The mother of children joyful.
Praise ye Yahwe.
It is safe to say that no greater hymn of praise is to be found in the psalter than Psalm 100. It is great in its originality, clarity, and strength. It is addressed to the congregation entering the temple, and though not sung by the procession might yet be called a processional hymn. It is perhaps a question how wide the application of verse 1 is, whether the call to praise goes out to all the earth and all humanity, or whether the call is intended simply for all the land of Palestine. Verses 3 and 4 seem to make it reasonably clear that the call to praise is here meant not for humanity but for the Jewish people. The psalm is not then an eschatological hymn as the wider application of verse 1 might suggest. The hymn falls into two divisions of almost equal lengths, verses 1-3 and verses 4-5. In the first division verses 1 and 2 constitute the call to praise:
Shout to Yahwe all the land:
Serve Yahwe with gladness;
Come in before him with singing.
Verse 3 makes up the body of the hymn in this division, and it is to be noted that while the actual content of verse 3 is characteristic reason for praise, yet the introduction of “Know ye” adds another to the succession of imperatives in this psalm, increases its strength, and is reminiscent of the fact that there were requirements for those who would enter Yahwe’s temple as Psalm 24:3-5 makes clear:
Know ye that Yahwe is God:
It is He who hath made us, and we are
His people and sheep of his pasture.