipping?
How often do we try to enter God's gates with demands, requests, complaints, or somthing other than glad worship and the simple knowlege that God is really good?
Finally, a note about what the psalmist is thankful for. There is no mention of material gain, possessions, security, wealth, or any of the things we typically give thanks for. This psalmist was simply thankful for the knowlege that God is in fact Good!
It really is an attitude of gratitude!
DWR
Verse three has some textual variances that are worth noting.
The NRSV, RSV and NIV all footnote verse 3 with the addition of "and not we ourselves."
The KJV reads "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we oursleves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."
The TEV, CEV, and NAB do not print the addition and also do not footnote any alternative readings.
As I continue to pray and reflect over this passage, that textual variance resonates with me. I will be preaching on this text Sunday and am interested in input here.
On the one hand, the addtion of "and not we ourselves" preaches a powerful sermon aginst the rugged individualism that permiates our world today. We are not self-made people, but belong only to God who has made us.
On the other hand, the weight of biblical intrepretation seems to focus on omitting that phrase.
Unfortunately, I have not found anything that specifically addresses this particular textual variant. Any thoughts on wheather or not it belongs? Is including it faithful to the text or would it be better left out?
Just some intermittant thoughts as I prepare for Sunday.
Peace,
DWR
Does anyone have the original words to the hymn tune "OLD HUNDREDETH" ???
Many of us know that as the tune for the Doxology but I am assuming (You know what happens when we assume) that it was originally written to go with a translation of Psalm 100. Any thougts?
Peace,
DWR
These words are so powerful. I am trying to discern the feelings that come when you are aware that you have just entered into the presence of God and know God to be a loving and forgiving God. There is joy and wonder and deep gratitude. But how do you say thanks appropriately?
The Psalmist gives us some hints:
1. An appropriate thanks names the gift. How many thanksgiving tables will be full of the word "thanksgiving" and never point to anything that is attributed to God. Too many tables will be turned into slabs of reward that come to the hard working.
2. An appropriate thanks comes from the heart. Real thanksgiving is more than etiquette, more than duty. There is an awareness that one's life has been blessed by a power much greater than the self, a blessing that was not earned or deserved. God is so good.
3. The appropriate thanks given to God is worship. Worship with gladness, singing, and praise. This worship happens corporately in church, but should also happen in the homes. The home of the Christian is a sacred place where too often we fail to take off our shoes.
In my community we had a city-wide thanksgiving service last Sunday. Our theme was "Thanksgiving begins with hunger."
The idea was based in the fact that the nostalgic "first thanksgiving" was not an ellegant dining room table spread with many times more food than could possibly be eaten in one setting.
We had a woman give her testamony. Coming from a family of 9 children, alcoholic father, and dysfunctional mother, she knew hunger and poverty first hand. Her first marriage was clouded by drug use and physical abuse. It was only after she had hit rock bottom, had seen the horrors of hell on earth, and sacraficed herself body and soul for drugs that she turned to Jesus.
Today, her tables are far from full and her life far from peaceful. She still suffers the long term ripples of her life before knowing God. Yet, that single difference, "knowing God," is the pivitol difference for her. Thanksgiving for this woman has little to do with rewards for hard work or gluttonous consumption of all the turkey a person can stuff. Thanksgiving for her comes out of the deep hunger (physical and spiritual) that ruled so much of her life. She is thankful to have been filled with the knowlege that God is God and she has been saved by God as manifest in Jesus Christ!
Peace,
DWR
Concerning the origin of OLD HUNDREDTH
According to "Companion to Hymnbook for Christian Worship, Arthur N. Wake, Bethany Press, 1970
"...in all probability the tune was composed (and some add 'or adapted') by Louis Bourgeois for the Genevan Psalter of 1551. There it was used for Psaml 134. It appeared with Kethe's Psalm One Hundred in the Four Score and Seven Psalms of David, Geneva, 1561, and also in Day's Whole Book of Psalms which was published in the same year."p.348
Blessings, JFEV
How about doing something with the 5 grains of corn that was the food ration for those early pilgrims. It fits with the theme of thanksgiving and also with the theme of God of all generations in Psalm 100. I think I'm going to put 5 candy corn pieces in sandwich bags to hand out to the children when I talk about the rough time those pilgrims had in the early days of life here in our country. Glad in Il
