Psalms 100:1
Call of All the World to the Service of the True God
This Psalm closes the series of deutero-Isaianic Psalms, which began with Ps 91. There is common to all of them that mild sublimity, sunny cheerfulness, unsorrowful spiritual character, and New Testament expandedness, which we wonder at in the second part of the Book of Isaiah; and besides all this, they are also linked together by the figure anadiplosis, and manifold consonances and accords. The arrangement, too, at least from Psa 93:1-5 onwards, is Isaianic: it is parallel with the relation of Isa 24:1 to Psa 13:1. Just as the former cycle of prophecies closes that concerning the nations, after the manner of a musical finale, so the Psalms celebrating the dominion of God, from Psa 93:1-5 onwards, which vividly portray the unfolded glory of the kingship of Jahve, have Jubilate and Cantate Psalms in succession. From the fact that this last Jubilate is entirely the echo of the first, viz., of the first half of Psa 95:1-11, we see how ingenious the arrangement is. There we find all the thoughts which recur here. There it is said in Psa 95:7, He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the flock of His hand. And in Psa 95:2, Let us come before His face with thanksgiving (בּתודה), let us make a joyful noise unto Him in songs! This תודה is found here in the title of the Psalm, מזמור לתּודה. Taken in the sense of a “Psalm for thanksgiving,” it would say but little. We may take לתודה in a liturgical sense (with the Targum, Mendelssohn, Ewald, and Hitzig), like ליום השׁבת, Psa 92:1, in this series, and like להזכיר in Psa 38:1; Psa 70:1. What is intended is not merely the tôda of the heart, but the shelamı̂m - tôda, תּודה זבח, Psa 107:22; Psa 116:17, which is also called absolutely תודה in Psa 56:13, 2Ch 29:31. That kind of shelamı̂m is thus called which is presented על־תודה, i.e., as thankful praise for divine benefits received, more particularly marvellous protection and deliverance (vid., Ps 107).
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