1 Shout aloud to Jehovah, all the earth.
2 Serve Jehovah with gladness,
Come before His face with joyful cry.
3 Know ye that Jehovah He is God,
He, He has made us, and His are we,
His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
His courts with praise,
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For Jehovah is good, for ever endures His loving-kindness,
And to generation after generation His faithfulness.
The Psalms of the King end with this full-toned call to all the earth
to do Him homage. It differs from the others of the group, by making no
distinct mention either of Jehovah's royal title or of the great act
of deliverance which was His visible exercise of sovereignty. But it
resembles them in its jubilant tone, its urgent invitation to all men
to walk in the light which shone on Israel, and its conviction that the
mercies shown to the nation had blessing in them for all the world. The
structure is simple. A call to praise Jehovah is twice given, and each
is followed by reasons for His praise, which is grounded, in the first
instance (ver. 3), on His dealings with Israel, and, in the second, on
His character as revealed by all His works.
Ver. 1 consists of but a single clause, and, as Delitzsch says, is
like the signal-blast of a trumpet. It rings out a summons to "all
the earth," as in Psalm xcviii. 4, which is expanded in ver. 2. The
service there enjoined is that of worship in the Temple, as in ver.
4. Thus, the characteristic tone of this group of psalms echoes here,
in its close, and all men are called and welcomed to the Sanctuary.
There is no more a Court of the Gentiles. Not less striking than the
universality of the psalm is its pulsating gladness. The depths of
sorrow, both of that which springs from outward calamities and of
that more heart-breaking sort which wells up from dark fountains in
the soul, have been sounded in many a psalm. But the Psalter would
not reflect all the moods of the devout soul, unless it had some
strains of unmingled joy. The Christian Year has perfect days of
sunlit splendour, when all the winds are still, and no cloud darkens
the unbroken blue. There is no music without passages in minor keys;
but joy has its rights and place too, and they know but little of the
highest kind of worship who do not sometimes feel their hearts swell
with gladness more poignant and exuberant than earth can minister.
The reason for the world's gladness is given in ver. 3. It is
Jehovah's special relation to Israel. So far as the language of the
verse is concerned, it depends on Psalm xcv. 7. "He hath made us"
does not refer to creation, but to the constituting of Israel the
people of God. "We are His" is the reading of the Hebrew margin, and
is evidently to be preferred to that of the text, "Not we ourselves."
The difference in Hebrew is only in one letter, and the pronunciation
of both readings would be the same. Jewish text-critics count fifteen
passages, in which a similar mistake has been made in the text. Here,
the comparison of Psalm xcv. and the connection with the next clause
of ver. 3 are decidedly in favour of the amended reading. It is to
be observed that this is the only place in the psalm in which "we"
and "us" are used; and it is natural to lay stress on the opposition
between "ye" in ver. 3_a_, and "we" and "us" in _b_. The collective
Israel speaks, and calls all men to rejoice in Jehovah, because of
His grace to it. The psalm is, then, not, as Cheyne calls it, "a
national song of thanksgiving, with which an universalistic element
is not completely fused," but a song which starts from national
blessings, and discerns in them a message of hope and joy for all
men. Israel was meant to be a sacred hearth on which a fire was
kindled, that was to warm all the house. God revealed Himself _in_
Israel, but _to_ the world.
The call to praise is repeated in ver. 4 with more distinct
reference to the open Temple gates into which all the nations may now
enter. The psalmist sees, in prophetic hope, crowds pouring in with
glad alacrity through the portals, and then hears the joyful tumult
of their many voices rising in a melodious surge of praise. His eager
desire and large-hearted confidence that so it will one day be are
vividly expressed by the fourfold call in ver. 4. And the reason
which should draw all men to bless God's revealed character is that
His self-revelation, whether to Israel or to others, shows that the
basis of that character is goodness--_i.e._, kindness or love--and
that, as older singers have sung, "His loving-kindness endures for
ever," and, as a thousand generations in Israel and throughout the
earth have proved, His faithful adherence to His word, and discharge
of all obligations under which He has come to His creatures, give
a basis for trust and a perpetual theme for joyful thanksgiving.
Therefore, all the world has an interest in Jehovah's royalty, and
should, and one day shall, compass His throne with joyful homage, and
obey His behests with willing service.