Psalm 100

What Psalm 100 means

Psalm 100 is short, but it has a clear shape: a call to worship, a reason to worship, a second call, and a second reason. The opening words are addressed to all ye lands, not only to Israel, so the psalm pictures every nation joining in the praise of the LORD.

Verse 3 is the center. It tells the worshipper to know that the LORD he is God, and it gives the ground for that knowledge: he made us, and we did not make ourselves. Because he made us, we belong to him, as sheep belong to a shepherd. The worship in this psalm is not a mood worked up from nothing. It rests on who God is and whose we are.

Verse 4 pictures a worshipper walking up to the temple, through the gates and into the courts. Thanksgiving is the way in. Christians have long read this as a pattern for prayer and church worship: begin by thanking God before asking him for anything.

The psalm ends with three short claims about God: he is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. These are the reasons the gladness of verse 2 is not shallow. It is gladness in a God who does not change from one generation to the next.

Background and context

The KJV heading calls Psalm 100 a Psalm of praise. The Hebrew word in that heading is often linked with the thank offering, which is why many Bibles title it a psalm for giving thanks. No author is named.

It closes a group of psalms (roughly Psalms 93 to 100) that celebrate the LORD as King over all the earth. It is one of the most widely sung psalms in English, and the hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell is a metrical version of it.

Key verses

Cross references

• Psalm 95:6-7 A close parallel: kneel before the LORD our maker, for we are the people of his pasture.O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
• Psalm 79:13 The same picture of God's people as sheep of thy pasture who give thanks for ever.So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.
• Psalm 136:1 The refrain that God is good and his mercy endureth for ever, repeated through a whole psalm.O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
• John 10:14 Jesus calls himself the good shepherd who knows his sheep.I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
• Ephesians 2:10 Paul's line that we are his workmanship echoes verse 3: God made us.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
• Hebrews 13:15 Praise and giving thanks to his name described as an offering to God.By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.