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SONG PREVIEW
Click on icon for song preview of Psalm 100. The music was composed in 2011 and features on the CD album Mene, Mene,
Tekel, Upharsin.
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This Psalm is entitled in the Hebrew hdwtl rwmzm mizmor lethodah, not "A Psalm of Praise," as we have it, but "A Psalm for the confession, or for the confession-oIteriny," very properly translated by the Chaldee: atdwt brwq l[ ajb shibcha al krban todetha, "Praise for the sacrifice (or offering)) of confession." The Vulgate, Septuagint, and AEthiopic 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.2
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Among the psalms of triumphant thanksgiving, Ps. 100 stands pre-eminent. It is a glorious climax to the succession of psalms beginning with
Ps. 95.
In this psalm all peoples of the earth are invited to join Israel in a universal ascription of praise to Jehovah, for His loving-kindness and faithfulness are everlasting.
Ps. 100 is probably the origin of Old Hundredth, our Doxology, beginning, "Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow." The tune was composed by Louis Bourgeois in 1551.
In 1561 William Kethe composed the paraphrase beginning, "All people that on earth do dwell" for the Bourgeois tune.
Perhaps no psalm is used more frequently today in synagogue or church. It teaches the universal shepherd hood of God.
There is in it not a single mournful note. 3
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Psalms of praise (yadah - the verb meaning, 'to praise') are identified as such because of their form and subject matter.
Praise psalms are often more general in their content and more focused on who God is rather than what he has done.
When God's actions are described, they are frequently used to detail aspects of God's character, which are then praised by the psalmist.
Inevitably, there is overlap between these genres, however, close reading of praise and thanksgiving literature does show differences.
General format:
A call to praise (directed toward self or others)
Reasons for the praise (e.g. attributes of God or deeds of God)
Conclusion - often a repetition of the opening call to praise (i.e. inclusio).
Types of praise psalms include:
Hymns - songs of praise
Covenant Songs - psalms directed toward the covenant relationships between God and others
Hymns of Zion/Temple - psalms focused on Jerusalem the place of the presence of God.
Royal Psalms - These focus on the human king of Israel or upon YHWH as king of Israel (47:7)
Messianic Psalms - these psalms attend to predictions concerning God's anointed representative who is yet to come or the kingdom he will rule.
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