Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5, NKJV, emphasis added)
God’s truth is everlasting and because of it He is worthy of praise and thankfulness; and we recognize this through waiting upon Him with hope.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. (Psalm 100:4-5, NKJV)
Praise the LORD, and you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 117:1-2, NKJV)
Mercy is coupled with truth in both these passages once again with mercy preceding truth. Without mercy it is impossible to come to the knowledge of truth. God’s mercy was extended to us so we can receive the revelation of His truth. O how much the love the Father has for us His children by making a way for us to know His truth!
Enter His gates and courts. The gate was an entrance into a city or town. The gate indicates the main entrance to a city or building and can be used to stand for city or town itself. The gate of the city, which was a favorite gathering place of people for various reasons, is used here as the main place in which the people can meet with God. We are commanded to enter in to His presence. Why do so few heed this order and wait upon the Lord to enter His gates?
We are also commanded to enter God’s courts. The courts may have two meanings that are relevant to our discussion of truth. One is that a court is a settlement without walls, indicating that once within the gate you have access to the LORD with no boundaries, so truth can be known by the seeker. The other meaning for courts is the court of royalty in which those privileged to be in the inner circle of the King gather and enjoy the rights to unrestricted access to the truth (Hebrews 4:14-16). Both of these meanings point us to enter His courts.
Thanksgiving/praise/laud. Thanksgiving in the Hebrew means praise with thanksgiving. The word describes an offering of thanks or a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This sacrifice is a subcategory of the fellowship offering or the offering presented as a thank offering (Leviticus 7:12-13, 15; Leviticus 22:29; 2 Chronicles 22:29; 2 Chronicles 29:31; and Amos 4:5). The word depicts worship by the presentation of songs of thanksgiving and praise that extolled the mighty wonders of the Lord. Praise is a noun which connotes genuine appreciation for the great actions or the character of its object in the Hebrew. It is used especially of the adoration and thanksgiving that humanity renders to God. Laud in the Hebrew means to soothe, to stroke, to praise. The primary meaning of this word is to calm or still. This is how we are to approach the Lord. Each element becomes what we express through a life yielded to the Holy Spirit. The person who is developing Christian character learns this as he waits on God.
Everlasting/endures to all generations/endures forever. The message is clear here. The attributes of the Lord never change. The Father is before the beginning and He is after the end and His lovingkindness, mercy, and truth endure forever. Wait upon God and understand these truths taught in His glorious Word.
Become obedient to the Word of God and enter His presence with praise and thanksgiving, and wait upon Him with hope until your character is transformed by the Holy Spirit in order to know His truth through all eternity.