Joyful, Joyful

 

[The following is a manuscript of my short devotional delivered on Sunday, the 30th of October, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church, right before we enjoyed our 5th Sunday sing-along of favorite hymns.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.]

Today is the 5th Sunday of the month, and we’ll enjoy singing our favorite hymns in just a few minutes.  But first I have a short message to share with you.  And it is based on the 100th Psalm of our Bible.

We don’t know for sure who authored Psalm 100, but it certainly speaks to us for our service this morning.  Please listen to his beautiful song, as saved for us in the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!

2 Serve the Lord with gladness;

come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord, He is God;

it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise;

be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good; His mercy endures forever,

and His faithfulness to all generations.

--Psalm 100 (MEV)

Have you ever been watching a movie or TV show and heard a mother scolding her somewhat disobedient teenage child by saying, “You better behave!  I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!”

Well, family, God brought us into this world and He can take us out at any moment.  He created us – we are His, His property, to do with as He pleases.  If for no other reason than that, we should praise Him and be thankful; thankful that He doesn’t take us out.  But really, He does so much more for us.

God is our good Father, seeing to our needs and giving us so much more than just what we need to get by.  He gives us life, and then He gives us all manner of treats and treasures to make life enjoyable.

But more than that, God is merciful.  Just like that mother in the movie, our heavenly Father keeps forgiving us our misbehaving and disobedience.  He is ever faithful to us, even when our faith wavers.

God is good.  All the time.  So it is right and proper that we make a joyful noise unto our Lord.  Let us serve Him with gladness and love.  Let us come before His presence with singing, with thanksgiving, and with praise!  In the beautiful name of Christ Jesus, Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, You are such a very good Father to us!  You provide for our needs, and then give us so much more.  Father, You give us life, and You should patient and faithful mercy to us.  You are gracious to us even when we don’t deserve it.  So Father, we come into Your presence this morning with singing, and especially with thanksgiving.  Thank You, Father God, for all Your goodness and kindness and mercy and grace.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

And now let’s have some fun with our sing-along!

In 1907, Henry van Dyke wrote a poem titled, “The Hymn of Joy”, with the intention of musically setting it to the famous “Ode to Joy” melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's final masterpiece, Symphony No. 9.  Both the poem and the music are beautiful and uplifting, and I’d like to ask that this be our first hymn, because I believe it perfectly expresses why we should make a joyful noise unto our Lord and serve Him with gladness.

So go ahead and open your hymnals to #36 and let’s sing the first and last verses for the message that Mr. van Dyke, Mr. Beethoven, and the author of Psalm 100 blessed us with.

(Joyful singing follows.)