Psalms 100
What Happens in This Chapter
This short psalm calls everyone on earth to worship the LORD with joy. It tells people to serve him gladly, to come to him singing, and to know that he is God, the one who made them and cares for them like a shepherd cares for sheep. It ends with the reasons: the LORD is good, his loving care lasts forever, and he stays faithful to every generation.
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
"The LORD" in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Ancient Jewish practice avoided saying it aloud, substituting a word meaning "my Lord," and English translations follow that custom by printing LORD. "All the earth" means every land and its people, not the ground itself.
2Serve the LORD with gladness. Come into his presence with singing.
2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
"Serve" here is the ordinary word for what a subject does for a king or a worshiper for a god, attending on him, doing what he asks. It carries no sense of drudgery; the psalm pairs it directly with gladness. "Come into his presence" pictures approaching the temple, where God was understood to be present in a particular way.
3Know that the LORD is God. He is the one who made us, and we belong to him. We are his people, and the sheep he takes care of.
3Know 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 Hebrew of the middle line has two readings that sound identical when spoken, and Jewish scribes preserved both. One spelling means "and not we ourselves" (we did not make ourselves) (the King James choice. The other means "and we are his") the reading behind this rendering. Both have been copied faithfully for centuries and neither can be ruled out.
4Come through his gates giving thanks, and into his courtyards with praise. Thank him and speak well of his name.
4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
The gates and courtyards are those of the temple in Jerusalem. Ordinary worshipers did not enter the building itself; they gathered in the open courts outside it, which is where the singing and thank offerings happened. So this is a picture of a crowd walking in through the temple gates.
5The LORD is good. His faithful love lasts forever, and his faithfulness lasts to every generation.
5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Two key words sit behind this verse. The first, *chesed*, is loyal love that keeps faith with a commitment even when it is costly, the King James renders it "mercy." The second, rendered "truth" in the King James, does not mean factual accuracy but reliability: the quality of someone who can be leaned on and will not give way.
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