Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. (Psalm 100:4 (NKJV))

How do you prepare your heart for worship? In Psalm 100, the psalmist instructs the reader to start with thanksgiving and then transition into praise.

And that makes a lot of sense. Praise is the overflow of thanksgiving. When your heart is full of gratitude for what God has done for you, you naturally start to praise Him.

Gates and Courts

What does the psalmist mean when he refers to entering God’s gates and courts? What are they?

To enter the area of God’s temple in Jerusalem, a person had to pass through one of its gates. For example, Acts 3:2 tells us about a man begging at the temple’s gate called Beautiful.

After you entered through one of the gates, there were different courts where the people would go to worship God and where the priests would perform the sacrifices.

So, if you followed the psalmist’s instructions, you would start thanking God for who He is and all He had done when you went through one of the gates to go to the temple. Then by the time you entered the courts, your heart would be prepared to praise God for those things.

Modern Gates and Courts

How can we follow the psalmist’s instructions? We don’t have gates and courts like they did at the time Psalm 100 was written. But we can treat the parking lot of the church building like a gate and the door to the church like entering the courts of the Lord.

Try it the next time you go to church. As you enter the parking lot, start thanking God for who God is and all He has done for you since the last time you were there. For example, you can thank Him for

• getting you to church safely;
• His continued provision in your life;
• a special time you had with a family member or friend;
• your ability to think, breathe, and talk; and
• the fact that He is more than able to help you with any problem you have.

Then when you go through the doors of God’s house, praise Him for who He is and all He’s done. Share with others about God’s goodness in your life. Sing to Him during worship.

The psalmist goes on to give us reasons for thanking and praising God. He reminds us that God is “good”; God’s “mercy is everlasting”; and God’s “truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:5 (NKJV)). Amen to that!

So, how do you prepare your heart to worship? Make it a habit to thank and praise God. As you do, you’ll cultivate a heart of gratitude and praise as you walk by faith with Him.

Photo by Rachel Coyne on Unsplash