During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
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.Enter his gates with thanksgiving
Psalm 100
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Devotional
A month or so ago I was having lunch with a colleague who is in the midst of seminary. While we were talking, he asked me about developing a daily liturgy for structuring his time with the Lord. As we talked about different ways to create what he had in mind, I told him a bit about my method: while I exercise in the morning, I like to follow the ACTS method of prayer. (The acronym means Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.) After I gave him some additional details about the way that I pray in this manner, he asked the question, “Is it hard to have that long a prayer of adoration?”
Is it hard to offer a prayer of adoration to God for as long as we are called to do so? The most realistic answer to that question is one that I don’t always like to admit, because, as for many of us, offering praise isn’t something that comes naturally for me. Thankfully, scattered throughout the book of Psalms are passages that God intends to help us shift our hearts, our minds, and our very souls to a sense of adoration of Him, so that we will understand why we should adore the Lord.
While I find many different reasons why I should offer prayers of adoration, our Psalm this week points us towards a specific reason: it is God who made us, and we are His children. When we say those words, we mean them differently than we do when we apply them to our earthly parents. When we say “God made us,” we do not mean simply “us;” we mean everything and everyone. The same God who made each of us—who beautifully crafted us in His own image—also made the heavens and the earth, also hung the stars in the skies. He who has called us by name also knows every grain of sand in the Sahara.
It is absolutely awe-inspiring for me to think about that. God knows us; we are His children. As He is personally calling us each into His embrace, He is also in control of the very depths of all aspects of Creation. I’m reminded of the words of Karl Barth that I often offer back in adoration to the Creator: “Creation is grace.”
For Reflection
- What is the easiest way for you to offer adoration to God?
- Where do you find it difficult to see the works of the Lord at work in your life?
Prayer
Gracious Lord, you are the one who spoke all that is, all that was, and all that ever will be into existence. You spoke our names into our hearts before we ever drew our first breath. We are your children, and we long to come to you. Help us to see you in fullness. Help us to praise you in truth. Help us to be yours in deed and not simply in word. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.
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