Master Teacher: October- December 2021

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

Master Teacher is the teacher’s quarterly to be used with Adult Christian Life and College and Career. Each lesson contains extensive biblical exposition and specific instructions for the teacher. The outline of the lesson is reader-friendly, and includes suggestions for maximizing teacher/student interaction and topics for making the study informative and enriching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Aug 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781681678788

Book preview

Lesson 1 for Week of October 3, 2021

ONLY YOU

UNIFYING TOPIC:

Make a Joyful Noise

LESSON TEXT

I. A Call for Joyful Praise (Psalm 100:1–2)

II. The Lord’s Identity Defined (Psalm 100:3)

III. Declaration for Worthy Praise (Psalm 100:4–5)

THE MAIN THOUGHT

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3, KJV)

UNIFYING PRINCIPLE

Life provides us with many opportunities to praise and find delight in people and things. How do we decide what has more value and is more worthy of our praise? Psalm 100 highlights that God is the object of the earth’s praise and joy.

LESSON AIM

To show that the psalmist calls for all to praise God because God is worthy of praise, acknowledging His omniscience and omnipotence.

LIFE AIM

To show that the psalmist calls for all to praise God because God is worthy of our praise, but also, as we come into the presence of God, into His house, we should acknowledge His omniscience and omnipotence.

BEFORE YOU TEACH

Consider . . .

Focus for College and Career—Young adults long to have someone who truly cares about them.

Focus for Adult Christian Life—Adults look back with gratitude toward those who have shaped their lives.

Supplementary Study Materials

For further reference, see today’s lesson from Boyd’s Commentary, New National Baptist Hymnal, 21st Century Edition.

Need more teacher helps? Visit www.rhboyd.com.

TEACHING STEPS. . . . 

First Step: Ask for five or six volunteers. On the back of each volunteer, attach a nametag with a type of person one might talk to. The nametags should describe different relationships, some deep, others superficial. Discuss the difference between relationship types. What best describes our relationship with God?

Second Step: Play a pop song about being devoted to another person. Discuss the pros and cons of being totally devoted to another human being.

Third Step: Write the words WHAT and WHY across the top of the board. Explain that Psalm 100 tells us WHAT we are to do in our relationship with God and WHY God is worthy of such actions. Have a volunteer read Psalm 100 aloud, one phrase at a time. After a phrase is read, ask a volunteer to classify it.

Fourth Step: Psalm 100 is a song of life under the rule of God as King. On the other hand, 1 Samuel 8:11–18 describes life under a human king. Have both passages read. Have participants respond to each with a single word describing the emotions a subject of each king might experience.

Fifth Step: Create an acrostic praising God, using the words ONLY YOU. Each letter should begin a word or phrase expressing why only God is worthy of devotion.

God’s Word in Life

A couple years ago, a man had the pleasure of attending a game featuring his favorite football team with two of his closest friends. When the announcement was made for the team to come storming out of the locker room, the fans erupted with jubilant noise and shouting for all of the players. They were shouting and hollering at the top of their voices, hoping that every time their team received the ball, they would score.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of God’s people would respond to God in such a way as they did for their team? The amazing thing about God is that God created us all, and He loves us all just the same—even the ones who do not love Him back. In our lesson today, the psalmist calls for everyone to praise his God, to worship Him with jubilant joy because he is aware that no individual or team is more worthy of praise than his God. He invites us to praise and worship Him.

Connect with Learners: For those who are sports fans: how much do you enjoy cheering on your favorite team? How much more might we praise the Lord?

Introduction

Today’s lesson invites us to rejoice with a mindset and attitude of jubilance. This is a psalm of praise with unrivaled harmony, irresistible happiness, and unending hope. John Phillips, in his book, Exploring the Psalms, calls this a psalm for thanksgiving. He says that it was used in the second temple period and connected with the sacrifices of thanksgiving. The psalmist understood what it means to know the value of Jehovah as his sovereign Creator and to be granted the remarkable privilege of being in the presence of such an awesome and caring God. As this psalmist reflects on his present situation and begins to reminisce over his past encounters with God, his heart is filled with nothing but gladness because of the goodness of the Lord.

I. A Call for Joyful Praise (Psalm 100:1–2)

The psalmist is appreciative that his earthly existence has been made possible because of the God who made the heavens and the earth, the same One who provides for him daily. He realizes just how good the Lord has been to him and his family. This God created his foreparents from the very dust of the earth and breathed into the nostrils of man, and man became a living being. In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist calls for joyful praise and service (Walvoord and Zuck, 865).

Because of His presence in the holy temple, the psalmist is mindful that this is the same God that allowed them to build Solomon’s magnificent temple, and even though that marvelous temple was destroyed in 587 to 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, he can still shout with exuberant joy because he now stands gazing at Zerubbabel’s temple. Yes, this God delivered them from their seventy years of slavery in Babylon, and now they are blessed to be able to stand again in another temple that was built by Zerubbabel.

Not only is this psalmist happy for permission to approach the Lord, but he also says that you ought to serve the Lord with gladness and come before His presence with singing. We should have gratitude as we are blessed to call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him through boisterous praise and hallelujah service.

#JoyfulNoise

When was the last time you made a joyful noise? Share your views and tag us @rhboydco and use #rhboydco.

This word serve in the Hebrew is abad. It means to labor; to work at it; to make oneself a servant. In serving, one is to work in awe of God’s goodness. As the psalmist approached the temple and reflected on what it meant to worship such an awesome God because of the Lord’s past and present dealing in his life, his admiration prompted him to serve—to worship the Lord. It called him to have a change of heart, which led to a desire to serve.

II. The Lord’s Identity Defined (Psalm 100:3)

What a blessing it is to recognize that there is no God like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the same God that cared enough to create us and claim us as His own. In doing so, He provides for us, and His forever-abiding presence protects us. This is the reason the psalmist wrote in verse 3, Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. The word know is yada in the Hebrew, and it means to learn; to know; to perceive with your mind. This knowledge is not some revelation you have been able to comprehend for yourself. Because of this realization, the psalmist declares the goodness of the Lord: Know that the LORD is God; it is he who has made us, and we are his. We are His and no one else’s.

What a privilege to know that not only were we created by the Lord, but we now have the privilege to have a personal relationship with Him. What a blessing it is to know that we belong to Him and He loves us and cares for us because we belong to Him, and we are cared for like a shepherd cares for one of the sheep in his pasture. God took the initiative in giving because God so loved us. First John 3:16 says, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Connect with Learners: Have you ever thought of yourself as a sheep? Do some research; why do sheep need shepherds?

III. Declaration for Worthy Praise (Psalm 100:4–5)