Scripture: Psalm 100:1-5
Sometime ago, I led a Bible study group on a book by Joyce Myers entitled, “The Battlefield of the Mind.” This exciting study helped us to recognize where the battle for our souls (according to Myers) were won and lost, the battlefield of the mind.
Our minds, she said, are the essence of our being and the place where God wants to dwell. Let this mind be in you, the Apostle Paul admonished the Philippian Christians, that was also in Christ Jesus (Phil.2:5).
In the beginning, John said in his Gospel, was the word or the logos; the very reason or mind of God (John 1:1). God wants to save our souls, but the battle, says Myers, begins with our minds. If the adversary controls our minds, the adversary controls us. If the adversary controls our thoughts, the adversary controls us. Many doors says Meyers, are opened to the adversary through complaining.
Christians are physically ill and spiritually weak because of complaining. Complaining, she says, is a death principle. Complaining eventually kills the complainer. Not only that, but complaining is contagious. If we are around people who are complaining, sooner or later we will find ourselves complaining. Complaining is contagious and it eventually kills the complainer.
While complaining says Myers is a death principle, being thankful is a life principle. The complainer, who finds everything that is wrong with life, has no reason to be thankful.
The psalmist in this the One Hundred Psalm exhorts worshippers as they come to worship to be thankful. Shout to the Lord, he says, and worship with gladness (vv. 1-2). Come before the Lord with joyful songs (v.3). Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise (v.4). Give thanks, the psalmist says, and praise the name of the Lord (v. 4b).
Believers can praise and worship the Lord because they know the Lord and they knew what the Lord had done. They knew of the goodness of the Lord. And so the psalmist simply says in Verse 5, that the Lord is good (v.5). David said the Lord is goodness (and mercy) follows us (Psalm 23).
The Lord is love endures forever (v.5b). John, in his gospel, says that God loved us so much that God gave the only begotten son and whosoever believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
And then the psalmist says that the Lord is faithfulness is a reason to be thankful. The Lord is faithful through all generations (Vv.5c). God is faithfulness never fails.
He blessed me, He brought me, He taught me, He kept me, He held me, He fed me, He clothed me, He raised me, He delivered me, He washed me, He made me, He saved me. He died for me. I’ve got a reason to thank God.
The Rev. Dr. Kelvin T. Calloway is the senior pastor of Bethel AME Church, 7900 S. Western Avenue in Los Angeles. Learn more at https://bethelamela.com/
