Make A Joyful Noise (Even When Life Is Hard)

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. What does Psalm 100 mean?

Psalm 100 is a short call to joyful worship, summoning "all you lands" to "make a joyful shout to the LORD" and to "serve the LORD with gladness" (Psalm 100:1-2). It grounds that joy not in circumstances but in who God is: He made us, we are "the sheep of His pasture," and "the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting" (Psalm 100:3, 5). From a Reformed perspective it shows worship as the glad response of a people God created, owns, and keeps.

2. What does "make a joyful noise" mean?

The phrase translates a Hebrew call to a loud, exultant shout of praise, the way subjects once acclaimed a king. Dr. Holt notes that "heaven is not a library"; Scripture pictures angels as loud and passionate, proclaiming "Glory to God in the highest." The command assumes that those who know God's goodness will not stay silent. It is an invitation to wholehearted, audible worship, not mere quiet sentiment.

3. How can I praise God when life is hard?

Dr. Holt opens with a faithful minister sent to a deadly prison camp in Murmansk, Russia, who kept singing until his captors silenced him: "the song on his lips was extinguished; the song on his heart was not." The lesson he urges us to write down is that "our circumstances are not the source of our joy." Foxe's Book of Martyrs records many who went to death singing. We can praise in hardship because, through Jesus Christ, we have a future that transcends every present loss.

4. Why is worship sometimes hard?

Holt admits we sometimes come to church for tangible benefits, relationships, or programs rather than for God Himself. Using the picture of spiritual proximity, he observes that "that which you are close to is easy to praise." If praising God feels hard, perhaps we "are not that close to Him," knowing Him only as "God in the abstract" far on the horizon. The remedy is to draw near to the God who has drawn near to us in Christ.

5. What does it mean that we are "the sheep of His pasture"?

Psalm 100:3 says, "it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture." Holt, having watched real sheep up close, calls them wayward and helpless, needing everything done for them. The title humbles our pride, yet it is good news: as God names us sheep, He names Himself our Shepherd, who disciplines us, reins us in, and "jumps in front of the wolf." We have such a Shepherd in Christ.

6. How do I enter God's presence according to Psalm 100?

Psalm 100:4 says, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise." Holt compares it to a heavenly estate "with many mansions" (John 14) whose gates were once shut to us. "Through the work of Jesus Christ the doors have been flung open; the veil was torn in two" (Matthew 27:51). Yet entry requires a relationship with the King, who says, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved" (John 10:9).

7. Can good works earn entrance into God's kingdom?

No. Holt warns that "there are no steps you can climb on your bloody kneecaps to earn the kingdom by your own works." A "wedding crasher" who tries to enter without a relationship to the King "will not make it past the door" but hears, "Depart from Me, I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). The Westminster Confession (11.1) teaches that we are justified not for anything wrought in us but by faith, receiving Christ's righteousness. Yet through Christ "the King Himself bids you welcome."

8. How does Psalm 100 point to Jesus Christ?

The Shepherd of Psalm 100 is fulfilled in the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10). The open gates of verse 4 are opened by His cross, where "the veil was torn in two" (Matthew 27:51). His everlasting mercy in verse 5 is poured out in the gospel. Holt presses that our joy must be "vested in something that transcends all you will lose," and that something is the risen King who holds His people securely.

9. Does God's love for believers ever change?

No. Holt insists that even if "you behave badly this week... God's love for you won't change, because God is faithful even when we are faithless." Jesus says, "All the Father has given Me, I will lose none" (John 6:39) and "neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28), and nothing "shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8). The Westminster Confession (17.1) calls this the perseverance of the saints.

10. What is my anchor when storms of life come?

Holt closes by warning that a storm is always brewing on the horizon, "cancer, job loss, hardship," seeking to extinguish our faith and hope. He asks, "What are you anchored to? If your anchor is no stronger than you are, you are in trouble." The answer is to build the house "on the Rock" (Matthew 7:24-25). When we face storms or Goliaths, "the right Man is on" our side, King Jesus, who upholds us "with His righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).