198. Saturday after Second Sunday after Easter.
Psalm 100. A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
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Three reasons are here given why we should come before the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving and songs of joy. 1) The Lord our God is the true God; beside him there is no God. He it is whom we shall fear and love and trust with our whole heart. He is Lord of all creation; and the gods of the heathen are nothing. Should not we, then, who know him, make a joyful noise unto him, and let our shouts of joy be heard in all the world? Is it not a great happiness to know the one true God, and to have him for the God of our heart? 2) This great happiness is ours by reason of his mercy alone. “It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, to be his people and the sheep of his pasture.” We would have been dwelling as servants in a strange land, filling ourselves with husks as do the swine, if he had not ransomed us and led us into his courts, the holy Christian church. Against our will he dragged us away from the land of lusts with its satanical allurements, and led us onto the green pastures of his mercy. 3) This mercy is everlasting. We enjoy it every moment, we live of his love all the time; and this shall never cease. His mercy is as indispensable to our spiritual and to our physical life as is the air we breathe to our bodies. We live and move and have our being in the love of God; and we can rely on its enduring forever. When we no longer enjoy it in faith we shall enjoy it at the wedding feast of the church in heaven. “Come, then, ye faithful, the Lord’s chosen people; know that the Father is gentle and mild; call him with confidence Abba, your Father; rest in his arms with the faith of a child. Give thanks for the wonderful honor that ye his sons and his daughters forever shall be!”
Proclaim it to all the world with shouts of joy that the Lord he is God, the fount of goodness and of life. Let the good tidings be proclaimed everywhere, in order that all peoples may thank him and bless his name!
O our God, give us this mercy, that we praise thee in this life and in the life to come. Loosen our tongue, that it may give thee thanks; and let thy great and gracious name be known and lauded throughout the world. Amen.
We’ll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heavens our voices raise;
And earth, with her ten thousand tongues,
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
Wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity thy love;
Firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.