Psalm 100

Psalms 100:1-2

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, names the psalm for the thank offering, the todah of Leviticus 7:12-15, the sacrifice a worshipper brought with a public vow of praise attached to it. The call goes out past Israel to all ye lands, the same wide horizon as the neighboring psalms of praise, and gladness and singing are named as the manner of the service, not an accompaniment to it. Come before his presence sets worship as an approach to a person, not merely an activity performed.

Psalms 100:3

Know ye that the Lord he is God echoes the confession Israel was made to say at Deut 4:35, and it grounds the psalm's joy in a settled fact rather than a mood. The clause and not we ourselves carries a well known textual point: the Hebrew consonants can be read as written, lo, not, which the King James follows, or as a near-identical word meaning to him, his we are, which other versions follow, and the commentators name both readings without deciding the point for the reader. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture places this verse in the Psalter's own shepherd language, the same figure that opens Psalm 23 and pictures the Lord enthroned over Israel at Psalm 80:1.

Psalms 100:4-5

Gates and courts describe a worshipper's approach to the temple grounds in stages, thanksgiving at the outer gate and praise as he draws further in, and be thankful and bless his name repeat the same act in two more words rather than adding two more duties. The closing verse gives the reason for all of it in three short clauses: the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations, the last clause reaching forward past the worshippers singing it. Henry reads the verse as the whole psalm's argument compressed to its final line, goodness, mercy and truth answering the joyful noise the psalm opened with.