The Joy of Thanksgiving (Psalm 100)

While American Thanksgiving is particularly well-defined, with turkey dinners and traditional sides, Macy’s parades and football on TV, other countries boast their own interesting and meaningful celebrations that make up their concept of Thanksgiving. Here are a few:

1. Liberia
Liberia brought the Thanksgiving tradition directly from America, owing to its beginnings as a resettlement colony for freed black Americans. The West African country declared its independence in 1847, but its American connection is still represented in its flag, which mirrors the U.S. design. They mark their celebration on the first Thursday in November.


2. Canada 

One similar through-line that connects a lot of the Thanksgiving holidays is the celebration of harvest. That’s obviously connected to the tradition and imagery of our American holiday, but it definitely comes into play for Canada. Canadian Thanksgiving occurs on the second Monday of October. The Canadian celebration integrates a number of traditions, including turkey (an American contribution), although regional dishes like salmon are common. Like the States, Canada celebrates with a CFL Football game, while the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Thanksgiving parade runs on CTV.

3. Japan

Japan marks a November holiday called Labor Thanksgiving Day, traditionally held on the 23rd. Its historical beginning goes back to the harvest celebration of Niiname-no-Matsuri, which was a Shinto ritual enacted by the Emperor. It picked up the Labor Thanksgiving Day name and official holiday status during the post-World War II occupation of Japan by the United States. The modern interpretation of the event commemorates labor, production, and peace. School children make cards for public servants like health care workers, police, firefighters, and members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and Coast Guard. Family dinners are a staple of the day.

4. Philippines 

The Philippines has had an on-off relationship with Thanksgiving. As an American colony, it held a very American version of Thanksgiving. The celebration went underground during World War II when Japan occupied the islands, lasting until the late ’60s as a kind of secret event. President Ferdinand Marcos re-instituted it as a September observation under his reign, but it was discontinued after his ouster in 1986. Thanksgiving exists today primarily due to the aggressive marketing of the SM Supermalls chain of shopping centers. Businesses now offer big Thanksgiving sales around September, which is seen of the official kick-off of the (very long) Christmas season for the islands.

Psalm 100

One of my favorite chapters in all Scripture is Psalm 100. I love its brevity and its poetry. If I am happy or sad, this Psalm always makes me want to burst into song and dance.

Psalm 100

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2
Serve the Lord with jubilation;
Come before Him with rejoicing.
3
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courtyards with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting
And His faithfulness is to all generations.


The words of this Psalm always make me think about the Temple and people coming up to the Temple to worship. The LORD is on the throne. There is nothing more that we want to do than worship and please our King!

Psalm 100 In-depth
Verse 1: Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth!

Not only are all the human servants to rejoice, but all the earth. The trees, hills, mountains, birds, fish, beasts of the field, etc. Everything is to be joyful to the LORD. It reminds me of several verses from Scripture.

Psalm 98:4-8:
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Be cheerful and sing for joy and sing praises.
5
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
6
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.
7
May the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.
8
May the rivers clap their hands,
May the mountains sing together for joy


Isaiah 42:10-12
Sing to the Lord a new song,
Sing His praise from the end of the earth!
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it;
You islands, and those who live on them.
11
Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
The settlements which Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud,
Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains.
12
Let them give glory to the Lord
And declare His praise in the coastlands.



Verse 2: Serve the Lord with jubilation;
Come before Him with rejoicing.

In verse two, we are reminded to come before God rejoicing and serving with a glad heart. How many times do we serve God, but we do so with a sour or bitter heart? Do we get up and go to church because we have to or because it will look bad to others? Are we joyous? Or are we half asleep and wish we were back in bed?

What about serving God in the community? If we see a way to help someone, do we do it with joy? Or do we do it because other people may see our actions, and we may be esteemed more highly in their sight?

Praising God with joyful lips.
Psalm 63:1-5
God, You are my God; I shall be watching for You;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and exhausted land where there is no water.
2
So have I seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and glory.
3
Because Your favor is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
4
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5
My soul is satisfied as with fat and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.


Psalm 71:22-24
I will also praise You with a harp,
And Your truth, my God;
I will sing praises to You with the lyre,
Holy One of Israel.
23
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You;
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
24
My tongue also will tell of Your righteousness all day long;
For they are put to shame, for they are humiliated who seek my harm.

Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the LORD, always, and again I say rejoice!



Verse 3: Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Verse 3 reminds us of who is God. It is the LORD who made us. We are under His control. God is the master craftsman; we are the work of His hands. Psalm 100 is in direct contrast to Isaiah 29 where the people say the right things, but their hearts are far from God.

Isaiah 29:13-16
13 Then the Lord said,
“Because this people approaches Me with their words
And honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught;
14
Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the understanding of their men who have understanding will be concealed.”
15
Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”
16
You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

God continues His quest that all the earth knows who He is in Isaiah 45.

Isaiah 45:5-10
I am the Lord, and there is no one else;
There is no God except Me.
I will arm you, though you have not known Me,
6
So that people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no one else,
7
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.

8
“Drip down, heavens, from above,
And let the clouds pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit,
And righteousness sprout with it.
I, the Lord, have created it.
9
“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—
A piece of pottery among the other earthenware pottery pieces!
Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?
10
Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’
Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”

God calls Israel pottery, and He will do to them as He pleases as a potter does to the clay as he pleases.

Jeremiah 18:1-6
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 “Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.

It is God who made us. This expressed beautifully in Psalm 139.

Psalm 139:13-16
For You created my innermost parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14
I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15
My frame was not hidden from You
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth;
16
Your eyes have seen my formless substance;
And in Your book were written
All the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

We are the sheep of His pasture is exemplified in Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40:9-11
Go up on a high mountain,
Zion, messenger of good news,
Raise your voice forcefully,
Jerusalem, messenger of good news;
Raise it up, do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10
Behold, the Lord God will come with might,
With His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His compensation is with Him,
And His reward before Him.
11
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in the fold of His robe;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

The people of Israel are sheep. The leaders of Israel are supposed to be the shepherds, but they do not do their job. They eat the fat sheep and do not feed the flock. They use all the goods of the sheep such as the wool, but they do not support the flock. God gives a sharp rebuke to the shepherds who were supposed to be taking care of the flock, but who have been neglectful in Ezekiel 34.

Ezekiel 34:1-16:
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should the shepherds not feed the flock? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4 Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost; but with force and with violence you have dominated them. 5 They scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every animal of the field and scattered. 6 My flock strayed through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.”’”

7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “certainly, because My flock has become plunder, and My flock has become food for all the animals of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them stop tending sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will save My sheep from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”’”

11 For the Lord God says this: “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd cares for his flock on a day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing place will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in a good grazing place and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I Myself will feed My flock and I Myself will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. 16 “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will eliminate. I will feed them with judgment.


Verse 4: Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courtyards with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

In verse four, we have some terminology which may be lost to us nearly 2,000 years after the Temple has been destroyed. When Scripture talks about gates, these are in reference to the walls which surround places. There were places in the walls in which people could pass through. These passage ways were called gates. People in ancient times would have the elders and the leadership sit in these areas. It was known as sitting in the gates or sitting at the gate.

The gates which are spoken of here are in the walls which surrounded the Temple. The Temple was surrounded by walls much like the Tabernacle in the wilderness was surrounded by a fence made from animal skins. Inside the gates was the courtyard. It is in the courtyard where the sacrifices would be done.

The idea in verse four is the person is going up to the Temple to worship God. The word thanksgiving (in the Hebrew the word is todah) could mean the person is singing praises. It is also the word used for thanksgiving offerings. This person may be going up to the Temple to worship God and to offer a thanksgiving offering. 

Leviticus 7 states some of the rules surrounding the thanksgiving offering.
Leviticus 7:11-15

‘Now this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which shall be presented to the LORD. 12‘If he offers it by way of thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of well stirred fine flour mixed with oil. 13‘With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving, he shall present his offering with cakes of leavened bread. 14‘Of this he shall present one of every offering as a contribution to the LORD; it shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offerings.
     
15‘Now as for the flesh of the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offerings, it shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it over until morning.

A small portion of the offering was given to the priest, but the majority of the offering was given back to the person offering it so he could enjoy his thanksgiving offering. One thing to note, the offering was not to be leftover until the morning. This means, if a person was offering a thanksgiving offering, he was not going to be able to eat it all by himself. He would invite many people to this celebration to enjoy the feast. When people came to this event, it would be a time for the person to proclaim why he is doing a thanksgiving offering and God would receive glory.

King David talks about God’s goodness and offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving in Psalm 116.

Psalm 116:12-19
What shall I repay to the Lord
For all His benefits to me?
13
I will lift up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
14
I will pay my vows to the Lord;
May it be in the presence of all His people!
15
Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His godly ones.
16
O Lord, I surely am Your slave,
I am Your slave, the son of Your female slave,
You have unfastened my restraints.
17
I will offer You a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
18
I will pay my vows to the Lord,
May it be in the presence of all His people,
19
In the courtyards of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of you, Jerusalem!
Praise the Lord!

King David continues on his song of praise in Psalm 145.
Psalm 145:1-7

I will exalt You, my God, the King,
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
4
One generation will praise Your works to another,
And will declare Your mighty acts.
5
On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
6
People will speak of the power of Your awesome acts,
And I will tell of Your greatness.
7
They will burst forth in speaking of Your abundant goodness,
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.



Verse 5: For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting
And His faithfulness is to all generations.


God’s mercy is everlasting, from generation to generation.

Psalm 118:1-4
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His mercy is everlasting.
2
Let Israel say,
“His mercy is everlasting.”
3
Oh let the house of Aaron say,
“His mercy is everlasting.”
4
Let those who fear the Lord say,
“His mercy is everlasting.”

God’s faithfulness is to all generations.

Psalm 136:1-4
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His faithfulness is everlasting.
2
Give thanks to the God of gods,
For His faithfulness is everlasting.
3
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
For His faithfulness is everlasting.
4
To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His faithfulness is everlasting;


God’s eternal greatness is best summoned up in Exodus 34 when Moses goes back to the mountain with two new tablets he cut out like the first ones which had been broken. He encounters God, and God calls out His incredible attributes.

Exodus 34:4-8
 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses got up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand. 5 And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. 6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; 7 who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 And Moses hurried to bow low toward the ground and worship.

Psalm 95 verses one through seven encapsulate Psalm 100 beautifully.

Psalm 95:1-7
Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord,
Let’s shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
2
Let’s come before His presence with a song of thanksgiving,
Let’s shout joyfully to Him in songs with instruments.
3
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
4
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are also His.
5
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
6
Come, let’s worship and bow down,
Let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.