Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving
Psalm 100v4
15th August 2025
This is the fourth of our verse-by-verse studies of Psalm 100.
Psalm 100v4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
In Old Testament times, the people would leave their homes from time to time to go up to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple there. The psalmist says that, as they pass through the gates of the temple into the temple courts, they should do so with thanksgiving and praise. This teaching applies directly to us, the church, God's New Testament people because we are now God's temple. As Paul asks the church in Corinth:
Psalm 100v4
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in your midst?
As he told the church Ephesus:
Ephesians 2v19-21
... you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with
God’s people and also members of his household,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus
himself as the chief cornerstone.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy
temple in the Lord.
As Peter wrote:
1 Peter 2v4-5a
As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by
God and precious to him -
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual
house.
These verses show us that the New Testament temple of God is constructed of people, not of stones. Every Christian is, as Peter says, a living stone, and God is building us together. Since we the church are the New Testament temple of God, when we come together it is our responsibility to come with thanksgiving and praise, as God's Old Testament people were urged to do.
There are important similarities between God's Old Testament and New Testament temples. Especially, they are both holy places where God dwells. God dwelt in the Old Testament temple, above the Ark of the Covenant, which was kept in a special room called "The Holy of Holies". God also dwells in the church. We know that when we come together, we are a holy place. God dwells in our meeting, as Jesus said:
Matthew 18v20
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
A second similarity between the Old and New temples is how they were first dedicated. When the Israelites first built the Jerusalem temple, King Solomon offered a prayer of dedication, which began with these words, giving proper respect to the Lord God:
2 Chronicles 6v14
"Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth —
you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue
wholeheartedly in your way."
That prayer ended with:
2 Chronicles 6v40-42
"Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers
offered in this place.
Now arise, Lord God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of
your might.
May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
may your faithful people rejoice in your goodness.
Lord God, do not reject your anointed one.
Remember the great love promised to David your servant."
The next thing the story of the dedication of the temple tells us is:
2 Chronicles 7v1-3
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the
burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the
temple.
The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the
Lord filled it.
When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord
above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground,
and they worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "He is good; his
love endures forever."
Thus the old temple was dedicated to God and filled with His glory. The church is also dedicated to God. The story of the beginning to the church is very similar. It began with prayer - concerted and persistent prayer:
Acts 1v12-14
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of
Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.
When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.
Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas,
Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and
Judas son of James.
They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and
Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Then:
Acts 2v1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and
filled the whole house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to
rest on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
When the church - God's new temple - was dedicated to God, He responded by coming upon it in glory as a powerful demonstration that He would be pleased to dwell there, as He did for the original temple.
Every local church should remember that it exists for God, for the worship of God and for prayer to Him. Every local church, when it gathers for worship, should recognise the presence of the transcendent God. It should therefore behave with appropriate reverence. Our time together should be God-focussed, not man-focussed.
We've all got problems and sadnesses. We shouldn't be unrealistic about this, and it's good to enquire about how our brothers and sisters are doing, what's happening in their lives, and how they're feeling. It's good to offer a sympathetic ear and a prayer. Nevertheless, we come to church primarily to worship almighty God, who's shown us such mercy, forgiveness, power, wisdom and provision, that it's only right, only proper, that we give Him thanks and praise from the moment we walk through the church door. We are here to worship His name, and that must be our first priority when we gather before Him.
As 2 Chronicles 6v40 requested, the temple - the church - is a place where God's eyes are open and His ears are attentive to the prayers offered in this place. As God promised through the prophet Isaiah:Isaiah 56v7b
"My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
It's great to pray for one another, and for the world, while we're together, but the worship of the Lord comes first.
And in our private times of prayer and worship, it's good to begin by thanking God for His generosity to us, and praising His holy name, before we start asking Him for stuff, isn't it? It gets our priorities right, it puts God first, as is only proper. Let us remember that church is about God more than it's about us.