Shout for joy

“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.” – Psalm 100

I love this Psalm! I picture the Israelites on their way to the temple, preparing their hearts for worship and an encounter with the Living God. This Psalm is so full of joy, gratitude, confidence, and hope. It makes me wonder what life was like for the Psalmist when it was written.

Was life easy, hard, prosperous, or impoverished?

I wonder because the bulk of the Old Testament paints a “not so flattering” picture of the Israelites. In fact, according to the Old Testament, the Israelites struggled most of the time. Sometimes, their struggles were caused by outside influences and many times, they were self-inflicted, but the result was almost always the same: heartache, suffering, and a whole lot of confusion (just read the Prophets).

Regardless of the circumstances, this Psalmist had hope. This Psalm found its way into the Book of Psalms, which was basically the Hymnal for the Israelites. In other words, Psalm 100 wasn’t just an expression of the Psalmist’s heart but also of the Israelites’ heart. It was sung during times of prosperity and peace as well as times of poverty and chaos.

This makes me wonder: How were the Israelites able to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving despite their immense struggles?

The same question could be asked of us today.

How can we express joy and gratitude toward God amid our struggles, suffering, and a climate of chaos?

More importantly, where does our hope come from when life seems so difficult?

The answer, interestingly enough, is found in Psalm 100 itself: “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” For the Psalmist, for the Israelites, joy, gratitude, confidence and hope were found in the enduring promises and presence of God. You see, no matter how bad things got with the Israelites, God never left them. God was always present and promised to be with them. In fact, God promised that, at some point, His Chosen One would come, dwell with humanity, and establish His kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Enter Christmas!

The moment that God’s presence and promises entered into the world and changed everything!

It’s the moment the Israelites looked forward to and the moment we look back on. The moment that, according to John, “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”

Last Sunday, we “kicked off” the Season of Hope with our Night of 1000 Candles worship. It was an evening filled with anticipation and excitement as we looked forward to and celebrated the coming of hope—God with us!

I don’t know what life looks like for you right now. What I do know, as the Psalmist wrote and the Israelites sang, is that “The Lord is good, and his love endures forever.” And my hope, no matter what you are experiencing, is that as we approach the birth of Jesus, we will experience this goodness and love, know that “we are his people, the sheep of his pasture,” and be able to “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.”

This is my prayer for us this Christmas season and I don’t know of any better way for us to experience this than to be an active part of our Hillspring family, especially during the Christmas season. From Sunday worship to our Living Nativity, to our Christmas Eve Candlelight service, and everything in between, we have so much hope to experience and share!

So here’s my plea: Don’t miss out; participate and invite others to participate as well!

Why?

Because when we do, the hope that took on flesh and blood at Christmas fills us with God’s presence and everything – including us – becomes a little bit more “on earth as it is in heaven!”

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Justin