Old One Hundredth
Old One Hundredth
Psalm 100: Old Hundredth
Affectionately known as “Old Hundredth,” from its tune in the Geneva Psalter (1551), this Psalm is a call to all the earth to worship Jehovah. Its summons goes beyond the narrow confines of Israel to all the Gentile lands. Barnes writes:
The idea is that praise did not pertain to one nation only; that it was not appropriate for one people merely; that it should not be confined to the Hebrew people; but that there was a proper ground of praise for all, there was that in which all nations, of all languages and conditions could unite. The ground of that was the fact that they had one Creator (v. 3).
We learn from these five short verses that worship is simple. The longest words are thanksgiving, everlasting, and generations. The language is neither involved nor flowery. We learn too that the simple recital of facts about God is worship. The words themselves carry cargoes of wonder. The plain facts are more wonderful than fiction.
There is a definite pattern in the Psalm, as follows:
Call to worship (vv, 1, 2).
Why God should be worshiped (v. 3).
Call to worship (v. 4).
Why God should be worshiped (v.5).
Seven elements of worship are suggested:
Shout joyfully (v. 1).
Serve the LORD with gladness (v. 2a).
Come before Him with singing (v. 2b).
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving (v. 4a).
Enter His courts with praise (v. 4b).
Be thankful to Him (v. 4c).
Bless His name (v. 4d).
We should praise Him because of who He is. He is our:
LORD (v. 1).
God (v. 3a).
Creator (v. 3b).
Owner (v. 3c).
Shepherd (v. 3d).
We should praise Him because of His attributes:
He is good (v. 5).
His mercy is everlasting (v. 5).
His truth endures to all generations (v. 5).
In the first three verses, God is worshiped as Creator. But in the last two verses, it is not hard to read Calvary into the text because nowhere else do we see so clearly His goodness, His mercy, and His faithfulness.
All worlds His glorious power confess,
His wisdom all His works express;
But O His love!—what tongue can tell?
Our Jesus hath done all things well!
—Samuel Medley
There is a wonderful conjunction of thoughts in verse 3 that we should not miss. There we learn that the LORD is God; this means that He is unapproachably high. But we also read that we are His; and this tells us that He is intimately nigh. It is because He is so near to us that the Psalm breathes gladness and singing instead of dread and fear.
The Psalm is a joyful song for the happy God, and its message has been preserved in our hymnology in the well-known paraphrase:
Psalm 100
The superscription states that this psalm (or song) is “for giving thanks.” It was used in the temple with the sacrifices of praise. The expressions in this psalm reflect the preceding enthronement psalms (Pss. 47; 93; 95–99) that celebrate the Lord’s rule.
The psalmist exhorted the congregation to serve the Lord with gladness because He is the Creator, and to enter His temple with much thanksgiving because He is good and faithful.
A. Serve the Lord with gladness (100:1–3)
100:1–2. Verses 1–3 include a call for praise and joyful service. People everywhere (all the earth; cf. 96:1; 97:1; 98:4) should shout … to the LORD; they are not to be subdued in their praise of Him. Moreover, they are to serve Him with gladness. This service, with joyful songs, may mean worship.
100:3. The LORD should be praised and worshiped joyfully because He is sovereign. He is the Creator, and those who trust Him are His possession. They follow Him, for they are the sheep of His pasture (cf. 74:1; 79:13; 95:7; also note 23:1; 80:1).
B. Enter His courts with thanksgiving (100:4–5)
100:4–5. This second part of the psalm is a call to the saints to enter Jerusalem (God’s gates) and to go to the temple (His courts) to offer their thanksgiving sacrifices for His blessings to them.
The people should praise the Lord for His goodness, love, and faithfulness. These benefits endure from generation to generation. So every generation that experiences God’s goodness, love, and faithfulness can join in praising Him with “The Old One-Hundredth.”
PSALM 100
THE ARGUMENT.
This Psalm seems to have been composed for the use of the Israelites in their thank-offerings, or upon other solemn occasions of praising God, as the title speaks; but withal it hath a further prospect, even to the days of the Messiah, as some of the Hebrew doctors acknowledge, and to the calling of the Gentiles, whom he invites to join with them in the praises of God their Lord and Maker.
¶ *A Psalm of ǁpraise.
An exhortation to praise God joyfully, 1, 2, for his greatness, power, 3, 4, goodness, and faithfulness to his church, 5.
MAKE a joyful noise unto the LORD, †all ye lands.
Make a joyful noise; partly with voices and songs of rejoicing and thanksgiving; and partly with musical instruments, as the manner then was. All ye lands; all the inhabitants of the earth. Or, all the land, i.e. all the people of Israel dwelling in this land. Although his invitation seems to be more general, extending also to the Gentiles, of whom many even in those days joined themselves to the church of God.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, ǁand not we ourselves; cwe are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
It is he that hath made us; both by creation, and by adoption and regeneration, whereby he made us his people, which also is called a creation or making, as Deut. 32:6; Isa. 29:23; 43:7; Eph. 2:10. And not we ourselves; therefore we owe him homage and service, and him only, and not other gods, who made us not.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Enter into his gates; the gates of his courts; for the people might enter no further, and the courts had walls and gates as well as the house.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth †to all generations.
Ps. 100:4, 5. Therefore shall the men of all nations enter with thanksgiving into the gates of His Temple and into the courts of His Temple with praise (Ps. 96:8), in order to join themselves in worship to His church, which—a creation of Jahve for the good of the whole earth—is congregated about this Temple and has it as the place of its worship. The pilgrimage of all peoples to the holy mountain is an Old Testament dress of the hope for the conversion of all peoples to the God of revelation, and the close union of all with the people of this God. His Temple is open to them all. They may enter, and when they enter they have to look for great things. For the God of revelation (Ps. 52:11; 54:8) is “good” (Ps. 25:8; 34:9), and His loving-kindness and faithfulness endure for ever—the thought that recurs frequently in the later Hallelujah and Hodu Psalms and is become a liturgical formula (Jer. 33:11). The mercy of loving-kindness of God is the generosity, and His faithfulness the constancy, of His love.