Psalm 100 depicts God as the shepherd of his people just as Psalm 23 does. The shepherd metaphor does not just express God’s care but also God’s authority. Psalm 100 makes this explicit with a statement of ownership: “We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We have been purchased at a great price through the death of Jesus Christ and the price that God paid for us is expressive of the degree to which he treasures us. This sense of belonging to God is inscribed into our being as our most fundamental desire. We have a deep innate need and desire to belong. Psalm 100 exhorts us to take a disposition of worship before God; to come into his courts with praise and thanks in order to experience his goodness. This disposition is our acknowledgement of belonging. It is a gesture of putting our lives in God’s hands. For the psalmist, this call to worship is not a call to onerous religious obligation. It is presented as an opportunity to experience the goodness of God. The invitation to worship comes amidst celebration. We all desire to belong and often we give ourselves over to things that drain our lives and leave us empty. But God will fill us with his goodness and our cup will always overflow as David says in Psalm 23. Find your peace and joy in belonging to God.
Give praise and thanks to God for his goodness to you.
Read Psalm 100
