V.
Let’s read Psalm 100 again and having already paid attention to the “command” we are given in the first words of the Psalm, let’s ask Why?

Why are we directed to make a “joyful noise”?

VI.
Psalm 100 (NRSV)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that 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.

VII.
Why do you think we should make a joyful noise?

Have you ever heard the expression, “Fake it, till you can make it”?

Is that what the Psalmist suggests?

If you make a joyful noise long enough, with the effort required to do so, you will eventually be joyful?

The Psalmist even tells us to “come into his presence with singing.”

So this singing, this joyful noise, is a requirement to approach Him? Without the right kind of singing, without the right song, we should not approach Him and our worship is meaningless and a lost cause?

Or, should we pay attention to how the the Psalmist ends his song –

For the Lord is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
And his faithfulness to all generations.

How would you factor that in the “joyful noise” we are encouraged to make?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}