Psalm 100 reads as follows from the New King James version of the Bible:
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
The order of thanksgiving is to first refer to the qualities of the Lord, mentioned in verse 5 and the specific item of thanksgiving is a trailer or attachment to the demonstrated quality of the Lord for which you are being thankful.
Verse 3 says, 3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
The Lord is referred to as our maker, and his pastoral care is something that he also makes for us within the context of his ongoing creative presence for the individual, as the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin in the gospels points that the pastoral and creative care of the Lord is pointed to the individual soul..
The items for which we can be thankful might have changed a bit since this psalm was written.
For example back then, you wouldn't have had a cell phone, an internet connection, a plane ride, train ride, or favorite television show to be thankful for or to ask for in prayer.
And in terms of approaching events and in giving thanks in advance, you can't fully anticipate what might happen but you can still roll out into the future with thanksgiving in advance in a general sense.
The Lord and the angels he dispatches on assignments for persons are working for the people in the context of this time and place.
Another you might not always know if you are encountering an angel or if angels are nearby helping you, you can be sure they are there and you can surely give thanks for them and their help and assistance.
But the crux of the matter is that you are not really just relying on the Lord's presence in giving any one thing but you are more so relying on the demonstrated pastoral characteristics of the Lord's presence such as for example the qualities of his generosity which hopefully will continue and this psalm speaks of an enduring and everlasting mercy of which generosity is part and parcel of..
In verse 4 it says, 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name
In this day and age, the courts of the Lord is first and foremost are found in that personal place of prayer, which in terms of a physical location can be just about anywhere.
You can set up house prayer wise in just about any location.
So you want to go into that prayer walk and talk with some thanksgiving and praise in blessing the name of the Lord and ascribing the goodness you are finding as sourced from the Lord.
You are anticipating further demonstrations of the Lord's kindness and prayer is often looking ahead so you can be thankful for occurrences yet to happen and for the Lord's coming through with designs and happenings for the future.
Whatever the Lord might give, he more than likely will have a generouis allowance of, if it deems it appropriate for the individual soul.
Verse 5 in this psalm is describing the Lord's enduring qualities of mercy, goodness, and truth which are brought into the context of his shepherding for his people.
The order of thanksgiving is to first give emphasis first to the demonstrated quality of the Lord in whatever you are thanking the Lord for and the trailing information is what specifically you are being thankful for.
You might first thank the Lord for caring, before you go into the specific item for which he is demonstrating his personal care for you.
1 Peter 5.7 says," Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."
There will be designs and expressions of the Lord's individual care and concern for you and while thanking the Lord for an individual design of his care, or an individual expression of his care, first refer to the care in your thanksgiving, and then cite the individual expression or design of that care that you are experiencing.
This ideal goes whether you are being thankful for yourself or others in the manner of intercessory prayer.
1 Timothy 2.1 says
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--
The Lord is looking for requests and wants the requests from the praying person to include intercessions for others, and from this verse everyone is in need of prayer.
Thanksgiving is a key part of requests in opening the gates to the eternal, everlasting gifts and, prayers and intercessions for others and within this pasture of the Lord is very key.
Don't put the horse before the cart but put the truth of the Lord's great qualities of mercy, kindness, tenderness and care in the first order of what you mention as you let these demonstrated traits lead in the prayer of thanksgiving, which is part of the bloom of prayer to great effect for both yourself and the others for whom you are praying.
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