Thankful, Day Nine

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has 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 to Him, and bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

and His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100, NKJV

To the Psalmist, the gates and courts of God were the temple in Jerusalem. It was where the Israelites went to offer sacrifices to the Lord. It was where God's visible, manifest presence dwelt--between the wings of the golden cherubim over the lid that covered that ark of the covenant. Only one man, one time a year, could actually enter that Divine Presence. Only certain members from a certain tribe could come into the building that contained the room that housed the presence. Only Israelite men could come through the Great Gate of the Temple into the courtyard before the altar. Israelite women had to stay in an outer court between the Great Gate and the Beautiful Gate, and Gentiles were even further removed from the presence of God. So unless this Psalm was written by a High Priest of Israel, the author had never actually been in the presence of the glory of God.

I'm thankful for Jesus, who is our peace, who has broken down every wall of division between Jew & Gentile, male & female, slave & free, and has made us all one in Himself.

I'm thankful that when Jesus died for our sins, the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, revealing the emptiness of the Jewish religion in the absence of the glory of God, and removing the barrier that separated man from his Maker.

I'm thankful that Jesus has now sat down at the right hand of God, where He serves as our great High Priest, ever living to make intercession for us.

And I'm thankful that I don't have to go to a temple in Jerusalem to worship God, because through Jesus each of us individually are the temple of God, dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and corporately the Body of Christ, the church!