When I was in High School, I played bass in our youth group praise band. It was a pretty small youth group, so half of the people there on a given night were in the band. As you can probably guess a full drum kit, bass, guitar, and keys got a little loud in the 10x20 portable room where we met. On top of that most of us were not very good. The drummer had been playing for about 6 months, my friend who made poor financial decisions bought me a bass, so we had someone to play bass—ignoring the fact that I am rhythmically challenged.

No matter how bad we played we had a ton of fun doing it, and someone (probably against their better judgment) asked for us to lead worship for an evening service. In true edgy Christian teenager fashion, we did our soundcheck, got dialed in, and then just before the service started, we turned all our instruments up a little bit. It was too loud, off-time, and one of those situations where everyone compliments your effort rather than your achievement.

We were told to read a scripture during the service, so we read this Psalm.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

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

We absolutely read it because it talks about making noise and that’s what we were all about. But if we look a little closer, we can see that this Psalm is five short verses reminding us about the simple joy we have in coming to the Lord. We don’t need to be skilled or highly trained musicians. We just need to recognize that there is a God who loves us.

And His love endures forever.