Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 4 · Psalm 100
The Hundredth Psalm.
A Psalm ‖for thanksgiving. foreignof praise.
Paraphrase. The hundredth Psalm being made up of lauds and praises of God for all his mercies, was appointed to be used at the offering of those peace-offerings which were for a thanksgiving, Lev. vii. 12. the praefect or praecentor beginning, and singing,
1. Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord, all†the earth foreign ye lands;
2. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with*ovation or triumph foreign singing.
O let all the people in the world bless and worship and praise, and offer up their prayers and supplications to the God of heaven, resort daily to his sanctuary, and constantly attend his service, and count this the most estimable and delectable taske, the most renowned and glorious imployment:
3. Know ye that the Lord he is God,‖he hath foreign it is he that hath made us, anda. not we our selves: we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
As being our way of conversing with the great and glorious omnipotent creator of heaven and earth, to whom we owe all that we have, our very being and conduct and preservation, and to whom we are obliged to pay all the obedience and observance that the meekest creatures in nature pay to those that have care and conduct of them.
4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankfull unto him, and bless his name.
O let us make our solemn addresses to his sanctuary, that Court or Palace whore his divine Majesty is signally pleased to exhibite himselfe, and to testifie his peculiar residence, and favourable audience to them who assemble there, by the presence of his holy Angels in that place; let us come thither with all the humility and devotion of loyall thankfull hearts, and praise and magnify his name for all the mercies we have ever received from him. To which beginnings of the Praefect, the whole quire of Priests answer,
5. b.For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.
To this we have all imaginable obligations, not only that of his soveraign dominion over all, to which therefore all the performances of our lives are but a most unproportionable tribute; but also his abundant benignity, his rich promises of a never failing mercy, and his constant fidelity in performing to every man, that is qualified for receiving it, the utmost that he ever promised, to any.
Annotations on Psalm C.
V. 3. Not we our selves] The Jewish-Arab follows here another reading, not foreign but foreign to him, and accordingly interprets it, we are foreign to him, or his, his people, and the sheep of his pasture. And so the Chaldee also, he hath made us, foreign and we are his; but the Syriack and Lxxii. and Latine and Arabick accord in the other reading foreign, and not we.
V. 5. For the Lord is good] That the Psalm was appointed to attend the oblation of the peace-offering,foreign appears by the title of it, foreign a Psalm of confession, acknowledgment, thanksgiving, proportionable to that sacrifice of thanksgiving, so styled, Lev. vii. 12. Now as in the offering of such, the priests prepared and fired the sacrifice, so the singers prepared and began the lauds. And this Psalm being, in the former part of it, an admonition to blessing and praising, (which was the Levites office, as the Deacons in the Primitive Church, who was therefore styled the monitor, that invited or called upon them to pray) Make a joyfull noise, serve, Come before his presence, Know ye, Enter, be thankfull—but in this last verse a General forme of prayer, used upon all occasions, the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth— this last seems to be the Response of the whole Chorus of the Priests, at the instant of the firing of the sacrifice, the praefect or praecentor having begun the rest.