Enter his gates with Thanksgiving

Our cities no longer have gates and neither do our churches, so this phrase in Psalm 100 may not resonate as clearly as it did with people say 1000 years ago. City gates were a defense against marauders. In ancient times, when city gates were flung wide open it was a sign that there was peace and people could enter and leave at will. It was a time of joy because the lord of the castle or city was strong enough to defeat all enemies so you were safe.

In many churches in the middle ages (and in some places until quite recently) there was something called ‘rood screen’. This was an, often ornately carved, divider between the altar and the congregation. A rood screen kept every day folks from getting too close to the “Holy stuff” going on at the altar. It also kept roaming animals from getting near the altar, but that’s another story. In the ancient Jewish temple there was a curtain between the worshipers in the Temple and the Holy of Holies. People could enter the outer courts of the Temple, but only the Chief Priest entered the Holy of Holies and then only once a year on Yom Kippur.

The phrase in verse 4, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise” gives us a picture of time when all is well. There is peace so you can come through the gates and continue directly to the place of worship. There is nothing between you and God. That is true for us in the Easter season, and all through our lives. We no longer need a wall between us and God. Both Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38 say that when Jesus died, “the veil of the Temple was torn.” The thing that kept ordinary people from drawing close to God was taken away!

Ephesians 2:14-16 says, “[Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.” Paul is talking about reconciling Gentiles and Jews, but the same applies to all divisions-Christ calls us to come together and come to God.

We may not have gates on our cities any longer or screens between but we do have walls around the things we consider precious. I think it is a sad commentary on our society that we have bars on our windows and gates on our neighborhoods. Even more destructive and divisive are the walls around our hearts. Love has a better way as Edwin Markham remarks in Outwitted:

He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In!

Let us, with the psalmist, remember that we have reason to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!” We have all the reasons we need to ‘draw a circle’ and include those who want to shut us out. Ephesians explains we “are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.” (Ephesians 4:19-22)

Because we are within God’s circle of Love, we need to draw that circle big enough to encompass everyone else. What can you do today to further that Kingdom goal?

Next time we will look at the final verse of Psalm 100.