Serve the LORD With Gladness

Our love for and our thanksgiving toward God is revealed in the way in which we serve.  Psalm 100:2 says, “Serve the LORD with gladness”.

A look at the meaning behind the word “serve” reveals that it is very similar to the term in the New Testament translated “bondservant”.  It means to be a slave of the LORD or to be indentured.  According to Swanson, “A servant would give considerable energy and intensity to give aid to another, often in a social arrangement of having lower status than free.“^[1]  So when our service is to the LORD we are placing ourselves below Him submitting to serve in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Baker in the Complete Word Study Dictionary put it this way “When the focus of the labor is the Lord, it is a religious service to worship Him. Moreover, in these cases, the word does not have connotations of toilsome labor but instead of a joyful experience of liberation.”^[2]

So our committed service to the LORD, no matter what it is, is a worship service.  How often does the mother serving her family washing the clothes or dishes remember this?  How about the janitor as he serves by cleaning toilets or mopping floors?

Not only must we remember who we are serving, but we are to serve with gladness that is joy, delight with a feeling or attitude of joyful happiness and cheerfulness!  Baker stated, “It refers to the reality, the experience and manifestation of joy and gladness. It refers to a celebration of something with joyful and cheerful activities.”^[3]  Our service when directed toward God can indeed bring us joy and gladness and put us in a good disposition. 

When we are fulfilling service to God in this manner as we strive to please Him in the things we do reveals our love for Him.  1 John 5:2–3 (NKJV) ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

We are called to serve out of our love and when it is done out of our love for God it brings joy not a burden.  Paul said the same thing about our giving in I Cor. 9:7, “give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity”.   Our service of love should be the same way not grudgingly as a teenager may pull the trash to the street, but with gladness because we have been given the privilege of serving Him.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton  FW #39

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^[1] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

^[2] Ibid,  794-95.

^[3] Warren Baker, The Complete Word Study Dictionary : Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 1161.