New Light on the 100th Psalm by Rev. Teresa Stuefloten, M.Div. 9/27/2026

Good Morning! This is Rev. Teresa. This morning I am speaking about Psalm 100. I will be quoting from Dr. Joseph Murphy’s book, “Songs of God, An Interpretation of My Favorite Psalms.”

Dr. Murphy was an ordained Divine Science Minister of the 1900s who was a pioneer in the human potential movement and drew thousands to his lectures and services. He has wonderful insight into the deeper meaning of the scriptures.

I will also be quoting from the works of Neville Goddard, a popular New Thought writer, speaker and mystic of the 1900s.

I will begin by reading Psalm 100 to you. This is the Aramaic translation from George M. Lamsa.

Psalm 100

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands.

2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before his presence with singing.

3 Know that he is the LORD our God; it is he who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful to him and bless his name;

5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations.

Holy Bible From The Ancient Eastern Texts: Aramaic Of The Peshitta by George M. Lamsa (1933)

This is a very joyful Psalm. Here is Dr. Joseph Murphy’s breakdown of Psalm 100:

Verses 1-2: “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before his presence with singing.” Dr. Murphy says:

   “Shakespeare said: ‘Oh Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.’ Gratitude is a quality sadly lacking in the world today. Be thankful that you are alive. Consider for a few minutes how it would be if you had not been born. You would not see the lovely faces of your loved ones. You would not be aware of the sun, the moon, and the stars which Emerson called the daily bread of the soul. You would never have seen the glories of nature.

   Joy represents harmony, peace, beauty, laughter and goodwill. When you begin any assignment with joyous anticipation of success, you will accomplish and succeed and the end will be victorious, for the beginning and the end are the same.

   You serve the Lord with gladness when you accept completely the fact that there is an Infinite Intelligence from which all things flow and that this Source responds to you; then you are filled with gladness of the heart. You come before this presence singing when you know the law. This law, as given by the Bible is: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you… (James 4:8) This law is the natural principle of action and reaction, which is cosmic and universal; or to elucidate further, it simply means that whatever you impress on your subconscious will be expressed in a similar manner.

   The joyous attitude with a song in your heart in thankful praise for the good that you receive becomes a conviction in your deeper mind, resulting in a movement toward you of that which you claim.” (End of quote)

We are serving the Divine when we live our life joyfully.

Verse 3: “Know that he is the LORD our God; it is he who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Dr. Murphy says:

   “There is only One Power. This Power is called by many names, such as Allah, Bramha, Reality, Infinite Spirit, Jehovah, Ain Soph, Lord, Adonai, The Mighty One, Infinite Intelligence, etc. The ancient mystics said: ‘When you name It, you cannot find It, and when you find It, you cannot name It.’ The Bible calls this Power I AM, or Being, Life, Awareness. When you say ‘I AM,’ you are really announcing the Presence of God within you. This I AM includes ‘I was’ and ‘I shall be,’ because all that was, is or ever shall be is contained within It. It is the only Presence in the universe. It is timeless and spaceless.

   This Infinite Intelligence created us and all of the world. Having created us from a cell and having started our heart beat, It knows all the processes and functions of our body and knows how to heal and restore. Verse 3 says we are His people. The word ‘humanity’ means the One Being appearing as many. We are all garments which God wears as He moves through the illusion of time and space.

   We are the sheep of His pasture in the sense that we can feast mentally upon the Truths of God. Sheep symbolically mean God-like thoughts and spiritual concepts which are called in the Bible the bread of heaven. All of us need the heavenly bread of peace, poise, courage, faith, confidence and love. Who, indeed, can live without this bread today?” (End of quote)

We need daily contact with the Divine to have a balanced and meaningful life in the Earth realm.

Verse 4: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful to him and bless his name;”

Dr. Murphy says:

   “A man told me that an ophthalmologist had informed him he might lose his vision and because of his advanced age he did not think he could help very much. The man decided, however, to sit down 10 or 15 minutes three or four times a day, particularly prior to sleep, and imagine he was talking to the Infinite Spirit within him, knowing it was his Higher Self.

   He affirmed quietly, ‘Thank you, Father, for my perfect vision now.’ He continued in that relaxed and peaceful manner until the feeling or mood of thankfulness dominated his mind. Every night he went to sleep with the words, ‘Thank you, Father, for my perfect vision,’ which he affirmed over and over again as a lullaby, knowing that his last waking concept would be etched in his subconscious mind, and his unconscious responded. At the end of a month he went for another examination and the doctor was astounded, telling him that his vision was normal and no further drops and medication were necessary.

   By repeating ‘Thank you Father’ over and over again, his mind and heart were lifted to the point of acceptance. When fear or worry thoughts came to his mind during the day, he would immediately supplant them with the words, ‘Thank you, Father, for my perfect vision,’ as often as necessary.

   The gates mentioned in the Psalm represent your conscious mind, which is the gateway or entrance to your subconscious mind. The courts represent your subconscious mind, and when you go to sleep with the praise and exaltation of God in your life, you are entering into His courts with praise. Your lifted up state of mind brings about a magnification of good in your objective world along all lines.” (End of quote)

This means we should go to sleep every day feeling gratitude for the day and for our life.

Verse 5: “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations.” Dr. Murphy says:

   “Believe in the goodness of God in the land of the living. God and good are synonymous. Mercy means love, and God is boundless love; and all the love in the world - such as the love of parents for their children and the love of country as when men and women give their lives selflessly to serve and help others - all this love is but a faint adumbration of the infinite ocean of love within you.

   The Infinite Presence never punishes, never condemns. We punish ourselves by misuse of the laws of mind and by our ignorance, which is the only sin in the universe; and all the punishment and misery from which men (and women) suffer is the consequence.

   Truth is always the same yesterday, today and forever. Love is Truth; joy is Truth; peace is Truth; harmony is Truth; beauty is Truth; abundance is Truth; wisdom is Truth; Divine law and order are Truth; Divine right action is Truth. In other words, God is the Truth - timeless, changeless, and ageless. When you recognize God as Truth and love, the result is thankfulness.” (End of quote)

I attended the celebration of life for a wonderful man named Hal a week ago. I met Hal in my exercise class. Hal lived with a prosthetic from the knee down on one leg, but you would never know it by his attitude. He was the most upbeat guy, always with a big smile on his face. Several people talked about how kind and generous Hal was. He loved his family, loved to travel and was grateful for his life.

This is the way to live. I believe that Hal did enter into God’s gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise because he lived his life with gratitude.

One song that we all sang at the celebration keeps running through my mind ever since the service. The title of the song is “On Eagle’s Wings.” The first verse says, “You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, who abide in this shadow for life, say to the Lord; ’My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!’” The refrain of the song says, “And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of his hand.” Now, this sounds like a description of spiritual enlightenment to me!

I love these images of the Divine as our shelter, raising us up on eagles wings, bearing us on the breath of dawn, and making us shine as brightly as the sun. We know that we are safe in the refuge of the Divine because there is only one true Power, God the good, by whatever name you prefer. As Murphy says, Allah, Bramha, Reality, Infinite Spirit, Jehovah, Ain Soph, Lord, Adonai, The Mighty One, Infinite Intelligence, etc. The name does not matter. It is the One Power, the I AM that I am and you are and we all are. I am that I AM. I am That. When we know this we can enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with joyful praise!

Entering with thanksgiving is a key practice. It is up to us to have gratitude for our blessings. If we take everything we have for granted and just complain about what we don’t have, we are not entering God’s courts with thanksgiving. We are not attracting more blessings into our life when we take the good in our life for granted. Live your life with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not just for one day of the year; it’s for every day of the year.

One way of entering into God’s courts is through meditation. When we meditate we go within to our own holy temple. We are Divine Expressions. The Divine resides in our holy temple within us, which is God’s court. How do we enter our holy temple in meditation? Do we enter with joy? Are we grateful for the opportunity to meditate, to go within to the peace and joy of our Divine Soul? Do we think of meditation as an obligation or do we think of it as a privilege? Meditation is not something on our to-do list to just get done and checked off of the list. Meditation is our opportunity to let go of the outer world for a time and bask in the peace and joy of Divine communion. The Divine is always there, waiting for us to turn within. As our heart opens, we can enter meditation with gratitude for the deep peace and joy we can find there.

Neville Goddard (1905-1972) was a writer, speaker and mystic in the New Thought movement. He is known for his Law of Assumption, teaching that our human imagination creates physical reality. Neville has some commentary on Psalm 100 based on his inner vision:

On Psalm 100:1 Neville says,

“To utter 'Make a joyful noise unto the LORD' is not a command to perform for an outside deity; it is a directive to awaken to a joyous condition of consciousness… the frequency you set by your inner note. If you persist in sorrow or doubt, that inner chorus will echo those tones; if you choose joy, the inner landscape rearranges itself to harmonize with that note. Imagination is not a trick but the instrument by which you awaken to truth. By imagining yourself as joyful, you become the very joy you seek, and your world reflects your inner hymn. Your praise is thus a posture of consciousness, a revision you make of what you accept as real. Continue and the outer day will rise to meet the inner sound you have chosen.” (thebiblethroughneville.com)

Neville has a practice for verse 1:

“Sit quietly, place a hand on your chest, and declare, 'I am joyful now.' Feel the inner sound reverberate and let the world reflect that note (for five minutes).” Let’s try this exercise for 30 seconds, and you can do it on your own later for 5 minutes.

Put your hand on your heart, close your eyes and say, “I am joyful now.” Feel the inner sound reverberate. (30 seconds)

Now you can open your eyes as we continue with Neville’s insights.

Neville says of Psalm 100:1-3:

“The Psalm speaks to the inner state you carry in your chest as the only landscape that matters. Make the joyful noise not to an unseen God out there, but as a declaration that your I AM awareness is awake right now, and that joy is the natural color of this consciousness. To 'serve the LORD with gladness' is to align your daily imagination with gratitude, to act from the inner praise rather than from lack. When it says to 'come before his presence with singing,' imagine approaching your own awareness with a chorus of grateful feeling, letting the melody of appreciation precede any external result. 'Know ye that the LORD he is God' means the divine reality is the consciousness you possess; the world you see is formed by the God within. And 'it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves' releases you from self-wrought limitation; you are fashioned by the I AM, and you belong to that pasture of perfect security and guidance. In that light, you are the shepherded and the shepherd of your experience, moving in harmony with the inner law that creates your life from the inside out.”

Neville has a practice for these verses, also:

The practice is,“Close your eyes, affirm 'I AM,' and feel joy rise as the day’s music. Then imagine stepping into your inner pasture, sowing grateful thoughts and singing them into reality.” We will pause 30 seconds again. So, I invite you to close your eyes, say “I AM” and feel the joy arise for 30 seconds. You may open your eyes now.

Moving on, Neville says of Psalm 100, verse 4:

“Psalm 100:4 is not a call to fetch God from afar, but a map of states you choose to wear. Entering his gates with thanksgiving is you assuming a grateful consciousness—placing yourself in the gates where awareness dwells. The courts with praise are the inner courts where your imagination worships by live feeling; to bless his name is to bless the I AM within you, the divine presence you already are. The verse thus redefines worship as a shift in consciousness, not a ritual performed for a distant God. When you hold the mood of blessing, your external conditions bend to that inner recognition of unity. You are not asking God to come near; you are becoming the I AM that God already is. So practice returning to gratitude and praise as your natural state, and notice how your life mirrors the inner sanctuary you have chosen.”

Neville has a practice for verse 4, also. The practice is:

“Assume you are already within the gates of gratitude. Repeat 'I am grateful now, I bless the I AM within me' and feel the truth until it expands into your ordinary state.”

So I invite you to close your eyes again and say, “I am grateful now; I bless the I AM within me.” We will be silent again for 30 seconds. Now you may open your eyes when you are ready.

Neville recommends that we practice seeing what we want in our life before falling asleep at night so that we bring that consciousness into our sleep state where our mind is receptive. This is what the man in Dr. Murphy’s story did to regain his vision. If you want a joyful and grateful life, practice feeling joy and gratitude for your life as you are falling asleep at night. Then see what shows up in your life as a result of your grateful and joyful practice.

Remember that we do not want to attach anything negative to “I am.” Only positive statements are attached to I am, such as: I am loving. I am kind, I am caring. I am compassionate. I am beautiful. I am intelligent. I am successful. I am peaceful. I am awake. I am expanding my consciousness. I’m sure you can think of more positive statements to affirm about yourself.

Now let’s repeat those three practices one more time. Put your hand on your heart and close your eyes. Say, “I am joyful now.” Breathe and feel the vibration. With your eyes still closed say, “I AM” Breathe and feel joy arise. Keep your eyes closed and say, “I am grateful now. I bless the I AM within me.” Breathe and feel this truth expanding within you. You can repeat these practices daily to create a grateful and joyful life filled with blessings.

I wish you many blessings and joy! Namaste’