Revisiting Psalm 100

It is Holy Week. This is one of the best times of year to be a pastor. Not only our church community, but even the larger community is at least somewhat aware that this is a sacred season. Even in our churches, this time of year it seems that Christians are more keenly aware that God is actually real... actually up to something in this world. We are able to more easily remind ourselves to look at things through God's lenses and see the life just waiting to burst forth into the world. I love Easter. 

But truth be told, even with all of that in mind, Holy Week is a very busy week for those of us in the business of pastoral ministry in churches. It is one of the high-points of the year, but it is also one of the most stressful times of the year. For all of the wonderful services, there are hours of painstaking work to prepare for them. So, like the priests working on the Sabbath, pastors and church staffs can come to view this week as simply more work stacked on top of our normal work.


Today at staff meeting, we were all ragged from the hectic pace already, but we were trying not to show it--because honestly, we love what we do (most of the time). Once we all sat down in the conference room, that is when God spoke to us through one of our pastoral staff. 

I am blessed to work with some pretty amazing folks. Among these pretty amazing folks is the guy whose office is right across the hall from mine, our Technical Arts Minister, Darren McCullough. Darren does most of his work behind the scenes and keeps everything looking good and running smoothly, and he honestly enhances almost everything he touches. Because he spends so much time behind the scenes, people rarely realize just how gifted he is at bringing a timely word from God.

Looking around the room at our worry lines and caffeine jitters, Darren read Psalm 100:

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 
 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; 
   come before him with joyful songs. 
3 Know that the LORD is God. 
   It is he who made us, and we are his; 
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving 
   and his courts with praise; 
   give thanks to him and praise his name. 
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; 
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

And then he read his own version of the psalm that represented a truer version of how he was living... I call it the DMC version of Psalm 100:


Psalm 100 -DMC Version

A psalm. For those too busy to be grateful.

 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, When I have time. 
 2 Worship the LORD with gladness when times are great; 
   come before him with all my wants. 
3 I know that the LORD is God. 
   and He made us, and we are his; the sheep of his pasture, 
   but sometimes I feel like I'd be a better shepherd.
 4 Enter his gates when I have to 
   and his courts with all my great stuff; 
   give thanks to him and praise him when I remember 
5 For the LORD is good and convenient; his love makes me feel pretty good,
   I sure hope my kids can feel as good as I do about him.

As soon as he finished, I could not help but be convicted. In my busy-ness, it is so easy for me to ignore worship and move straight to my list of demands. In my stress, I can all too often consider myself better at running my life than God who made me. I often see good results as the work of my strong planning and administrative skills, and often blame God for what I perceive to be failures. I often forget that God is God all of the time--even Holy Week... even when I am stressed... even when I am buried under work. God is not simply some idea to think fondly of in slower moments that make me smile. 

In every moment, my life must shout with joyous praise loud enough for my descendents to hear it and know it because whether things are going well or falling apart, exceeding expectations or breaking our hearts, soothing in their simplicity or painful in their stress, the truth is that:

God is good.

God is loving.

God is faithful.

No matter what.