A Thanksgiving Bible Study...

Here’s something for your personal meditation on the Word of God this week as you prepare your heart for a day of Thanksgiving.  Enjoy getting into this gem from the Psalms and (re)discover the reasons we have to be so thankful to our God.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Worship can correctly be understood as beginning in the heart so that what comes from the lips has the ring of sincerity and truth. Find words in verses 1 and 2 that speak of the attitudes of the heart that produce true worship.

Now find words and phrases in verses 1, 2 and 4 that talk about the activity of worship.  Give examples of each activity.

Verse 3 contains the two most common names for God in the Old Testament:  Lord and God.  The name God emphasizes God’s sovereign power as the One who created all things and rules over all things. Why can that name make us joyful, glad, thankful, and confident about the future?

Four times in this psalm the psalmist refers to God as the LORD.  Read God’s own definition of that name and circle all the words and phrases that explain why we are joyful, glad, thankful, and confident that he is our God:  “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”  (Exodus 34:6-7a)

 
Verse 4:  How do we know these things about our God?  What, then, should always be a central part of our worship? 

Verse 5:  What does this verse say that helps us understand that God is worthy of our frequent and regular worship in God’s house (“his gates...his courts”)?