Psalm 100

Sermon: Make a Joyful Noise with Your Gifts

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness!

I Corinthians 12:4-11

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.

Many have taken Psalm 100 as a way to be thankful to our Lord. Others treat this as a song of joyful praise. Of course there are many things to be thankful for and of course it sings with praise.

Psalm 100 has been used in the Anglican liturgy of Morning Prayer and also constitutes most of the first movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Many composers have set Psalm 100 or the Latin term “Jubliate Deo” to music.

According to Professor William Schniedewind from UCLA, it was a part of the liturgy of the ancient Jerusalem temple and was reused in later Psalms and prophetic texts. It is a part of the daily prayer service in Judaism.

Psalm 100 identifies the attributes of God while defining the relationship between the Lord and his people.

Today, I would like you to take this song of praise and thankfulness one step deeper into your lives. I want you to take your relationship with God to your daily lives with praise and joy by using your gifts as we noted in I Corinthians 12 so that others will know that God is within you. This will be through your actions.

Marian Wright Edelman is an author who draws from a variety of cultures and peoples to compile timeless stories, poems, songs, quotations, and folktales that speak to all children, to let them know they can make a difference in today’s world. In her book, I Can Make A Difference, her first message states, “I can make a difference by loving myself and others as God loves us and treating others respectfully and fairly. She notes that people of different religions and beliefs may disagree on many things but one thing that is stressed in all areas is to treat your neighbor who is all other human beings as you would like to be treated.

We can make a difference in our lives and others lives by connecting praise and joy with our gifts.

So what are our gifts to share with others? What can we do? How do we sing this praise of our Lord in our daily lives?

The Myers-Briggs Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories proposed by Carl Jung. Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers are the developers of the personality inventory. There are four dichotomies with a resulting 16 possible psychological types. None of the types are “better” or “worse”, however Myers-Briggs theorize that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences.

The first dichotomy is extravert and introvert. People who prefer extraversion draw energy from action: they tend to act, then reflect, then act further. If they are inactive, their motivation tends to decline. To rebuild their energy, extraverts need breaks from time spent in reflection.

Conversely, those who prefer introversion expend energy through action: they prefer to reflect, then act, then reflect again. To rebuild their energy, introverts need quiet time alone, away from activity.

Think about your own preference.

The next two dichotomies are perceiving functions and

judging functions. The perceiving functions are sensing and intuition. They describe how new information is

understood and interpreted. Individuals who prefer sensing are more likely to trust information that is in the present, tangible and concrete. It is information that can be understood by the five senses. They tend to distrust hunches, which seem to come “out of nowhere”. On the other hand, those who prefer intuition tend to trust information that is more abstract or theoretical, that can associated with other information. They may be more interested in the future.

Thinking and feeling are the decision-making (judging) functions. They are both used to make rational decisions, based on the data received from their information-gathering functions (sensing or intuition). Those who prefer thinking tend to decide things from a more detached standpoint, using what seems reasonable, logical, and matching rules. Those who prefer feeling tend to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation, looking at it “from the inside” and weighing the situation to achieve the greatest harmony.

Myers-Briggs added another dimension by identifying that people have a preference for using either the judging function or the perceiving function. Judging types like to “have matters settled” and perceiving types prefer to “keep decisions open”.

The sixteen types created break down by percentage approximately in the United States as follows:

ISTJ 11-14% (Inspector)

ISFJ 9-14% (Protector)

INFJ 1-3% (Counselor)

INTJ 2-4% (Mastermind)

ISTP 4-6% (Crafter)

ISFP 5-9% (Composer)

INFP 4-5% (Healer)

INTP 3-5% (Architect)

ESTP 4-5% (Promoter)

ESFP 4-9% (Performer)

ENFP 6-8% (Champion)

ENTP 2-5% (Inventor)

ESTJ 8-12% (Supervisor)

ESFJ 9-13% (Provider)

ENFJ 2-5% (Teacher)

ENTJ 2-5% (Fieldmarshall)

Of course this is just one way of looking at how we respond to our world. Another way is to explore Howard Gardners’ Seven Intelligences. He explains different ways of learning as an aspect of who we are.

The seven intelligences are linguistic, spatial, logical/mathematical, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. People may have one or more of these intelligences and different degrees of the qualities. Spatial refers to visualizing. People who love puzzles are spatial.

Linguistic refers to working with word whether listening, reading, speaking, debating, or writing. Kinesthetic refers to a sense of timing and physical activity. Musical refers to sounds, rhythms, and tones. Interpersonal is the interaction with others; mainly people who are extroverts.

Intrapersonal is self-reflective, working alone. Introverts are in this category.

The point is to take a look at your gifts. Who are you? How do you react to situations? How do you use your gifts in being with others?

Psalm 100 happens to be one of my favorite Bible verses. As a child, I reacted positively to the word “noise” in this verse. I thought to myself, that there must be times that we can make noise in church! Over time I realized that the noise can be in actions. We can use our gifts to make a difference in the lives of others. We can share our relationship with our Lord so that others may see.

Have you ever reflected at work or home on how your gifts from God appear? Have you ever started smiling when you see your wisdom coming through a message with your children or a co-worker? Have you ever had a very challenging situation or time in your life that seemed overwhelming only in the end to settle with the comfort of knowing our Lord?

There is only so much time that we have while on earth. In Dorothy Bass’ book, Receiving the Day, she explores the concept of time in two different kinds through psalms. The kind of time is finite like the actual days from birth to death. “So teach us to count our days, the psalmist prays, that we might gain a wise heart.” The second kind of time is eternity. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations”. So we need to be and teach our children through our gifts to last all generations.

In Laurie Beth Jones’ book Jesus CEO, she ends with the message that she hopes that her book will be like an angel,

reminding us of heaven; a flute player calling us to dance; or a spur calling forth in each of us a renewed and higher effort toward the God who loves us all.

I hope that you will feel a sense of renewal in your gifts to make a joyful noise with our Lord in your daily lives.