1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
The unimaginable loss of children, has been happening all around me. It makes my heart heavy with the burden of their pain. Cancer taking the lives of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. Suicides calming the lives of our young people. Marriages falling apart because of financial problems, sexual addictions and infertility. Terror running through the Middle East. Women being killed. Tormented. Abused. Left for nothing. Imprisoned for having a miscarriage. Five year olds, kidnapped and sold as sex-slaves. It’s easy to read this, and ask “God, why have you let these atrocities happen? Where are you!?!”
From the beginning we’ve been tormented by sin, and the effects it has on us. Sin has brought death. Sin does these things to us. It kills babies still growing inside. It terrorizes us. It tears marriages apart. Sin abuses women and children.
But there is hope from this torment, and it’s found in Jesus. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is 100% God, and that he never ceases to be God. And so, the promises about God in the Old Testament, are the same promises of Jesus in the New Testament. In the midst of such tragic events, I can do just as this Psalm recites. I can make a joyful noise (Ps. 100:1), I can serve Him with gladness (100:2), and I can come into His presence singing. I can enter his gates with thanksgiving (100: 4) I believe I can do all of this, because God takes care of me (100:3). He rescues me from my sin and the death and destruction that sin causes. I don’t worry about “why God lets these things happen” because I know that sin caused all the destruction. “Know that the LORD, he is God (vs. 3), and the LORD is good (vs. 5).
