Saturday, March 19, 2011

PRAISE REVOLUTION: GATES

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving His courts with praise;
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is Good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations"
Psalm 100: 4-5

How important it is for each of us to know the way into God's presence? How do we enter His gates? How do we come into His courts? The psalmist points out the way that God has ordained: We enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. It is only as we come to God with thanksgiving and with praise that we have access into His presence.

The prophet Isaiah likens the presence of God among His people to a city, concerning which he says: " You will call your walls SALVATION and your gates PRAISE" (Isaiah 60:18). The only way through those walls of SALVATION is by the gates of PRAISE. Unless we learn to approach God with praise, we have no access into His presence.

Confronted with this requirement, we are sometimes tempted to look around us at our situation and ask: " But what do I have to thank God for? What do I have to praise Him for?"There may be nothing in our immediate circumstances that appears to give us cause to thank and or praise God. It is just here that the psalmist comes to our help. He gives us three reasons to thank and praise that are not affected by our circumstances: first, the Lord is good; second, His love endures forever; third, His faithfulness continues through all generations. All three reasons are eternal, unchanging facts. If we truly believe them, then we have no alternative but to praise God for them CONTINUALLY!
Like to share with you a song I wrote. You can listen to it at www.reverbnation.com/rickysim or click SONGS @ right column of blog :-

Verse 1
I will enter His gates,
With thanksgiving in my heart
Enter His courts with praise
I will sing of His grace,
For all that He has done
I will rejoice and bless His Name

Chorus
Blessed be Your Name,
My strong and mighty Tower
Blessed be Your Name,
The Rock of my Salvation
Blessed be Your Name,
There is no other name
Jesus the Name above all names

Verse 2
I was glad when they said,
Let us go into His house
There I find peace and joy
The Lord He is good
And His mercies endure
I will rejoice and bless His Name

Blessings
TPWC

2 comments:

  1. Hey Ricky. You know I was just studying some of the Hebrew on this particular verse about a week ago. I think you will like this. The Hebrew word for thanksgiving if written in english is todaw. It means to have your hands raised in thanksgiving. The word praise is tehillah. It's root is hallal which we get the word hallelujah from. It means to shine or rave in praise. Then the word bless is the hebrew word barak. It means to bow down in worship. Truly every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. What an honor is ours that we can do so every day.

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  2. Thanks David for your insightful sharing about thanksgiving, praise & bless.

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