Psalm 100:4

Psalm 100 is headed Mizmor l’Todah, “a psalm of thanksgiving”, the only psalm with that title, and the heading’s todah is the same word, tôwdâh, that verse 4 uses for thanksgiving. It is a short psalm of five verses. Its opening verses call all the earth to “make a joyful noise unto the LORD”, to “serve the LORD with gladness” and to “come before his presence with singing”, and they rest that call on who God is, our Maker and our Shepherd (Psalm 100:1–3). Verse 4 then says how we come in, and verse 5 gives the reason.

The gates and courts in verse 4 belong to the temple at Jerusalem. The word for gates, shaʻar, means an opening, a door or gate, and the temple gates were the way into its holy grounds. The courts, châtsêr, were the open courtyards within, where Israel gathered, offered sacrifices and worshipped together. The psalm was most likely sung in the temple, perhaps at festivals of thanksgiving, so worshippers could sing these words as they walked through the gates. The gates and courts also stand for the place of God’s dwelling and for his presence itself, which is why the words still belong to every believer who draws near to him.

The second half of the verse gives two more commands, and with “Enter” they make three. Because the psalm commands it, thanks and praise are things God’s people do on purpose, with heart, mind and voice, as their answer to the God of verse 3, of whom the psalm says, “Know ye that the LORD he is God.” “Be thankful unto him” takes up the thanksgiving of the first line again and fixes it on him.

To bless is bârak, a verb whose root meaning is to kneel. Used of God, it means to bless him as an act of adoration. People ask how anyone can bless God when every blessing comes from him. When we bless the LORD, we bow before him and declare that he is blessed, honouring his holiness, his majesty and his worth. We add nothing to him by it. Psalm 103 opens with this same act, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” (Psalm 103).

What we bless is his name, shêm, and his name stands for who he is: his character, his reputation and all that he has made known of himself. Scripture calls us to “give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name” (1 Chronicles 16:29). Thanks looks at what God has done, blessing his name looks at who he is, and the psalm asks for both.

Verse 5 opens with “For”, kî in Hebrew, and gives the reason for everything the psalm has commanded. We come with thanks and praise because of who the LORD is, and the verse names three things about him.

The first is that he is good. The word ṭôwb covers moral uprightness and much more besides: what is excellent, pleasant, beautiful and beneficial, and what brings welfare. Goodness belongs to God’s very being, and everything he does comes from it, including his kindness toward all he has made and toward his people. He made the world and saw that “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), and his people are called to “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8).

The second is his mercy, cheçed, which English Bibles also give as “steadfast love”, “lovingkindness” or “covenant faithfulness”. It is a loyal and active love that holds to a relationship, the love by which God keeps his promises to his people and shows them compassion and grace they have done nothing to earn. “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Psalm 103:8).

Everlasting is ʻôwlâm, time out of mind, eternity, always, and the Hebrew lĕ‘ôlām means “for ever”. His mercy lasts as long as he does, and because it rests on his covenant and his own character, it holds when his people fail. Psalm 136 repeats it in every verse, twenty-six times: “for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 136). Lamentations holds to the same truth: “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

The third is his truth, ʼĕmûwnâh, a word for firmness, faithfulness, reliability and trustworthiness. God’s truth here is his faithfulness. He is steadfast, and his character, his promises and his word stay what they have always been. Deuteronomy calls him “a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and Numbers puts it this way: “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19).

“To all generations” is lĕḏôr wāḏôr, literally “to generation and generation”. The word dôwr means a generation, and also a period or age, and Strong’s describes it as “a revolution of time”. “Everlasting” and “to all generations” stand side by side in the verse, and both say how long God’s mercy and truth last. What God was to Israel he is to us, and he will be the same to those who come after us. That gave Israel comfort and a firm footing through times of upheaval, and it gives the church the same in a changing world.

We enter through Jesus Christ. Israel came to God through the temple, its gates and courts, and its sacrifices, and Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). When he died, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51). He spoke of his own body as the temple that would be destroyed and raised up in three days (John 2:19–21), and “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10–14). His one offering opens the way, so we may draw near to God with confidence.

The thanksgiving and praise of verse 4 carry over into that new way. Believers are “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and the Father seeks those who worship him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24), wherever they are. Hebrews names the offering we now bring: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15). Those words gather up this verse of the psalm, with praise, thanks and his name together. Paul joins thanksgiving to every request we bring to God (Philippians 4:6) and to all we say and do, “giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17), so thanks goes with prayer and daily life as well as with gathered worship.

These two verses join worship to its reason. The thanks, praise and blessing of verse 4 answer the goodness, mercy and truth of verse 5, so our praise stands on the character of God, which stays the same from one generation to the next. His goodness gives us cause to thank him, his mercy endures when we fail, and his truth holds for our children as it held for Israel. The gates the psalm speaks of stand open in Christ, and the God we meet inside is the God this psalm describes: good, merciful for ever, and faithful to every generation. Whoever comes to him by that way comes as the psalm says, with thanksgiving and with praise.