Psalm 100/Overview/Structure

Psalm 100 At-a-Glance

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content.

v. 1a A psalm for a thank offering.	Superscription
v. 1 Shout joyfully to YHWH, all the earth!	Celebrate the Shepherd	Serve with joy! Enter with singing!		joy
v. 2 Serve YHWH with joy! Enter before him with exultation!
v. 3 Acknowledge that YHWH, he is God. He has made us, and we are his, his people and the flock of his pasture.		YHWH is God, and we are his flock!
v. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. Give thanks to him! Bless his name,		Enter with thanksgiving! Bless his name!
v. 5 for YHWH is good, his loyalty is forever, and his faithfulness continues through generation after generation.	For He Is Good!	For YHWH is good, loyal, and faithful!		confidence

The Psalm may be understood with two main sections: the first, a chiasm or nested set of repetitions that celebrate the shepherd and the people’s relationship with him, and the second, the thanksgiving refrain of v. 5. This Psalm lays a foundation of worship that prepares for a specific instance of thanksgiving against a backdrop of an ongoing relationship with God, ever worthy of praise and blessing. The two dimensions are equally important. Shout joyfully today, because he is good and loyal forever.

Celebrate the Shepherd (vv. 1–4)

The first section is built around a chiasm of seven imperative verbs starting nearly every line. Whenever groups of seven occur, there is a sense of completeness or totality, a pattern established already with the seven days of creation. For more on this poetic structure, see our Poetry layer. The center of this chiasm is the confession of the relationship between YHWH and his people. This core affirmation of the covenant relationship is then followed by a repeated call to enter the gates and courts with thanksgiving and praise. Following the call to enter, likely made just outside the temple gates, is the call to give thanks and bless the name of YHWH.

For He Is Good! (v. 5)

The final verse, v. 5, is the fullest expression of the blessings his people receive: experiencing his goodness, loyalty and faithfulness. This trio of terms sums up so much of YHWH’s character and how he interacts with his people. Even in hard times, he shows himself as good. Even through cycles of sin and judgment, he shows himself loyal. Even through the faithlessness of Israel, he shows himself faithful, through generation after generation. His people are people, his flock, and YHWH is their shepherd, whose character is the cause for not just a momentary act of thanksgiving, memorialized in a given ceremony, but also cause for praise at all times, through generation after generation.