Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.

Serve the LORD with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the LORD Himself is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter HIs gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the LORD is good;

His lovingkindness is everlasting

And His faithfulness to all generations.

—Psalm 100

Today we’re continuing with our series through the Psalms to discover the character of God, and this time we’re looking at Psalm 100 because every single verse in the Psalm gives us a unique glimpse of who God is, and it’s a pretty incredible picture!

Verse one is interesting because it starts off with an invitation, not to the chosen people of God, but to the whole earth. At first, I shrugged it off as potentially being an every-knee-will-bow situation, but that’s not what the language indicates. 

The psalmist invites all the earth to shout joyfully to Yahweh. The phrase “shout joyfully” doesn’t just mean to make a lot of happy noise. According to John MacArthur’s commentary, it’s a shout meant to honor and show one’s loyalty. That means this isn’t a statement that one day everyone will recognize God as sovereign; it’s an invitation to a relationship that will bring us joy.

In verse two we come to the phrase, “Come before Him with joyful singing.” On the surface, we are reminded of the joy of being in God’s presence, but there’s more to it. In English, the word before is a preposition that tells us where we are relative to where God is. In the original language, the word is a noun and means face. 

To be honest, that one threw me for a loop at first. There are quite a few potential meanings for this word, but based on the context, it’s basically the Hebrew version of saying that two people are face to face. We’re not talking about “come before Him” in the sense of coming to a king’s courts along with 100 other people. We’re talking about walking right up to the throne and standing face to face with Him, not in fear, but with joyful singing.

In verse three, we get thrown a couple of softballs because the psalmist comes right out and says that God is our Creator and Shepherd, but if we keep looking, there’s more. 

In the first line, it says, “Know that the LORD Himself is God”. LORD is the translation of the relational name of God that He gave to His people—Yahweh. It is the name associated with His covenant with His people. God is a translation of the name Elohim, which means Mighty One and references God’s immeasurable power. 

Putting the two together paints a vivid picture of our standing with God—He is the Mighty One who created the whole earth, ourselves included, but even so, He wants to have a relationship with us. We aren’t too small or insignificant to Him. In His great kindness, He still wants us.

Verse four follows the reminder that God is Elohim, the Mighty Creator with a command to enter His gates and courts with praise. These gates and courts would have referred to going to the temple to be in God’s presence, but now that Christ has bridged the gap between us and God, we don’t have to go to a specific building.

Whether we’re thinking of the Israelites going to the temple to be with God or Christians today seeking the presence of God, we get another reminder that we don’t have to be timid or afraid in God’s presence. We can be loud and rowdy as we sing His praise and thank Him for the goodness He’s shown us, and He’ll never tell us to quiet down.

In verse five, we’re told that God is faithful and that He is good. When I looked up faithful, it meant exactly what you might think—steadfast, firm, fidelity—but I got a pleasant surprise when I looked up good. 

As an English teacher and a writer, good isn’t exactly what I’d consider a go-to word. It’s weak, bland, a shadow of a word. It’s like nice. It means something, but not a whole lot. But when I looked up how the original word could be translated, that shadowy-gray word burst into color—beautiful, delightful, generous, pure, complete, precious, splendid, upright, sweet. It can even mean festive. That’s our God’s brand of goodness.

One of the things I think is the most beautiful about God has always been how He reveals Himself in layer after layer of exquisite meaning in Scripture, in life, in the world around us, and this psalm shows us exactly that. The psalm itself is full of the joy God gives to His people, but just underneath the surface lies so much more. May this psalm serve as a reminder for us to always be looking for God’s revelation because there’s no telling what joys we’ll find next!