Psalm 100 is a brief communal thanksgiving hymn.
This is a theological and homiletical study of Psalm 100, with a clear emphasis on worship, thanksgiving, joy, and the character of God.
Introduction
The central theme of this discussion is that true worship arises from recognizing who God is and who we are in relation to God. Psalm 100 is a communal call to joyful thanksgiving grounded in several convictions:
- The Lord is God — worship begins with the confession of Yahweh’s unique identity.
- God created and claims the people — “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” is treated as the theological center.
- God is good, steadfastly loving, and faithful — divine character provides the reason for praise.
- Thanksgiving is communal, joyful, and sometimes courageous — the application section expands this by showing that praise can arise even amid suffering.
A strong secondary theme is the universality of worship. The repeated attention to “all the earth” frames Psalm 100 not only as Israel’s song but as an invitation that reaches beyond Israel.
With five verses, Psalm 100 is one of the briefest psalms in the Psalter (only five psalms are shorter - Psalms 117, 123, 131, 133, 134). As a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, it concludes a series of enthronement hymns, Psalm 93 and Psalms 95 through 99. It raises many of the themes of the words in the enthronement psalms that precede it. It may well be an anthology or summary for the collection. One may also understand it as a call to worship, functioning as an introduction to larger liturgical works. In Jewish worship, it serves this role in the daily morning service. The choir may have sung this song tonally at the entrance into the Temple. It may point to the festival act of worship by the covenant community. As an act of worship, people used the Psalm when they brought sacrifices that they consumed in the Temple courtyard. They had to completely consume the sacrifice, so extravagance, even gluttony, was a requirement. It was a joyful time. Some scholars also think that worship leaders used the psalm as part of the entrance liturgy into the Jerusalem. The keynote is the joy in God that lifts the hearts of people up. The psalm offers motivations for the praise the people offer. It has a universalist theme such as we find in II Isaiah.
Verse-by-verse study
The superscription that identifies it as a psalm of thanksgiving (todah) is unique in the psalter. It is uncertain if it means simply “for praise” or if it refers to the thanksgiving offering, suggesting a liturgy to be recited in conjunction with the sacrifice.
Psalm 100:1-3 forms the first part of the Psalm. It opens with an invitation: 1 Make a joyful noise (“shout,” or even “make a racket,”) to the Lord. Of the six occurrences in the NRSV of the phrase "joyful noise," all of them except one are in this part of the Psalter (Psalms 95, 98 and 100; the exception is Psalm 66:1). The commotion can be for public worship, as here, or it can serve as a battle cry (e.g., Joshua 6:10), a shout of acclamation (e.g., I Samuel 10:24), or a cry of distress (e.g., Isaiah 15:4). The sound was part of the typical human coronation ritual, as in I Kings 1:39-40, but here projected onto the Lord. The call into this encounter begins not with quietness or timidity, but with a cry of recognition and joy. The congregation is to make a commotion as it opens corporate worship. This recognition does not limit itself to Israel or to the priestly ranks but extends to all the earth. Here is an example of a universalistic thrust like what we find in II Isaiah. Psalm 98:4 also offers the invitation. The theology of Israel has a cosmological foundation. Although psalmists frequently call upon Israel's neighbors to acknowledge the Lord's divine kingship, Israel whose praise most befits Yahweh. Comparison with Psalm 24 is instructive. The movement there is from universal acclamation by all the earth ("The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it," v. 1) to the praise Israel owes to God ("Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob," v. 6). Granted, the idea that the earth would offer such commotion to Yahweh, the God of Israel, is an exaggeration. Yet, it also points to the boundless exuberance of the congregation by being the people of the Lord in a way that surpasses national and historical boundaries. The congregation is to 2Worship (in the context of a liturgy or “serve” when referring a holy, faithful, or obedient life) the Lord with gladness. Service and worship go together when one confronts sovereignty and/or divinity. The service rendered to God has the goal of joy in the presence of God. Gladness was an essential component of authentic worship from the very beginnings of Israel's theology. Deuteronomy 28:47 stresses that the people are to obey the commandments with joy and “gladness of heart.” We might even say that worship with joy or gladness is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Gladness expresses the covenantal relationship with the Lord. Paired with the invitation to come into hispresence (or “before the face of the Lord) with singing, we can see the boisterous nature of the invitation of this worship service. It may be an instruction to the entire congregation (in this context), to the priests (possibly), or to the Levitical singers (least likely), who had the special responsibility for the maintenance of the temple's musical liturgy. Only in the modern Western world has music, especially singing, functioned as one of the luxury arts; for most of human history, song of some sort, simple or complex, has accompanied much of human activity. Music and song were an important part of much of human activity, rather than the specialty it has become in our time. Singing accompanied divine-human interaction. Women played a significant role, as we see with Miriam (Exodus 15:20-21), Deborah (Judges 5), the daughter of Jephthah (Judges 11:34, and hailing the conquering hero David (I Samuel 18:6-7). The Levites did take over much of this role after the building of the temple. People held professional musicians in high esteem. Some scholars think that the role of women narrowed to secular songs of merrymaking and professional lamentation for the dead. Yet, we also read that in the solemn procession into the sanctuary, the singers lead the way, then came girls playing tambourines, while the musicians came last. The congregation would then offer praise to God, who is the king and the fountain of Israel (Psalm 68:24-26). We know little about the actual singing done in the Temple; after the Temple's destruction in A.D. 70, Temple music was immediately forbidden, and the professional knowledge of the Levites perished with that sacerdotal order. Given the brevity of the psalm, it is amazing that it offers several foundational reasons for all this commotion. First, 3 Know that the Lord is God. The Lord as sole or most powerful God is the emphasis in in Psalm 96-98. Yahweh, the deliverer of Israel, is God. God is a living reality. Israel has received specific knowledge of God as Yahweh. Here is the most elemental of the confessions of Israel. The structure of the Hebrew sentence uses special emphasis in a way that says, “Make no mistake. It is Yahweh who is God and not anyone or anything else!” The psalmist addresses one of the basic tendencies toward sin in Israel, that of going gods other than Yahweh. Second, It is he that made us and we are his.[1] The joyful thanksgiving and praise includes relaxing and being those who are well tended by the divine Shepherd. The Lord is creator. I am following the translation of most texts at this point. However, the consonants form the word “and not we ourselves,” with the difference being one Hebrew consonant. We do not make ourselves. Our source in the life-giving nature of the Lord means we need help beyond our ability to provide. Third, the writer immediately links this affirmation with history with the use of royal shepherd imagery: we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. We have here the center of the psalm structurally and theologically. Here is another fundamental temptation of Israel, and humanity as well. We tend to believe that we are self-made and need no help beyond our strength and abilities. To confront this tendency, the psalm affirms that we belong to God; we are creatures who owe our very existence to this Yahweh, and we are his completely. In one of the most common biblical images, we are like sheep in the pasture tended by our Shepherd. The Lord has chosen to work in a saving way in the history of this people.
Psalm 100:4-5 are the second part of the psalm. The psalm moves to the proper response that the congregation is to offer the Lord. The psalm renews the call, drawing attention to the proper way to engage in public worship. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. This call to worship typifies 95-99. Give thanks, as in the thanksgiving offering (or give praise) to him, bless (barak, praise) his name, reinforcing the certainty and exclusivity of this worship. Some scholars think a choir or priest may have sung this invitation. We now return to reasons to offer such worship as we find described in this psalm. This time, the focus is upon the character of the Lord as revealed in the saving history of Israel. The words used show the essential divine character and nature of the Lord. We can see this liturgical response in Psalm 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, and 136. 5 For the Lord is good (tov), the essential nature of the Lord. Such goodness is not occasional or for the moment but is a fundamental characteristic of the Lord. Such knowledge of the Lord gives reason for the exuberant praise and thanksgiving solicited in the Psalm. Human praise of the Lord has its root in divine goodness. The steadfast love (hesed) of the Lord, the comprehensive grace and favor of the Lord, the divine attribute of love, endures forever. Such divine love is an activity of the Lord, often associated with covenant (berith). Divine actions in the life of Israel and the world are how people know and define the Lord in this way. Further, the faithfulness (‘emunah) of the Lord is to all generations. This psalm, consistent with many other psalms, extols the kindness or love (hesed) of the Lord with divine faithfulness (‘emunah).[2] They can count on the Lord to be who the Lord is. The emphasis is the dependability of the Lord. Such affirmations formed the essential understanding of the Lord that we find in Israel. It opens the way to the joy that is the theme of the psalm.
Our own faith, like that of Israel, has its foundation on this understanding of who Yahweh is and on this description of our own relationship to the Lord. We came into being because God created us. We continue to exist because our God is good and loving. Our future has a guarantee attached because of the faithfulness we see in God’s action in the world. Joy, thankfulness, and praise should come easily to our hearts and to our lips when we consider our God. In the Hebrew Psalter, the Lord's relationships fall into two categories: relationships to the divine world and relationships to the mundane world. Enthronement psalms relate primarily to the former but include important aspects of the latter. Praise is an integral component of both.
Application
This psalm will raise an important question for us about worship. Worship is one way we can let loose with music and share the saving story of the dealing the Lord has with humanity. We can only hope that it acts like rain, as it showers upon us for a time, only to disappear into the ground, doing its work to help the earth bear fruit.[3] As important worship is, the New Testament is surprisingly indifferent to worship as an outward form. We find no manual. Rather, the focus is on an inward experience of the heart as we offer praise to the Lord and receive the divine Word.[4] One can only hope that all energy expressed in corporate worship will bear fruit in the hearts and lives of those who lead and participate.
Worship arises out of the awareness that the source of our lives does not lay within us. We acknowledge in worship that our origin lies beyond us. In worship, we also view the source of the natural world as dependent upon the will and love of Another. The fact that something is here, rather than nothing, is testimony to the love of God. Further, in worship, we testify that God has not simply created something different from God, and then left it alone. In worship, we acknowledge that God continues to care for what God has created in such a way as to move creation toward a gracious end. Human beings love many things that cannot love back, such as food, cars, homes, and other material things. God loved this universe into existence, and human beings could respond to divine love with human love. Worship is with gladness, singing, thanksgiving, and praise. Fortunately, singing does not mean it must always sound beautiful, as if by a professional musician. It can be a joyful noise. The Bible says almost nothing about worship styles, forms, and liturgies. For this, we can be thankful. In its long history, the church has never locked itself into one style. It has freely adapted worship styles to changes in culture, nationality, and so on.
This Psalm occurs in the context of the history of the people of the Lord. Israel had its struggle with the nations, with itself, and with the Lord. Yet, this psalm invites people to offer thanks. Offering thanks can be an act of courage.
The first settlers in America landed in December of 1620 in Massachusetts, and within one month 10 out of the 17 fathers and husbands who were on that ship, the Mayflower, died. Within a couple of months, only four of the mothers and wives were alive out of the first 17 couples. Moreover, by Easter almost half of the pilgrims had died. They landed in the middle of winter without provisions, without shelter and that took a toll. It took a huge toll and yet in 1621, they celebrated, and they gave thanks to God. It was amazingly difficult, amazingly difficult those first years.
On another continent about 25 years later there was a Lutheran pastor named Martin Rinkart. He lived in Eilenberg in Saxony and it was during the siege of the Thirty Years War. Eilenberg was a walled city that was surrounded by Swedes and there were 800 homes were burned, and the people within suffered from the plague, from starvation, and it got to the point where the pastors within that town, within that village were burying 12 people a day. Soon the pastors themselves started to die and Martin Rinckart was the only pastor left. He was conducting 50 funerals a day, can you imagine? Fifty funerals a day. He buried over 5,000 people that year, including his own wife. When the war ended a year later in 1648 he sat down and wrote a poem.
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
This man knew horrors beyond all we could think and imagine, getting on his knees and leading people in praise and thanks to our God.
Offering our worship in the spirit of thanksgiving and praise to God is not always easy. This psalm invites to engage in the courageous act of worship, praise, and thanksgiving.
[1] This is a slight textual emendation of the Masoretic Text, based on the alternate reading supplied by the Masoretic rabbis themselves. The emendation is followed widely in translations (e.g., the American Standard, the RSV, the NRSV, Today's English Version, etc.). The consonantal text reads "and not we ourselves" (the difference is one Hebrew consonant), and is also followed by a number of translations (e.g., the Vulgate, the KJV, the Douay-Rheims, New American Standard, Darby, etc.). The emendation is probably to be preferred, in keeping with the balance of the verse ("we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture"), although it renders the line less interesting theologically.
[2]
[3] Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace.
[4]—Brian Thomas, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord,” November 7, 2004, Kaleo Fellowship Web Site, kaleochurch.com.
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