I think we would all agree that our purpose on earth is to serve God and praise Him. After all, He sent His Son to die for our sins and has given us so much. This, along with many others, is a reason to praise Him. Psalm 100 was strictly written for praise, and in its context we find five reasons for praising God.
The first reason is found in the first part of vs. 3. “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.” The first reason for praising God is because He made us. Since God made us, we are subject to Him, and are expected to give Him praise. God is displeased when people start praising themselves. The idea here is that we are to give God the glory.
Herod found out the hard way that we must give glory to God and not ourselves. The account is found in Acts 12:20-23, “Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, ‘The voice of a god and not of a man!’ Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.” This is a perfect example of how displeased God is when He sees the ones that He created giving glory to themselves. We must give glory to God!
The second reason is found in the latter part of vs. 3, “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” The idea here is that since we are created by God, we are His people. In other words, we belong to God. Since we belong to Him, all the praise and honor that we can give belong to God as well (Revelation 19:1). As Christians, we belong to God in a way that the people of the world cannot. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He would build His church. This implies that the church belongs to Jesus, and since the church belongs to Jesus, those individuals that make up the church belong to Him. The scriptures teach in many places that we as saints are Christ’s (Galatians 3:29; 5:24; 2 Corinthians 10:7). Belonging to Christ can only be achieved by obedience, and once we obey Him and belong to Him, we have every reason to praise Him.
The third reason is found at the beginning of vs. 5, “For the Lord is good.” The concept of God being good means that God is perfect, the absolute opposite of evil (James 1:13). There is positively no evil in Him. This means that God is merciful and compassionate towards those He cares for and is not going to be evil in any way towards them. He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), and because of this, we have reason to praise Him (Psalm 86:15; 136:2; Luke 1:78; Ephesians 2:4).
In fact, this mercy that I just mentioned will never cease. The middle of vs. 5 says, “His mercy is everlasting.” Mercy often refers to forgiveness, but not only forgiveness. Benevolence and kindness (which are part of forgiveness) are also included in mercy. Jesus said that He would give His disciples an eternal home with Him when this life is over (John 14:1-3). In this sense, we can truly say that the Lord’s mercy will endure forever in His kindness, which He will continue to show us throughout all eternity. This is truly a great reason to praise God!
The fifth and final reason is found at the end of vs. 5, “And His truth endures to all generations.” God is a God of truth (Deuteronomy 32:4). God has spoken the truth in everything that He has said. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Not only are God’s words true, but they also endure, as Psalm 100:5 says. This idea can also be found in 1 Peter 1:24-25 which says, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away: but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Here, the flesh is mentioned as something that will fall away and perish, but God’s word will abide forever.
This is why we must put our trust in the words of God instead of what is fleshly or physical. Not only does the word of God endure, but it endures to all generations. Today, this is clearly seen in that God’s word is still available, and is being taught in all the earth. This truly is something for which to glorify God, because God’s word — which tells us how to be saved — is available to us whenever we may need it.
These are five of many reasons to praise God, and since we will be praising God throughout all eternity, we had better get used to the idea of praising Him in this life. Otherwise, refusing to praise Him will cost us our souls, and we will never get the chance to praise Him forever and ever.
Jonathan Glaesemann
