“Serve the Lord with gladness”

D. Scott Meadows

Serve the Lord with gladness. —Psalm 100:2

9 JANUARY PM, MORNING AND EVENING BY C. H. SPURGEON

Delight in divine service is a token [evidence] of acceptance [with God]. Those who serve God with a sad countenance [facial expression], because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving him at all; they bring the form [appearance] of homage [honor or respect], but the life is absent.

Our God requires no slaves to grace his throne; he is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have his servants dressed in the livery [uniform] of joy. The angels of God serve him with songs, not with groans; a murmur or a sigh would be a mutiny [open rebellion] in their ranks. That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looks at the heart, and if he sees that we serve him from force [just because we have to], and not because we love him, he will reject our offering.

Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service, and therefore true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity. If a man be driven to battle, he is no patriot; but he who marches into the fray [intense battle] with flashing eye and beaming face, singing, “It is sweet to die for one’s country,” proves himself to be sincere in his patriotism.

Cheerfulness is the support of our strength; in the joy of the Lord are we strong [Neh 8.10]. It acts as the remover of difficulties. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage [a train’s passenger car]. Without oil the axle soon grows hot, and accidents occur; and if there be not a holy cheerfulness to oil our wheels, our spirits will be clogged with weariness. The man who is cheerful in his service of God, proves that obedience is his element; he can sing,

“Make me to walk in thy commands,
’Tis a delightful road.”

Reader, let us put this question—do you serve the Lord with gladness? Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master.

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Elaboration

On Psalm 100.2

The “Old Hundredth” [Psalm], as it is called, is one of the greatest calls to worship found in Scripture. Of it, Spurgeon wrote in his classic commentary on the Psalms, The Treasury of David,

It is all ablaze with grateful adoration, and has for this reason been a great favorite with the people of God ever since it was written. “Let us sing the Old Hundredth” is one of the everyday expressions of the Christian church, and will be so while men exist whose hearts are loyal to the Great King. Nothing can be more sublime this side heaven than the singing of this noble Psalm by a vast congregation. Watts’ paraphrase, beginning “Before Jehovah’s awful throne,” and the Scotch “All people that on earth do dwell,” are both noble versions; and even Tate and Brady [New Versions of the Psalms, 1696] rise beyond themselves when they sing—

“With one consent let all the earth
To God their cheerful voices raise.”

The exhortations of Psalm 100 are directed to the people of God as a whole. Verse one calls for a “joyful shout” (NKJV), such as from a large and jubilant crowd, like soldiers returning victorious from the battlefield, and those saved through their valor, welcoming them. Christian worship is here conceived and described as a public celebration of God and His goodness. Wonderfully, even this holy, public enjoyment, with “singing” (v. 2), He counts as service to His glory. “Serve the Lord with gladness” (v. 2), then, pertains especially to public worship, but ought to extend to all our obedience to God’s commandments, as Spurgeon properly infers from the text.

The structure of this devotional message

I. Gladness is indispensable in serving God
II. Gladness marks the service of holy angels
III. Gladness is a mark of sincerity
IV. Gladness makes service easier
V. Therefore, serve the Lord gladly

Especially important truths

1. Gladness in the Lord’s service is a perpetual moral duty (Phil 4.4), however we feel. It must not be confused with a mood over which we have no control. Rather, it is the pleasant state of a believing soul grasping a little of the blessedness of inclusion with God’s beloved people and of our honorable service to Him with gratitude.

2. Gladness is a spiritual grace along with faith, and it is the fruit of faith (Rom 14.17; Gal 5.22, 23; 1 Pet 1.8). All unbelievers suffer a complete dearth of true spiritual joy. Believers are never wholly without it, for it is the universal effect of Christ’s redemptive work for and in them. This holy joy increases with His blessing.

3. Gladness will be that blessed ecstasy of life in the Spirit characterizing the New Creation in the wake of Christ’s Second Coming (Rev 21.4). Gladness of the Church Militant now is the manifestation of that age to come breaking in upon this present age, like the glimmers of a dawning new day. If this true, spiritual gladness in Christ is found within, from, and among us in any degree now, we ought to rejoice all the more from anticipation of our destiny by grace. Ω