Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name (v. 4). Those entering the temple and presenting themselves in its courtyards are encouraged to come with joyful thanksgiving before the Lord. Clearly this was a song sung either by priests or worshippers as they entered into the precincts of the temple. The mention of ‘thanksgiving’ ties in with the expression in the title, ‘with thanksgiving’ (it is the same word in Hebrew). The final expression is literally ‘bless his name’ (bârakû shemô), drawing attention to the fact that the worshippers are to have the Lord himself as their focal point. His self-revelation as the redeemer of his covenant people calls forth praise. Some church buildings have a brass plate in their foyer with the Latin inscription: ‘Ad majorem Dei gloriam’ (‘To the greater glory of God’). This captures the central point in this call.[1]
100:4 / In Israelite religion “entering [Hb. bōʾû] the temple gates and courts” was tantamount to “coming [Hb. bōʾû] before him” (v. 2). The temple was not a building conveniently constructed for congregational worship—it was Yahweh’s dwelling. We should not attempt to see a progression in entering his gates with thanksgiving (Hb. tôdâ) and then into his courts with praise (Hb. tehillâ), as though praise were a higher form of worship. Following and balancing this imperative to enter are two more imperatives, the first of which is give thanks (from Hb. hôdâ). This offering of thanksgiving (Hb. tôdâ), noted both in this verse and the superscription, could refer either to a thanksgiving sacrifice (116:17; Lev. 7:12–15) or to a thanksgiving psalm.[2]
100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving. The imagery is that of the “gates” and “courts” of the temple. These words may have been spoken by the gatekeeper, giving the worshipers permission to enter. If this psalm was recited in the temple in a service of thanksgiving, the psalm implies either a preexilic date, when the temple was still standing, or, most likely, a postexilic date, when the temple had been reconstructed. Further, the idea that the salvation of the nations is celebrated in the temple courts is a proclamation of a new theological boldness, arising out of the developing theology of the postexilic community. While it is difficult to imagine that the occasion issues an invitation to gentiles to enter the temple, it is likely an expression of the new theology’s openness to the universal perspective, but it is still quite wonderfully shocking.[3]
4. Here the invitation, or rather the command, is reiterated: surely such a God, such a Creator, such a Redeemer, may well demand our warmest praise. And therefore let us enter into his courts: let us approach his footstool: let praise, thanksgiving, and sacred joy fill every heart, swell every song, burst from every tongue: bless, bless his name! Reader, in the Jewish church, the courts of God’s house became the nearest place the Gentiles were permitted to approach, in their sacred worship: and even Israel was not allowed to enter into the Holy Place. But you and I, poor Gentiles by nature, and sinners by practice, are permitted to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus; nay, commanded to come, and find grace to help in all time of need. Think, my brother, of the vast privilege; and let us improve it to his glory, in whose name and righteousness we can alone come, and by whose rich redemption such blessings are alone made ours.[4]
4. The simplicity of this invitation may conceal the wonder of it, for the courts are truly his, not ours (as Isa. 1:12 had to remind the triflers), and his gates are shut to the unclean (Rev. 21:27). Yet not only his outer courts but the Holy of Holies itself are thrown open ‘by the new and living way’, and we are welcome. This in itself is cause enough for praise, and the final verse will have more to add.[5]
Ver. 4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.—Thankfulness:—
Thankfulness denotes a composite emotion, whose elements are joy for a gift, and love for the giver. It differs from gratitude, not essentially, but only in form; the one being necessarily a feeling only, the other that feeling both existent and expressed.
I. The hindrances which practically interfere with this great moral and Christian duty.
1. The habit of looking too much at other people, and too little at ourselves. If the poor man would go into his own heart, and fling overboard all but his own peculiar cares and troubles, and sit down to feast on the rich viands God has gathered as his sea-stores, then his lightened and relieved bark would float buoyantly on the waters, and answer readily her helm, and with glad songs and bright skies, go on her way rejoicing.
2. Letting the mind dwell too much on the dark side of our experience. The ten thousand daily blessings wherewith God has been surrounding our lives are lost sight of in the occasional clouds of difficulty that may have chequered our pathway. We think more of the one thousand dollars lost, than of the twenty thousand left us. More of the one month of sickness, than the eleven months of health. More of the one beloved friend dead, than of the many beloved yet living.
3. Regarding the first gift of a good thing as alone demanding gratitude, and its subsequent preservation as a natural sequence.
II. The helps to thankfulness.
1. We must entertain just and philosophic views of life’s nature and mission. A man, crossing an ocean on shipboard, is not discontented because he cannot carry with him his sumptuous furniture and equipage; and grumbles not that his state-room hath not the breadth and brilliancy of his palatial pavilions. His very gladness is, that he is in a structure so modelled that it can have speed upon the waters. And just so it is with a man in progress to immortality. What we want is rather a tent that can be pitched and struck at pleasure; and provisions of a kind that can be carried in journeys; than a splendid palace, and ponderous luxuries, incapable of transportation. And so a true appreciation of the real uses of things will go far to render us thankful for the peculiar size and shape of the blessings God gives us.
2. We must dwell much in thought upon these Divine mercies, present and actual. We are too much given to day-dreams amid things possible and future. We lift the glass of imagination to the far hills, that, mellowed by distance and haloed with the purple and gold of the setting sun, look like fairy lands, and grow dissatisfied with the present and possessed. And yet, there is no one in whose present experience there is not enough at least for thankfulness—of comfort and blessing.
3. We must make the best of our misfortunes. What the Germans tell us as a parable, we have all of us—who have gone afield with nature in observant moods—witnessed not unfrequently. Standing by some autumnal and over-matured flower, we have seen the laborious bee come hurrying and humming, and plunging into the flower’s cup, where there was not a particle of honey. But what does the bee do? Why, after sucking, and finding no nectar, does it come up from the flower’s heart with a disappointed air, as if departing to some other field of labour? Ah no! If there be no sweets at the flower’s red core, yet its stamens are full of golden farina, and out of the farina the bee builds its cells; and so it rolls its little legs against these stamens, till they look large and loaded as golden hose, and, thanking the flower as sweetly as if it had been full of honey, gladly humming, it flies home with its wax. Yes, and herein lies God’s moral—If our flowers have no honey, let us be glad of the wax!
4. We must, meanwhile, learn to look upon these very evils as God’s disguised blessings. To every true Christian, they are so, positively, and beyond controversy. As part of the special providence of a wise and loving Father, they cannot be otherwise. It is God that determines the bounds of our habitation; the stations we are to fill; the comforts we are to enjoy; and the trials we are to suffer. And if we have not much of the present world, it is not because our heavenly Father is not able to give us more. It is all to be resolved into the wisdom and kindness of the Divine administration—God’s wisdom discerning how much is best for us—and His love determining to allow us no more.
5. To become truly thankful, we must become Christians—and Christians growing in grace and advancing in knowledge.
(1) Religion makes a man humble; and humility, as a grace, lies at the foundation of contentment.
(2) Religion gives him just views of present things, and of the true relation he sustains to them, in this earthly economy. They never seem to him ends, but only means unto ends. He understands how his present life is a sojourn—an exodus. And, as a true-hearted traveller, he expects not home comforts on a journey, but is content with rude fare and humble hostelries, and can thank God even for rough roads and foul weather, if they hinder not his progress.
(3) Religion, as it is essentially a principle of self-denial, moderates a man’s wishes, and so creates happiness. Diogenes was happier in his tub, than Alexander on the throne of his empire. And for a good reason—because the tub held the wishes of the philosopher; but the world was too small for those of the conqueror.
(4) Religion produces trustfulness, and so brings contentment.
III. The reasons of thankfulness.
1. Our circumstances demand it. Just contrast your own condition this day, with that of the exulting pilgrims, when they kept their first thanksgiving festival. See them, amid the solitudes of that great wilderness—the cry of the wild beast, and the roar of the strong wind rising around them—the loved homes of their childhood, and the precious temples of their fathers, far away over the waters—a barren soil beneath their feet; and above, the cold and cheerless azure of a stranger-heaven! And yet singing triumphantly unto God their thanksgiving anthem!
2. For the sake of your own souls, you ought to be thankful. The habit of mournful sadness blinds the eye, and dwarfs the pinions of the soul; renders the heart a nervous and neuralgic thing; eats out a man’s piety; weakens every Christian grace; and makes the creature a torture to himself, and a curse to his neighbourhood.
3. As Christians, we ought, for the sake of others, to manifest this abiding spirit of joy and thanksgiving.
4. For your heavenly Father’s sake, you ought to cherish and display this spirit of thanksgiving. A monarch, whose subjects are always complaining of their lot, is set down by the world as a hard and selfish tyrant. A father, whose children walk abroad ever in sadness and tears, is anathematized by all people as a heartless and cruel parent. Shame on us, if, surrounded by such blessings, and hastening onward to such revelations of glory, we go ever with the bowed head, and the mournful footsteps, saying to the world by our pitiful complainings—“See how the eternal God is maltreating His loyal subjects!” “See how our heavenly Father is torturing His children!” (C. Wadsworth.)
And into His courts with praise.—Praise:—
God’s praises must be sung—
I. With the attention of the mind. The words must be considered, as well as heard or read. A person can never be rationally or piously affected with what he sings, except he understands it. Without this, there is no more devotion in him, than there is in an organ or other musical instrument which utters the like sounds. Or if there be anything like devotion excited by mere sounds, it is probably enthusiasm, or something purely animal; a sort of pleasing mechanical sensation, which perhaps some brutes may as strongly feel, by sounds suited to the state of their frame.
II. With the melody of the voice. Poetry enlivens praise; and music heightens the powers of poetry, and gives it more force to engage and affect the mind. It puts spirit into every word, and their united influences elevate, compose, and melt the soul. From hence it will follow that the better the poetry is, provided it be intelligible, and the greater harmony there is in uttering it, the greater effect it will have upon the mind, and make the impression of what we sing more deep and lasting. As God hath formed us with voices capable of uttering harmonious sounds, He expects that they be employed in His service.
III. With the devotion of the heart. It is not sufficient to understand what is sung, to attend to it, and join our voices with those of our fellow-worshippers; but our intentions should be upright and good. And they should be these; to glorify God, and to edify ourselves and others.
1. Our intention should be to glorify God; that is, not to make Him more glorious, for neither the praises of men nor angels can do that; but to do Him apparent and public honour; to acknowledge His glory; to proclaim our high veneration and affection for Him, and celebrate and recommend Him as an object worthy the esteem and praises of the whole world (Ps. 62:2; Ps. 50:23; Ps. 69:30).
2. It should be our desire also to edify ourselves and one another (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). (Job Orton, D.D.)[6]
4. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving.” To the occurrence of the word thanksgiving in this place the Psalm probably owes its title. In all our public service the rendering of thanks must abound; it is like the incense of the temple, which filled the whole house with smoke. Expiatory sacrifices are ended, but those of gratitude will never be out of date. So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks. Mercy permits us to enter his gates; let us praise that mercy. What better subject for our thoughts in God’s own house than the Lord of the house. “And into his courts with praise.” Into whatever court of the Lord you may enter, let your admission be the subject of praise: thanks be to God, the innermost court is now open to believers, and we enter into that which is within the veil; it is incumbent upon us that we acknowledge the high privilege by our songs. “Be thankful unto him.” Let the praise be in your heart as well as on your tongue, and let it all be for him to whom it all belongs. “And bless his name.” He blessed you, bless him in return; bless his name, his character, his person. Whatever he does, be sure that you bless him for it: bless him when he takes away as well as when he gives; bless him as long as you live, under all circumstances; bless him in all his attributes, from whatever point of view you consider him.[7]
[1] Harman, A. (2011). Psalms: A Mentor Commentary (Vols. 1–2, p. 721). Mentor.
[2] Hubbard, R. L. J., & Johnston, R. K. (2012). Foreword. In W. W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston (Eds.), Psalms (p. 387). Baker Books.
[3] Bullock, C. H. (2017). Psalms 73–150 (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; Vol. 2, p. 207). Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.
[4] Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Job–Psalms (Vol. 4, pp. 484–485). Logos Bible Software.
[5] Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, p. 390). InterVarsity Press.
[6] Exell, J. S. (1909). The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms (Vol. 4, pp. 221–223). Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths.
[7] Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 88-110 (Vol. 4, p. 234). Marshall Brothers.
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