Tehilim Perek 100

Hello everybody, I hope you’re all doing well on this wonderful day. Today’s NachDaily is Tehilim Chapter 100. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. We continue in the chapters written by Moshe Rabbenu.

This is a prayer of thanks to Hashem that will be said at the end of the final Redemption.

The Medrash Tanchuma, in Parshas Noach 19:1, says that when the Jewish people become free from the oppression of the nations of the world, a shift in their relationship with Hashem will also take place. They will serve Hashem as a son serves his father, with love, knowing that his parent will overlook minor infractions. But the nations of the world serve Hashem out of fear, like slaves serving their master. The slave gets punished for even the smallest infractions.

The deep relationship of love and happiness between Hashem and His nation will be revealed. We will all be filled with simcha.

The author thanks Hashem for all the good that He’s done for the nation. We should serve God with happiness because He takes care of His flock. One needs to constantly thank Hashem for all the good that He has bestowed upon us. Especially when the Beis Hamikdash will be rebuilt, we’ll enter His courtyards filled with gratitude and thanks.

Verse 2 says:

עִבְד֣וּ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה בְּשִׂמְחָ֑ה בֹּ֥אוּ לְ֝פָנָ֗יו בִּרְנָנָֽה׃

Serve God with joy, come before Him with song.

The Chovos Halevavos, in Sha’ar Avodas Hashem, explains that a person should serve Hashem due to all of the goodness received from Him. One should serve Hashem out of hakaras hatov, gratitude. He explains that the way to conjure up these feelings is found in the words themselves. Hakaras hataov literally means to recognize the good. When we focus specifically on the good, wonderful feelings of gratitude swell up from within, making it easier to experience happiness.

Although there are situations that we perceive as bad, we need to constantly focus on the good. There are so many mitzvos that we take for granted: keeping kosher, wearing a kippa, davening, raising families, doing chessed, dressing properly, and the list goes on.

We need to become experts at celebrating our mitzvos, polishing them up in front of ourselves and Hashem instead of taking them for granted.

I once heard in the name of the Chofetz Chaim that each mitzva really contains 7 others. Doing a mitzva essentially shows belief in Hashem, the truth of the Torah, the prophecy of Moshe Rabbenu, love and fear of Hashem, and the trust in Divine providence.

To take it even a step further, each one of those mitzvos can also be broken down into many others, like fractional mathematics. All of the mitzvos connect to one another and incorporate the others in some way.

With every mitzva we do, we’re really doing dozens, if not hundreds! It’s obviously fitting to be happy and serve Hashem b’simcha!

Let us merit knowing and feeling the true worth of every mitzva and good deed that we do in our lifetimes. Then we can sing to greet Mashiach with our truckloads of mitzvos and happiness.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.