What Does Psalms 100:2 Mean?

Three actions are summoned: serve the Lord with gladness, and come into his presence with singing. Both the manner of service and the approach to his presence are characterized by joy. The service called for here is not reluctant obligation but glad offering. And coming into his presence with singing is not arriving silently but arriving with the aesthetic and vocal expression of joy already underway. The presence of God is entered with singing already in progress, not begun after arrival. The joy is the condition of approach, not the consequence.

The synonymous parallelism pairs serving with gladness (the manner of the covenant relationship) with coming into his presence with singing (the approach to worship). Together they describe the same worshipping stance from the relational and the locational angles. The gladness that characterizes the service also characterizes the approach: both are joyful, both are directed toward the Lord. Together the two lines make joy not optional but definitional of what genuine service and genuine approach look like.

Philippians 4:4's "rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" gives verse 2's serve-with-gladness its NT community form: the joy is to be constant, always, not only in favorable circumstances. Hebrews 10:22's "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" is the come-into-his-presence of verse 2 in its NT form — the approach is now through Christ rather than through the temple courts, but the joyful drawing near is the same. Colossians 3:16's "singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God" is the singing-upon-approach of verse 2 given its NT community application.