Last time I preached at Christalaya, it was on Psalm 8. That was a psalm of unrestrained praise. Moreover, it was addressed to God himself. Today we are dealing with Psalm 100. And while this too is a psalm of praise, it has a distinctly different tone and character. Shorter than most of the psalms, Psalm 100 is nonetheless a psalm of complete praise.

What do I mean? Even a cursory reading of the bible will reveal that there are some numbers that are highly significant. For example, the number forty is a number of testing. The Israelites were tested in the desert of forty years. Prior to that they were slaves in Egypt for ten times that period. Jesus himself was tested in the desert of forty days. And the disciples’ beliefs were tested for forty days between Jesus resurrection and ascension.

Another number that is carries significance is twelve. There were twelve tribes of Israel and, following that, twelve Apostles. This is a number that indicates full representation of the group being represented.

Psalm 100 has two numbers that are highly significant. The first is a number that indicates completion or perfection. Those of you who attend the studies on Revelation will be able to anticipate it. It is the number seven.

In this psalm we encounter seven imperatives through which the psalmist invites us to revere God. Did you hear them? First, shout for joy in v. 1. Second, worship the Lord in v. 2. Third, come before him also in v. 2. Fourth, know that the Lord is God in v. 3. Fifth, enter his gates with thanksgiving in v. 4. Sixth, give thanks to him, also in v. 4. Seventh, praise his name, also in v. 4.

But this is not all! The psalm has a structure beyond this with v. 3 forming the hinge for vv. 1-5. The first imperative is ‘shout for joy’ which is balanced by the seventh ‘praise his name’. Shouting for joy to the Lord is the same as praising his name. Both verbs require the mouth.

Interestingly, both verbs have an ambiguity to them. רוַּע (rua) can be translated ‘make a joyful noise’ or ‘raise a cry of alarm’, two meanings that are quite the opposite of each other. בָּרַך (barak) can mean both ‘praise’ and ‘curse’, again two meanings that are in opposition for each other. If we had only these two sentences of this psalm, we would not be able to determine how to understand them. Only the rest of the psalm tells us.

The second invitation is ‘worship the Lord’ balanced by the sixth ‘give thanks to him’. Worshiping God and giving him thanks are synonymous. Both verbs indicate that the body must be used. עָבַד (abad) involves a prostration of the body before a king, while יָדָה (yadah) implies a stretching of one’s hands as in adoration.

Here too, however, there is ambiguity. עָבַד (abad) can mean both ‘worship’ and ‘be enslaved’ while יָדָה (yadah) could mean ‘give thanks’ as well as ‘mourn’. Again, if we had only these two sentences we would not be able to determine which meanings are meant.

The third command is ‘come before him’ which is balanced by the fifth ‘enter his gates’. In the context of a temple, one can come before the Lord only by entering the gates of the temple. Here the same word is used in both places.

Here there is no ambiguity for the word בּוֹא (bo) means ‘to come’. And the content of the coming in both cases is quite specific. We are to come before him with singing and to enter his gates with thanksgiving.

So at last we are being provided with a context within which we can interpret the other pairs of verbs correctly. We are to ‘make a joyful noise’ not ‘raise a cry of alarm’. We are to ‘praise’ God and not ‘curse’. We are to ‘worship’ and not ‘be enslaved’. And we are to ‘give thanks’ and not ‘mourn’.

And so we come to the hinge in v. 3, ‘know that the Lord is God’. English, for all its riches, is a poor language especially when it comes to any talk about knowledge.

Also with our current understanding of biology, it is easy to conclude that ‘to know’ means  ‘to have direct cognition of’ or ‘to be aware of’. But this locates knowledge solely in the brain.

The people of the Ancient Near East were not so deluded. The word used here is יָדַע (yada’). Do not confuse it with the earlier mentioned יָדָה (yadah), which means ‘give thanks’. The two words are homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings.

The word used here does not mean simply to have a mental assent to some series of facts. Rather, יָדַע (yada’) implies being immersed, entwined, enmeshed with another to such an extent that distinction becomes impossible. This is why the same word is used throughout the Old Testament as a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

So when the psalmist tells us to ‘know that the Lord is God’ he is telling us that we should become so immersed in the understanding of this claim, so entwined in the comprehension of this belief, so enmeshed in the perception of this fact that we would be completely unhinged either if it were not true or if we gave up the belief.

As a mark of superior composition and artistic flair, the psalmist places this hinge of faith as the hinge of his psalm. Without the certainty of this hinge of faith, the other six imperatives have no meaning. Without this we might ‘curse’ and not ‘praise’, we might ‘be enslaved’ and not ‘worship’, we might ‘mourn’ and not ‘give thanks’. This is not some song written without thought. Rather, it is a composition that indicates deep thought and profound insight into the nature of the life as a human being.

Without the world shattering conviction that Yahweh is God, we will simply sink into a life of cursing and slavery and mourning rather than being made to fly with praise and worship and thanksgiving. Without this hinge our life falls to pieces.

But why should we even bother about this? This gets us to the second number in this psalm, the number one. In the whole psalm there is only one reason, which appears in the concluding verse. Why should we even bother to praise God and worship him and offer our thanksgiving?

Because the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. The bible has no room for a deity who does not act for the good of his people. The scriptures have no place for a distant deistic divinity who creates the universe and then goes off on some cosmic holiday. The psalmist cannot contemplate non-experiential belief. No! He urges us to worship and praise and thank God because of God’s favor toward us.

The message of the psalm is clear. Once your life becomes so enmeshed in the life of God, you will realize that God is a faithful loving God, one who acts on behalf of his people, one who delivers his people, one who constantly and continuously bestows his favor on those who are his. And in the context of that enmeshing we realize that the only response we can genuinely offer is praise and worship and thanksgiving.

(Sermon preached at Christalaya, Koramangala on 3 February 2013)