"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
Is it he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and 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 100:1-5 ~
This morning, as I read through a chapter in the Old Testament and a chapter in the New Testament, I knew a distance existed between me and my Father. :( Proceeding through my morning routine, the Wonderful Counselor opened my eyes to some improper motives I had acquired recently, and I confessed them to the Great High Priest.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." ~ 1 John 1:9
At breakfast, I sat down to eat and picked up my Bible. For a while now, I have been wanting to memorize Psalms, but I had already memorized Psalm 1 at one point, and it is hard to get motivated to memorize something which you have already memorized and just forgotten. Therefore, when I picked up my Bible, I decided to try starting with the back of the book, Psalm 150:
"Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord."
After I read that passage through once, I began to meditate on the first verse in order to commit it to memory, and as I did so, the manifest presence of the Spirit washed over me like a cleansing flood! :)
That occurrence reminded me of Psalm 100, especially verse 4:
"Enter...his courts with praise."
