"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name."
Psalm 100:4
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“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,”
To “enter into His gates” is to join others in the public worship of Jehovah. “His gates” are the place of entrance into His Temple, the site of worship for the Jews. It is a coming together to offer our devotion to Him.
“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker,” (Psalm 95:6).
When believers today come together to worship (“corporate worship”), we no longer offer the Old Testament blood sacrifices for sin, for those ended with Christ’s one substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. “Expiatory sacrifices are ended, but those of gratitude will never be out of date. So long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be givers of thanks”[1] (Spurgeon).
We will never fully repay our debt of thanks to the Lord, for He is always giving His child mercy and grace.
“And into his courts with praise:”
His “gates” opened into “His courts,” the large open area in the Temple complex. This is where the people gathered to worship together.
“My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God,” (Psalm 84:2).
One element of God’s people worshipping together is the praise given to Jehovah. We praise Him because He is God and He is good! (v. 5).
“Be thankful unto him,”
We offer God our thanks and praise because He is good! He gives good gifts to His child; therefore we come to Him with grateful hearts.
“Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High,” (Psalm 50:14).
“And bless his name.”
Spurgeon reminds us that our God blesses us continually and so we need to bless Him as well. Bless Him for His character, for who He is, for His attributes, for His love and grace, bless Him!
Bless His name. His names teach us truth about His character and works. His titles are a source of great blessing for His child. Oh, Christians, let’s gather together to praise His name, let’s bring to Him the “sacrifice of praise,” (Jeremiah 33:11; Hebrews 13:15).
[1] C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, the electronic version in eSword. Psalm 100:4.