100!

Blind Faith (No. 34, 2008)

Permit me a moment of celebration. This week’s Blind

Faith is the 100th episode of the weekly devotional series! I am

thankful for fellow Sunday School members who were the first readers.

I am humbled by others who have subscribed after receiving forwarded e

-mail devotionals. I continue to be eager to hear from you, as you

have inspirational thoughts to share, or issues concerning following

Jesus in today’s world, or questions about what the Bible has to say to

a contemporary situation or in a particular passage. I continue to

pray that God will direct my writing and that he will use these

devotionals to draw you closer to Christ, fellow believers, and other

people.

If Blind Faith was a TV show, reaching the 100th episode

would mean that it would be generally marketable for syndication.

Instead of being broadcast by only the original network, syndicated

shows may be aired by multiple channels, at all times of the day and

night. Some syndicated shows are rerun so many times that many viewers

can identify the next lines of dialog and the plot of the episode from

any three or four words they might hear. Somehow, I don’t think that

will ever be the case with episodes of Blind Faith! So far, no

reruns of my words have appeared in this space, although several

favorite Bible passages have been repeated.

Such things as key Bible passages should be

rerun until they are easily brought back to mind. A regular part of

the curriculum in English when I was in elementary school was

memorizing classic poetry. Two poems that everyone learned were Psalm

23 and Psalm 100. I honestly do not recall the psalms being taught in

the school classroom as they might have been treated in Sunday School.

No elementary education was thought to be complete without learning

these and other ancient poems. Knowing them was considered every bit

as important as knowing the mythological Greek and Roman pantheons.

Once upon those times, almost everyone could recite Psalm 100 upon

request.

In celebration of 100 Blind Faith devotionals, Psalm 100

seems especially appropriate. First try to recall the psalm in the

familiar King James Version. (Can you do it without looking at the

page?) Then we will ponder what it says:

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with

singing.
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.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with

praise:
Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth

endureth to all generations.
(Psalm 100 KJV)

(Could you recite it? Why not refresh it in your memory right

now?)

Psalm 100 is a marvelous song of celebration for God’s merciful

care and grace. Shouting for joy is a universal human response when we

experience thrilling surprises, or exciting victories, or happy

discoveries. Singing adds to the expression of joy. Psalm 100 reminds

us that God’s perfect goodness and his gifts of loving care are

continual reasons for bursting forth with shouts and songs of

thanksgiving and celebration. When we remember that we are not self-

made men and women, but everyone of us is God-made, our joyful praise

becomes rightly directed to God, and may not degenerate into blowing

our own horns. As James reminds us, ” Whatever is good and perfect

comes to us from God above.” (James 1:17a NLT) So every good thing

that happens today and every day is a loving gift from God, and is

deserving of our happy shouts of thanks an a never-ending song in our

hearts, praising God. Whether the gift is an opportunity to write

something others may read and thus think more about God, or if it is

some simple joy of sharing life with family or friends, or if it is a

happy sense of accomplishment of some task, we have ample reasons for

singing a song like Psalm 100 to God.

While I love the grand language of the King James Version of

Psalm 100, modern translations help to connect the psalm a bit more

naturally to my daily experiences. If I consistently cultivate the

attitude toward God, myself, and life in general expressed in the

modern God’s Word Translation (God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society,

1995) of Psalm 100, I could become a closer follower of Jesus and a

better friend to everyone around me:

Shout happily to the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD cheerfully. Come into his presence with a joyful

song.
Realize that the LORD alone is God. He made us, and we are his.
We are his people and the sheep in his care.
Enter his gates with a song of thanksgiving. Come into his courtyards

with a song of praise.
Give thanks to him; praise his name.
The LORD is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness endures

throughout every generation.
(Psalm 100 GWT)

No matter what kind of day you may be having, remember that

everything good that happens is God’s gift of love for you. Singing a

happy song and thanking God for his good care can change your

perspective on the day. The psalm reminds us to fill each day with

service, worship, thanksgiving, truth, joy, faith, and humility. A

life filled with those attributes calls for a celebration!

J. Edward Culpepper, Ph.D.

P.S. Thanks for continuing to read and forward Blind Faith.

Thank you, God, for each reader, and for the opportunity each week to

write.