Enter Into Joy

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 18th, 2023:
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 100

R. We are his people: the sheep of his pasture.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.

R. We are his people: the sheep of his pasture.

Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

R. We are his people: the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.

R. We are his people: the sheep of his pasture.

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. 

R. We are his people: the sheep of his pasture.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Psalm 100 is one of the psalms that we use for the invitatory prayer, the very first prayer that we pray at the beginning of the first office of the day in the Liturgy of the Hours (and if that sounds like gibberish to you, fair enough. Basically, priests and deacons, religious sisters and brothers, and many lay people pray a certain set of prayers at different hours of the day. These begin with one prayer called the invitatory psalm). Because of frequent repetition, many of the psalms are very familiar to me, and this one in particular. When I’m leading prayer, I have a tendency to pick Psalm 100, as it’s the shortest of the available options. After all, Jesus does exhort us to pray using few words (Matthew 6:7-8). 

Beyond a brief and eloquent option, I’m drawn to Psalm 100 because of its tone of joy and gladness. While some of the other psalms emphasize rejoicing together in combination with remembering our sinfulness, Psalm 100 directs us to rejoice without any hesitation or shadow of doubt. We are God’s people, his sheep. He made us and we belong to Him. His love endures forever and He is faithful, inviting us into his banquet and his courts to praise and celebrate and rejoice without end. Too often our joy is tempered by worries or uncertainty. It is hard to rejoice unquestioningly when we live in a world where so much can and does go wrong, and where we see and experience great suffering. Beginning the day with psalm 100 reminds me that for at least a few minutes I can put aside those worries and fears, and rejoice now in the way we will in heaven, where shadows and fear and doubt will disappear and we will experience for the first time what joy can truly be like. What a great gift to look forward to! As we pray with Psalm 100 this week, we have this little foretaste of endless joy, and it is very good.




Sr. Gemma Macleod

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