Armenia in comments -- Book: Psalms (tPs) Սաղմոս

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Adam Clarke


psa 100:0
All nations are exhorted to praise the Lord, Psa 100:1, Psa 100:2; to acknowledge him to be the Sovereign God and their Creator and that they are his people and the flock of his pasture, Psa 100:3; to worship him publicly, and be grateful for his mercies, Psa 100:4. The reasons on which this is founded; his own goodness, his everlasting mercy, and his ever-during truth, Psa 100:5.
This Psalm is entitled in the Hebrew מזמור לתודה mizmor lethodah, not "A Psalm of Praise," as we have it, but "A Psalm for the confession, or for the confession-offering," very properly translated by the Chald:ee: שבחא על קורבן תודתא shibcha al kurban todetha, "Praise for the sacrifice (or offering) of confession." The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Ethiopic have followed this sense. The Arabic attributes it to David. The Syriac has the following prefixed: "Without a name. Concerning Joshua the son of Nun, when he had ended the war with the Ammonites: but in the new covenant it relates to the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith." It is likely that it was composed after the captivity, as a form of thanksgiving to God for that great deliverance, as well as an inducement to the people to consecrate themselves to him, and to be exact in the performance of the acts of public worship. Psalms 100:1

Adam Clarke

tPs 100::3 Know ye that the Lord he is God - Acknowledge in every possible way, both in public and private, that Jehovah, the uncreated self-existent, and eternal Being, is Elohim, the God who is in covenant with man, to instruct, redeem, love, and make him finally happy.
It is he that hath made us - He is our Creator and has consequently the only right in and over us.
And not we ourselves - ולא אנחנו velo anachnu. I can never think that this is the true reading, though found in the present Hebrew text, in the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Syriac. Was there ever a people on earth, however grossly heathenish, that did believe, or could believe, that they had made themselves? In twenty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. we have ולו אנחנו velo anachnu, "and His we are;" לו lo, the pronoun, being put for לא lo, the negative particle. This is the reading of the Targum, or Chald:ee paraphrase ודיליה אנחנא vedileyh anachna, "and his we are," and is the reading of the text in the Complutensian Polyglot, of both the Psalters which were printed in 1477, and is the keri, or marginal reading in most Masoretic Bibles. Every person must see, from the nature of the subject that it is the genuine reading. The position is founded on the maxim that what a man invents, constructs out of his own matterials, without assistance in genius, materials or execution from any other person, is His Own and to it, its use, and produce, he has the only right. God made us, therefore we are His: we are his people, and should acknowledge him for our God; we are the sheep of his pasture, and should devote the lives to him constantly which he continually supports. Psalms 100:4

Albert Barnes


psa 100:0
This psalm - so beautiful - so grand - so often sung in all lands and languages - completes this "group" of psalms respecting the reign of God, or the reasons for praise as derived from the fact that he reigns. In the previous psalms in this group Ps. 95-99 the call to praise had been in some respects local and particular; in this, it is universal. All lands are called on to praise him; all people to worship him as God. The "ground" of this, as stated in the psalm, is that he is their "Maker;" that he is the Creator of all. As all have derived their being from him, they are called on to praise him as their common Creator and Father. So far as the reason here referred to is a ground for praise and worship, it applies to all people now. The nations - the people of the earth - are one. However much they may differ in complexion, in language, in customs, in religion, they have all been formed by the same God; they are all of one family; they are all entitled to the same privileges; they may all have the same access to his throne. The races of people are one; and all should gather around the throne of their common Creator, and render him united praise. This psalm has been sung by million and hundreds of million; it will continue to be sung to the end of time.
The psalm is entitled "A Psalm of praise In the margin, "thanksgiving." The Septuagint is, "A Psalm of Confession" - εἰς ἐξομολόγησιν eis homologēsin. So the Latin Vulgate, and the Chald:ee. The Syriac version is, "anonymous," or, without a name; "concerning Joshua the son of Nun, when he subdued the Ammonites." Luther: "A Psalm of Thanksgiving." Psalms 100:1