Session 4

Change Your Posture

From Join the Chorus!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" - Psalm 100:4

Worship is a spiritual and physical encounter with the Lord. For the Christian, our body is the temple, and our heart is the dwelling place of God. Psalm 100:4 reminds us that when we worship, we are journeying inward. By intentionally changing our outward physical posture, we can affect our inward response to God.

First, we enter His gates with thanksgiving. 

Psalm 100:4 says that we begin by thanking Him for all He has done. The Hebrew word for thanksgiving, towdah, implies that we bring a gift to God. Our gift of thanks focuses us on God’s faithfulness rather than our own circumstances. 

We enter His courts with praise.

The Hebrew word for praise, tehillah, implies that we sing as we enter this time of worship. The human voice is a unique instrument exclusively made by God for His praise. We are to enter God’s house with gifts of thanks and songs of praise. 

We give thanks to Him.

The word “thanks” appears again, this time translating the Hebrew word yadah. This word has a range of meanings, one of which is to raise hands in worship. Raising our hands to God is an act of surrender and dependence. 

We bless His name!

The Hebrew word for “bless,” barak, can mean to bless or kneel. When we bless, we honor and exalt the name of God. Kneeling is an act of humility. By kneeling, we are leading our entire being to bow in reverence to God. 

Psalm 100:4 tells us to give thanks, sing praise, raise hands, and kneel in worship. We find these activities throughout the Bible. In the Christmas story, shepherds journeyed to Jesus bringing songs of praise and wise men from the East brought gifts and knelt in Jesus’s presence. Later in the Bible, the twenty-four elders kneel and lay their crowns before God as gifts. James 4:8 says that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. In Christ’s presence, the response is always the same: worship.