Psalm 100

In the middle of the 16th Century, Scotsman William Kethe, fled to Geneva for safety.  While in exile, he wrote the hymn All people who on earth do dwell. This is a rousing hymn of thankfulness and praise, reflecting on the sovereignty, goodness and eternal nature of God. The lyrics are based firmly on Psalm 100. As verse 5 says – God’s covenantal love endures through all generations.  So, the message of God’s enduring love has been carried by an enduring song.

Psalm 100 is a psalm of ascent.  These psalms were traditionally sung by worshippers as they travelled to Jerusalem for the three major annual festivals – Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.  But extraordinarily, Psalm 100 is addressed to all people on the earth.  It invites people of all nations to worship God!  At the time it was written, only the Israelites would have learned and sung these words.  But there is clear instruction for the whole world to join in and worship the God of the Israelites.  All people are invited to respond to this psalm.

The psalm begins… “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth…” (my emphasis). This command pivots around the word Know in verse 3…Know that the Lord is God. God’s character and nature were revealed in the saving grace he had extended to his people. He freed them from long slavery in Egypt. He called them to be his special people. They are the ones to whom he displayed his love and grace.

This psalm declares that if the nations came to know this God, then they were invited to shout for joy.   Both verses 3 and 5 invite all people to understand their createdness – their belongingness to the God who reaches out with His saving grace. 

So, what does Psalm 100 instruct everyone to do? It has seven commands in just five verses. We are all invited to – Shout, Worship, Come, Know, Enter, Give thanks and Praise.

Knowing leads to celebration

Verses 1and 2 tell us that knowing God leads to joy, so the first of these commands is to Shout. It is wonderful to lift our voices in praise and joy.  The word means make a noise, don’t hold anything back, and it is directed at the whole world.

The second command is to Worship.  Sometimes we refer to ‘worship’ as that time during a church service when we are singing. But the Hebrew word used here means that service and worship are indistinguishable from one another.  

Serving others to bless their lives is intricately connected in this word for worship.  There should not be a disconnect between what we say and pray and do at church, and what we do when we leave the building in terms of blessing others. It is no surprise then that in Romans 12:1 Paul exhorts his readers, ‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship’. Worship with our whole life so that we may bless others.

The third command is Come!  It is a command to all nations; literally, come before the face of God and know that you are welcome. The prophets envisioned a time to come when people from all tribes and nations would come to the mountain of the Lord. Revelation speaks of people from all tribes and all tongues gathering in God’s company at the end of time. Psalm 100 is right in that zone.  Anyone who ‘knows’ is invited to ‘come and celebrate’ – to give loud and joyful service and worship to His glory.

Knowing God leads to thankfulness

Enter is Old Testament language – enter his gates, enter his courts.  This was commonly known as the privilege of the Israelites.  Anyone who was not an Israelite in ancient times was often excluded from the temple courts. But in Psalm 100 ‘everyone’ is invited to be in that place where we are in God’s presence, fully belonging to His covenant promises.  Go right on in to the most privileged area, the psalm says, if you know that God is good.  Jesus reissues this invitation in the New Testament, saying, ‘Come unto me’ (Matt 11:28).

And finally, we are to give thanks and praise.  Psalm 100 expects an attitude of gratitude of people who come to know God’s grace.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we are instructed to Give thanks in all circumstances – not for the circumstances, but in them.  We can do this because we know both that ‘God is God’ and that ‘God is good’.

Billy Graham once commented that ‘An attitude of thankfulness – a spirit of gratitude – is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian whose heart is truly attuned to the Lord’.  Maybe that gives us pause for thought. Do we find ourselves constantly critical, judgemental, overly disappointed, yearning for better things all the time?  Perhaps it calls us back to the gospel – to the God who saves and blesses us – to recognise what we are truly grateful for in Him. And then we will give thanks for His goodness and praise his name. God is King. We are to stand to attention, raise our hands and applaud our good God.  

Shout, worship, come, know, enter, give thanks and praise – why?  Because we know how good the Lord is and we know that we are called by Jesus to spread this good news to all people of all nations.  Psalm 100 is still a psalm for us, a song for us and perhaps a good set of instructions for you and me today. God’s saving grace displayed in the cross is something that God wants everyone to know so everyone can join us in our joy and thankfulness.

Prepared by Lynda Gibbs, KYB member, from a talk given by Steve Webster; Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Bendigo.