His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

August 3, 2025

Psalm 100

 “Summer in the Psalms: His Steadfast Love Endures Forever”

Psalm 100 is before us today as we continue our summer preaching series, “Summer in the Psalms.” For anyone who struggles to carry a tune, whose singing may be off-key, the opening words of this psalm are a comfort: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1). The inscription for Psalm 100 says it is “A Psalm for Giving Thanks,” and so like Psalm 138 which we focused on last Sunday, the psalmist calls on the people of God to do this very thing: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” (Psalm 100:4). But the real reason for which we praise the Lord God and give thanks is in that final verse: “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). The theme for today’s message is based on this verse: “His Steadfast Love Endures Forever.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Psalm 100 is brief, but powerful. “The keynote of the psalm is the joy in God which is the motive power of faith and lifts up the hearts of men” (The Psalms: A Commentary, by Artur Weiser. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962; p. 645). Joy is the hallmark of the redeemed people of God. The Scriptures know nothing of morose, gloomy, sullen followers of the Lord. Instead, the Word of God portrays the people of God as being filled with joy and gladness, even in the midst of difficult and trying circumstances in life. I remember well my vicarage supervising pastor, the sainted Rev. Dr. Gerald Kuhn, who said on more than one occasion, that “Most people think that joy is spelled “f-u-n.” The two are not the same. Fun is fleeting and over quickly, but the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). This is what renews our spirit and gives fresh strength and courage to press forward in life, even when we don’t feel like it. With the Lord there is joy and gladness, even when life is hard and there is pain. At such times, remembering the words from another psalm is especially helpful: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12). The joy of the Lord is rooted in this: his steadfast love endures forever. When life is good and blessings abound, our confidence is not in things as the foolish man thought in the Gospel lesson (Luke 12:13-21). Our confidence is in this: his steadfast love endures forever. When life becomes bitter and things turn against us, when we see that everything around us is nothing but vanity, as Solomon came to see in today’s Old Testament lesson (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26), we affirm that his steadfast love endures forever. Whether we have health or sickness, joy or sorrow, plenty or little, his steadfast love endures forever. “The joy expressed in the psalm is simultaneously joy derived from God and joy in God; it emanates from him and returns to him, and in that process lies the deepest meaning of … worship” (Ibid., p. 647).

Psalm 100 falls into two distinct parts: first, there is a call which then leads to praise of God. This pattern repeats itself within the span of these five verses of Psalm 100. Verses 1-2 are the first call: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” This is the call, the invitation, which leads into praise of God in verse 3: “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” This pattern is then repeated with verse 4 being the call, the invitation: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” And then comes the actual praise of God in verse 5: “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

When all is said and done; at the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world, we affirm the blessed truth about the God whom we worship and serve: “his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). “Goodness is of the very essence of God’s nature, and his acts of grace are not the product of a momentary friendly whim or manifestations of the arbitrary mood of a divine despot… The knowledge of God’s grace and faithfulness is the true source from which the joy and the enthusiasm of the psalm spring” (Ibid.).

Some may ask: But how do I know that God’s steadfast love endures forever? How can I be sure? It comes down to what Paul the apostle tells us in today’s Epistle lesson (Colossians 3:1-11): “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4). In Christ Jesus, we have died to sin and death and hell itself. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). It is at the cross of Christ that we see the fullness of God’s love. It is at the cross where Christ Jesus gave his life as payment for all our sins that we know for sure that God’s steadfast love endures forever. 

Because of this gift of amazing grace, let us make a joyful noise to the Lord. Let us serve the Lord with gladness and come into his presence with singing. Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). Amen.