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“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth…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” (Psalm 100:1, 3).

All over the world (and through the ages) this psalm is used in Christian congregations to launch worship services. It's a good song and is rightly used. But it is also problematic. Let me explain.

When we Christians gather for worship services, not all of us feel joyful. Some may already be bored before the worship leaders emerge on the stage. Several may only be there because they got dragged along. Others may be there with deep and real pain in their lives. So how can we talk of joy?

The second problem is not the pew sitters but the leaders. In many contexts, they are attempting to launch the audience, to get them into it. We have taken the approach of the pop concert. I'm not being negative about pop concerts. What I am saying is that worship services are not concerts

Communal worship in Christian communities is a much deeper and a much richer experience than rock concerts. At least, it ought to be. These gatherings are events in which a Christian fellowship assembles in the presence of God to commune with Him.

As Christians, we gather to praise and thank our God. We petition Him and sometimes even groan before Him. But we also gather to hear from Him. We come to listen! We receive his grace and respond with thank offerings.

We talk about the dialogue of worship: God speaks, and we respond. In many services we insert scripture between songs. This is not just filler, not a moment for the singers to catch their breath. It is dialogue: God speaks, we respond. Its not just random stuff stuck in a lineup.

Thus, this psalm is not to be used to launch a worship service. It is rightly used as a call to God’s people to worship him. We hear it as God's call to us to assemble and to turn our attention to him. When God calls, He recognizes that we gather with all sorts of mixed emotions. We may indeed not feel like worshipping at all. Our hearts may be joyless. The only thing we can offer him are our groans, our despair.

Therefore, the Psalm calls us to dig deeper than our emotions. "Know that the Lord is God" (3). This is the real heart of the Psalm. It calls us to examine not our emotional well being but the very foundation of the world: our Lord is God. This is our covenant God, who comes to us and declares that He is our God, and we are his people. We belong to him!

In life, this foundation may appear to be on precarious ground. As they say, life happens, and it is seldom pretty. And that is one reason God calls us together for worship, to remember that our Lord is God, and we are His. Life is often lonely; ask any refugee, the person dealing with mental illness, the grieving, those who weathered the pandemic living alone. But in the gathering of God's people for worship we know that we belong to God and thus to each other.

He cares for us like a shepherd cares for the flock. Jesus took for himself the title, “Good Shepherd”, letting us know that he is the God of Psalm 100. And then he adds another layer to this song. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” he says. Only after his resurrection did his disciples understand that he meant this literally. In worship, we see the nail scarred hands of our Saviour, now seated at the right hand of God.

Sometimes we cannot sing, we can only sit. Sometimes, all we can do is tune in from afar. But sitting there, we listen, hearing our faith expressed by other. We hear the grace of God pronounced. Somehow, the Spirit is at work, even in us.

This worship is missional. Consider what the world sees as God's people worship: a people who dare to declare that their Lord is the God of all the earth and the only glue that holds them together is the blood of Jesus. But what a glue! What a song!