Meditation for 22nd February 2022
The Old Hundredth
In church on Sunday we recited Psalm 100 together. It’s a psalm which encourages us to worship and to rejoice in who God is. In the NIV the heading is ‘A psalm. For giving grateful praise.’
1: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2: Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
In verses 1-2 we are being exhorted to worship. The call to worship was not just to Israel but from Israel to all nations, so it was making Yahweh know to Gentiles. The word rendered ‘shout’ is quite strong encouraging the worshipper to be vocal (no holding back!) The word for worship is ‘abad’, a combination of “worship” and “service.” So we are to both worship and serve God with gladness. The whole earth is invited to serve the LORD.
We are told to come before His presence with joyful songs, or with singing. The psalms tell us to sing praise, and it is such a great way of encouraging ourselves and reminding us of God’s goodness. The choir I belong to is rehearsing part of the Messiah at the moment. When I am practising “But Thanks be to God” at home it is impossible not to be thankful!
3: Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Verse 3 is a wonderful verse. Know, be sure of the fact that the Lord is God, he made us and we are his and we can relate to him. Derek Kidner comments on this verse “To know is to have firm ground underfoot, the prerequisite of praise, and this knowledge is ours by gift; indeed by command.”
And another commentator says this: “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.”
4: Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
Then in verse 4 we are again encouraged to thank and praise God. As well as being the right thing to do, it is also good psychology, being thankful is good for us and lifts our mood. And by doing this we are able to come into God’s presence. That’s definitely win-win!
5: For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
In verse 5 we come to a wonderful end to the psalm. The word translated love can also be translated as mercy. Either way his love and mercy never run out, they endure for ever, and there is enough for everyone! His goodness, love and faithfulness are there for us all and give us ample reason to offer praise and thanks.
I am sure we all know the hymn “All people that on earth do dwell” (video below), sung to the tune know as ‘The Old Hundredth’.
The music was written in the 16th century by Louis Bourgeois, although originally it was set to Psalm 134 for the Genevan Psalter. The Genevan Psalter was brought about by Calvin, who wanted entire congregations to be able to sing psalms (as opposed to the just the clergy chanting them). Calvin wrote “It is a thing most expedient for the edification of the church to sing some psalms in the form of public prayers by which one prays to God or sings His praises so that the hearts of all may be roused and stimulated to make similar prayers and to render similar praises and thanks to God with a common love.”
The words to the hymn are a translation of Psalm 100 made in 1561 by William Kethe, (thought to have been born in Scotland) being one of a number of psalms he translated for the Anglo Genevan psalter. Kethe had fled to Geneva to avoid persecution under Queen Mary.
Here are his words (different to the hymn in the video below)
1: All people that on earth do dwell,
sing to the Lord with cheerful voice:
serve him with joy, his praises tell,
come now before him and rejoice!
2: Know that the Lord is God indeed,
he formed us all without our aid;
we are the flock he loves to feed,
the sheep who by his hand are made.
3: O enter then his gates with praise,
and in his courts his love proclaim;
give thanks and bless him all your days:
let every tongue confess his name.
4: For God, our mighty Lord is good,
his mercy is for ever sure;
his truth at all times firmly stood,
and shall from age to age endure.
5: Praise God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit evermore;
all praise to God the Three – in – One,
let heaven rejoice and earth adore!
And, ‘But Thanks” from the Messiah…
