Enter With Thanksgiving
Posted on: November 21, 2023
Written by: Thomas Kilian III
Read time: 4 mins 51 secs
The Bible says the LORD is a powerful God. He is not to be fooled with. He is God, and He is incredible. You must not run up to God in any way you want because He is in a class all by Himself—He transcends all classes. In a word, He is “Holy.” God swallowed up nations and armies on the earth. Once, God attacked his enemies with frogs, flies, and locusts (Exodus 8-11). When the Philistines fought God, God struck them with hemorrhoids (1 Samuel 5-6). When you are on the wrong side, God will fight you with things you never thought about. See, you don’t know whom you are fooling with when you fight with God. When you make Him mad, He can cover you with leprosy (Numbers 12).
You don’t run up to God as if He is just anybody. This generation is so used to running up to anybody. Many think that we should have access to everybody. But in the Scriptures, you just don’t approach God in any way, for you couldn’t even go to an earthy king without his invitation or his scepter held out to you to pardon you if you did. See, you couldn’t even approach an earthy king without dying, so you would know that you couldn’t just come to God in any way.In Psalm 100, King David learns something about God. In an Agreement/Covenant that required the blood of bulls and goats, smoke, and ceremonial cleansing and washings to please and approach God, David found a spot in God that would enable him to come before the LORD. Yet the approach would be without a bull, without a goat, without blood, without sacrifice, without smoke, without ceremonial cleansing. King David’s hands were dirty; nothing had been sacrificed, but he made it all the away into the presence of God without being killed! In an entrance psalm meant for Israel’s private and public worship, David tells us how he did it:
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 100:4-5 (KJV)
What is David saying in this passage? If you enter the presence of God with thanksgiving, He will let you in, always! He won’t kill you if you are praising Him! So, praising is more than attitude, more than action, and it's more than protection from the LORD. Praise is access! When you praise God, you gain access! David had moments when he was also engaged in that search for the essence of faith in God, and he found that God was more pleased with praise than sacrifice. That is why it is written...
“I will praise the name of God with song, And magnify Him with thanksgiving, And it will please the Lord better than an ox, Or a young bull with horns and hoofs.”
— Psalm 69:30-31 (NIV, 2011)
Thanksgiving is more pleasing to God than sacrifice! God is shown to inhabit the praises of His people. That is why it is written in Psalm 22:3...
“O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.”
When you begin to praise God, it takes you out of the natural into the spiritual, and you can access to God while driving your car, bike, etc. Praise gives you divine, supernatural, Holy Spirit access. Now, I am not talking about your thanksgiving on your lips alone. Because you can move them all day if you want, but if your heart is not connected to your lips... it will not "unlock" anything. If you praise God with your heart, I don’t care if you are on the unemployment line, in the hospital, or with a sick child... if you praise God, you have immediate access to God. David shows us how praise is the victory. Moses’ Tabernacle was operating on one mountain, but the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the men of Ahbinadab (2 Samuel 6). After three months, David asked for the glory and presence of God back. He brought it back to Jerusalem, not the Tabernacle on the Mount.
So David brings the Ark, which symbolizes the presence of God. David is leaping and dancing before the Ark. The Ark was symbolic of God’s presence, so therefore, symbolically, the Lord is resting on David’s praise. He brought the Ark to Mount Zion. Put it up into a one-room tent. No brazen alter. No brazen laver. No candle sticks. No showbread. No alter of incense. No curtain. Just a big open room. This was unlike Moses’ temple, where the Ark originally came. This was David’s tabernacle—David’s tent. He brought God’s presence into a room with nothing in it. No blood. No fire. No smoke. No sacrifice. No yearly ceremony of reparation for a wrong. Just a dance. And God left all religion for a dance! David brought God’s Glory in the Ark in a one-room tent.
Most of us know of Moses’ tent, but we need to know David’s tent. Because in David’s tent, all David did was have instruments of praise—all kinds of instruments to give thanks to God. And David was able to access God through thanksgiving.
Moses’ tent teaches us the finished work of Christ. His blood shed. His sacrifice. His purchase of forgiveness. David’s tent shows us the environment or structure that the Church is living in. In the Bible, in Acts it says in the last days that one of the signs of the end of the times would be the restoration of the tabernacle of David.
“‘After this, I will return and David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things—things known from long ago.”
— Acts 15:16 (NIV)
As believers, we must tie into this Davidic system of praise, start living with gratitude, and get rid of bittiness. The Bible says that the root of bitterness will spoil you, it will corrupt you, and lock up your access to God. Our calling is simple:
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits…”
— Psalm 103:2 (KJV)
Maybe now is the time to thank God for everything you forgot to thank him for! Write it on a card. Wake up and have thanksgiving on your lips. Though everything, every day, counts it up, the blessings gifted to you.
"give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,"
— Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
What is enough for God?
- A heart recognizing that God is enough.
- A praising people is enough for God to dwell with his people.
- A thankful heart is enough to dwell with God.