HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENTERING HIS GATES – BOU  SHA’ARIN   באו  שׁערימ

Psalms 100:4: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.”

If David is the author of this Psalm then the only gates and courts would be the tabernacle as the temple was not built until his son Solomon became king. Either way, there was no church building on that day. The temple or tabernacle was the very dwelling place of God and God no longer dwells in a building.  His temple happens to be our bodies I Corinthians 6:19.  Wherever a believer goes, that is where the temple of God is.  To paraphrase Yogi Berra: “Wherever you go there you are” or there God is.

So if these gates are not the church building or gates to the temple what are they?  The word gate in Hebrew is sha’ar which has a wide variety of meanings.  The word can mean, hair, a storm or tempest, a decision, a determination, or something horrible.     In the context of a doorway, particularly a doorway to God, these words are all related.  For instance, the idea of a storm or tempest is expressed in the first letter of the word for gate and that is a Shin that represents the passionate love of God.  When you pass through this gate you enter the stormy passionate love of God.  The next letter is the Ayin which represents deep spiritual insight.  As you pass through this gate into the presence of God you are driven to deep spiritual insight where you discover something horrible and that is your sinful nature.   Animal hair was woven together in those days to make a sort of doorway into a home or tent as well as the tabernacle.  The door was not meant to keep strangers out but to keep the wind from blowing dust and other pollutants into the house.  Often, the wool or the hair of a lamb served as material to make this doorway.   Of course, it is the Lamb of God who cleanses us from our sin and so we must make a decision as to whether or not to accept this gift of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.   That brings us to the final letter for the word door or gate and that is the Resh which represents repentance.

Having been cleansed of your sin and allowed to experience the stormy passionate love of God, you  will be filled with thankfulness  which in Hebrew is the word “todah.”  The word todah is spelled Taw which expresses praise and thanksgiving, Daleth which is a portal to the last letter, the Hei which speaks of the presence of God.  In the Book of Revelation 3:14-22, we learn that the Church of Laodicea was doing something that made them neither hot nor cold such that God was ready to spew them out of His mouth.  What was it that made God wanting to barf them up?  The answer is in verse 20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  A Jew in that day would quickly understand that Jesus was seeking to make His presence known so He was knocking at the todah praise and thanksgiving which is the doorway to his presence.   If a man opens that doorway, that gate with praise and thanksgiving Jesus will enter and His presence will fill the temple, which is our bodies, and he will dine with us.  In the Oriental or Semitic culture of that day, as it is still is today, when one wants to reconcile with an enemy they will have dinner together and discuss their differences.  Hence you have Psalms 23:5 where David teaches that God prepares a table before him in the presence of his enemies.  Culturally, what David is saying is that God prepares the groundwork for reconciliation with his enemies.  So too, in Revelations 3:20 the Blood of the Lamb cleanses us from our sin, but it is our thanksgiving and praise that ultimately reconciles us to the loving, stormy filled passion and the presence of God.

Oh, one other thing about that verse in Revelations.  All we do is open the door and Jesus passes through, we don’t pass through.  It used to be the people passed through the gates of the temple to enter God’s presence.  Today we must invite Jesus into the temple which is our bodies to bring His presence into us.  In praise and thanksgiving, we are inviting Jesus to enter our temple and let it become His temple.

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