www.bible.com/111/psa.100.4-5.niv
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.-Psalm 100:4-5
The author of this Psalm gives us two valuable lessons in these two short verses. The first lesson that he gives us is that we have to have the right attitude when we approach God. If we try to come before God with the wrong attitude or with wrong motives, then you run the risk of not having your request answered. What then is the right way to enter into God’s presence? We get into God’s front door with thanksgiving. That is what the author of this Psalm meant when he wrote “enter his gates with thanksgiving”. Having an attitude of gratitude gets you into the front door. But to enter into God’s inner sanctum requires an attitude of praise. Praising God is no different then when praise a person. When you praise God you are basically declaring his goodness and his worthiness. This is what the author meant when wrote “enter…his courts with praise”. In order for you to fully be in the presence of God you have to come before him both an attitude of gratitude and an attitude of praise.
The second lesson that the author is giving us is that God’s love will last forever. This is the problem that many think they have have with God. They believe that God will cease loving them if they make a mistake and because they know that they have made mistakes in the past, they no longer believe that God loves them. There is nothing that you can do that will cause God to stop loving you. The other part of this lesson is that because God’s love will last forever so will his faithfulness. This is the other problem that people think they have God. They believe that God is not faithful, because they come asking him for things with either the wrong attitude or the wrong motive and wonder why he has refused to answer. This is not God being unfaithful, rather this is God being true to his word. Remember this God loves you and he wants you to live in his presence, but he wants you to come before him with the right attitude so that he can show you his faithfulness and his love.