Psalm 100:2

EXPOSITION

Verse 2. Serve the LORD with gladness. "Glad homage pay with awful mirth." He is our Lord, and therefore he is to be served; he is our gracious Lord, and therefore to be served with joy. The invitation to worship here given is not a melancholy one, as though adoration were a funeral solemnity, but a cheery gladsome exhortation, as though we were bidden to a marriage feast.

Come before his presence with singing. We ought in worship to realise the presence of God, and by an effort of the mind to approach him. This is an act which must to every rightly instructed heart be one of great solemnity, but at the same time it must not be performed in the servility of fear, and therefore we come before him, not with weepings and wailings, but with Psalms and hymns. Singing, as it is a joyful, and at the same time a devout, exercise, should be a constant form of approach to God. The measured, harmonious, hearty utterance of praise by a congregation of really devout persons is not merely decorous but delightful, and is a fit anticipation of the worship of heaven, where praise has absorbed prayer, and become the sole mode of adoration. How a certain society of brethren can find it in their hearts to forbid singing in public worship is a riddle which we cannot solve. We feel inclined to say with Dr. Watts

"Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But favourites of the heavenly king
Must speak his praise abroad."

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 2. The first half of this verse is from Psalms 2:11 , only that instead of "with fear," there, where the psalmist has to do with fierce rebels, there is substituted here "gladness" or joy. F.W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 2. Serve the LORD with gladness. It is a sign the oil of grace hath been poured into the heart "when the oil of gladness" shines on the countenance. Cheerfulness credits religion. Thomas Watson.

Verse 2. Serve the LORD. It is our privilege to serve the Lord in all things. It is ours to please the Lord in loosing the latchet of a shoe; and to enjoy the expression of his favour therein. The servant of God is not serving at the same time another master; he has not been hired for occasional service; he abides in the service of his God, and cannot be about anything but his Master's business; he eats, he drinks, he sleeps, he walks, he discourses, he findeth recreation, all by the way of serving God. Serve the Lord with gladness. Can you bear to be waited upon by a servant who goes moping and dejected to his every task? You would rather have no servant at all, than one who evidently finds your service cheerless and irksome. George Bowen.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 2. Serve the LORD with gladness.

1. For he is the best of beings.
2. For his commandments are not grievous.
3. For he is your Saviour, as well as Creator; your friend, as well as Lord.
4. The angels, so much greater than yourself, know no reason why they should not serve him with gladness.
5. In serving him you serve yoreself.
6. You make religion attractive.
7. You get fitness for heaven. George Bowen.

Verse 2. (first clause) -- A true heart,

1. Is humble -- serves.
2. Is pious -- "serve the Lord."
3. Is active -- serves.
4. Is consequently joyful -- "with gladness."

Verse 2. (first clause). "Serving the Lord with gladness." See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 769.