The Password is “Praise”!
Just about everything you want to sign in on the internet requires a password. And now, because there are so many successful hackers, they also want to send you a code to your phone or your email to ensure that you are who you say you are. While this can be sometimes a bit annoying, as one who has been the victim of a scam, I willingly engage in the process. All you have to have is one counterfeit trying to get-in to your accounts to know that validation is a necessary procedure.
I guess that is why our Father in heaven, long ago established a password for entry into His presence:
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 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.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 100 (KJV)
I find it interesting that in the first verse, the psalmist declared that all lands should make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Step number one to approach the Father. Then the second step is a bit more restrictive, “serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing“. By the time you get to Step 3, we find the entryway must be with thanksgiving and then the password – is praise! We find in these steps that in order to approach the presence of the Father, we must not only be willing to sing, we must be thankful, and to get into His very presence, we must do it with praise! The reason- it’s hard to praise someone you really don’t believe in – even harder to worship them.
When you think of it, while anyone can sing, not everyone will praise! Not everyone will be thankful, not everyone will bless His Name. Certainly the number gets fewer of those who will honor and extol His Name! For anyone can say they believe there is a God, but not everyone will come close enough to get to know Him. It requires more than a song, it requires a heart that is grateful because they know their very life comes from God. It’s the difference between someone who has heard about a heart transplant and someone who has experienced one!
Maria