Serving cheerfully with all our being
O God and Father of all,
Whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men, women, and children everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 NKJV
What does the LORD your God require of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and His decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own good.
Raymond Brown
God’s love for his people is the foundation of the covenant. Although the initiative is with God, however, there are two parties to the agreement. Israel must respond to God’s love by loving him in return. Moreover, just as the Lord demonstrates his love in his practical deeds, they must do the same. They must not love in word only either. The covenant requirements are undeniably explicit. The Lord expects them to give expression to their love for him and their commitment to his covenant in several ways. People will know that they love God because of their reverential worship (fear), holy living (walk in all his ways), willing obedience (observe the Lord’s commands), active service (serve) and wholehearted devotion (with all your heart and with all your soul).[1]
Psalm 100 NKJV
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
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.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
R. E. O. White
[Psalm 100 is] an excited, joyous invitation, universal in scope, is extended to shout, worship, come, know, enter, give thanks, and praise, not as a duty but because God made us, shepherds us, is good, loving, and timelessly faithful.[2]
Matthew Henry
Know ye what God is in himself, and what he is to you. Know it; consider and apply it, then you will be more close and constant, more inward and serious, in his worship. The covenant of grace set down in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, with so many rich promises, to strengthen the faith of every weak believer, makes the matter of God’s praise and of his people’s joys so sure, that how sad soever our spirits may be when we look to ourselves, yet we shall have reason to praise the Lord when we look to his goodness and mercy, and to what he has said in his word for our comfort.[3]
Almighty God,
Whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified; Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
I Want to Praise You, Lord
https://youtu.be/xPLr9m6avGA?si=aHS4yaR-uhsldLRe
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Raymond Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy: Not by Bread Alone, ed. J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993), 137–138.
[2] R. E. O. White, “Psalms,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 391.
[3] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ps 100:1.
