Worship and Serve the Lord With Gladness
Psalm 100v2
1st August 2025
We continue our study of Psalm 100. Last time, we studied verse 1, which says "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth". Verse 2 continues the thought. In the NIV, us says:
Psalm 100v2
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
The ESV has:
Psalm 100v2
Serve the Lord with gladness!
come into his presence with singing!
I don’t know if the best translation here is "worship" or "serve" but I think we can agree that it’s good to do both, to worship and serve the Lord, and to do so with gladness. Sadly, it seems to me that many Christian people who worship and serve the Lord do so with faithfulness and sincerity but without much gladness. I suspect the English are generally not much given to exuberant expressions of gladness, expect with regard to unimportant matters such as sporting events. But Christian people, even Christian Englishmen, surely have reason enough to rejoice! Our God, and the salvation Jesus Christ has won for us on the cross, are worth celebrating, more than anything else. Perhaps we should work on this.
It also seems to me that many who do worship/serve the Lord with gladness, who do come before him with joyful songs, only do so when their lives are going well. But 1 Thessalonians 5v16 tells us to "be joyful always" and 1 Thessalonians 5v18 says, "give thanks in all circumstances". We know from these verses and similar passages that it's possible to rejoice, to be glad, always. No matter how difficult things get, we can always rejoice at the majesty of God, His grace, His love, His purity, his faithfulness, His power, His wisdom, everything He’s done for us, and everything He’s promised to do for us. We can rejoice that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). If we truly believe the Bible, if we’re genuinely aware of God’s hand on our lives, we can indeed choose to rejoice always. And we can rejoice that one day all the earth will shout for joy to the Lord.
God is realistic. He knows we’ll be sad, lonely, ill, tired, hurt, disappointed, betrayed, depressed, sometimes. But we can always choose to remember our wonderful God and rejoice, even in the pain. Joy is not the absence of pain. Joy is the antidote to pain. It’s balm for our souls.
The end of verse 2 says "come before him with singing." There is much more to worship than singing. We worship when we pray, when we read the Bible, when we preach, when we share the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion. But sung worship can be wonderful when we truly sing with joy. When we gather together before the Lord and sing joyfully to Him of His greatness, holiness, mercy and love, we encourage each other, helping one another to continue to serve and worship God with gladness. It’s really important to keep coming to church, to stay involved. It’s good for us, and it’s good for our brothers and sisters. Isolated Christians are ineffective Christians.
When we come before the Lord with joyful singing we also have an effect on any not-yet-Christian people who’ve come to our meetings to seek God. They see something of the glory of God, and something of the joy God has given us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus our sung worship in obedience to verse 2, contributes to the evangelisation of the world in obedience to verse 1.
It’s a great blessing to me to worship God in the church, His people in joyful assembly. And it’s also a great joy to worship God when I’m alone. I think our private prayer times, too, are richer if we include sung worship as well as confession and intercession. As Nehemiah told the Jews:
Nehemiah 8v10b
"The joy of the Lord is your strength."
Ultimately, joy is a choice we make. If we choose to focus on the difficulty and pain of earthly life, we can lose our joy. If we choose instead to focus on the greatness and mercy of our wonderful gGod, we can grow in joy, even when things on earth are really hard. May almighty God help you to develop and nurture a joyful spirit, finding joy in God on the difficult days as well as the good ones.