Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”  Psalm 100:1-5

This psalm is extremely important to our family, including my wife’s family.  It was the favorite of my mother in law’s mother, MeMa.  She passed away from cancer two months before my wife and I were to be married.  She was a true, Godly woman who served the Lord to the end and sang His praises with her last breaths.  This passage was an important part of her celebration of life, and a copy in her handwriting, along with her picture, hangs on our refrigerator.  We see it often and remember her, her faith, and her legacy.

A psalm is a sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those contained in the biblical Book of Psalms and used in Christian and Jewish worship.

The psalmist starts this proclamation with the command to praise the Lord.  I have found our life circumstances can be seen a lot differently when we see them through the lens of praising God.  We praise the Lord for His blessings, we praise Him for His grace, we praise Him for His Holiness, we praise Him for He is worthy of praise.  HE IS GOD!   If you find yourself struggling to give God praise in light of your presence situation, praise Him for giving you life today, for providing for you today, and most importantly for the blood of Jesus which saves you TODAY!  When we start the day thanking God, we start by putting life in perspective, the perspective of being HIS!

Listen again to what the writer proclaims belongs to God:

HIS presence

We are HIS

We are HIS people

The sheep of HIS pasture

HIS gates

HIS courts

HIS name

His steadfast love

His faithfulness

It is not by accident we are given all these HIS statements.  This is to proclaim and remind us, that if we are HIS, and He is good, then what else shall we do than to trust HIM.

The question today for all of us is: “Is your life deliberately surrendered to HIM, ARE YOU HIS?”

May your life always be HIS, you will never regret it!

You are Valued and Loved, Pastor B

Rev. Brad McKenzie is Lead Pastor at Orange First Church of the Nazarene, 3810 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Orange.