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英文原文
It is with good reason that many sing this psalm very frequently in their religious assemblies, for it is very proper both to express and to excite pious and devout affections towards God in our approach to him in holy ordinances; and, if our hearts go along with the words, we shall make melody in it to the Lord. The Jews say it was penned to be sung with their thank-offerings; perhaps it was; but we say that as there is nothing in it peculiar to their economy so its beginning with a call to all lands to praise God plainly extends it to the gospel-church. Here, I. We are called upon to praise God and rejoice in him, Ps 100:1,2,4. II. We are furnished with matter for praise; we must praise him, considering his being and relation to us (Ps 100:3) and his mercy and truth, Ps 100:5. These are plain and common things, and therefore the more fit to be the matter of devotion.
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Importunate Exhortations to Praise God; Motives for Praising God
切切劝勉赞美神；赞美神的缘由
赞美的诗。
¹ 普天下当向耶和华欢呼。
² 你们当乐意事奉耶和华，当欢唱来到他面前。
³ 你们当晓得耶和华是神，我们是他造的，也是属他的；我们是他的民，也是他草场的羊。
⁴ 当称谢进入他的门，当赞美进入他的院；当感谢他，称颂他的名。
⁵ 因为耶和华本为善，他的慈爱存到永远，他的信实直到万代。
此处，一、劝勉赞美的语调十分迫切。本篇确乎与「赞美的诗」之名相符；它开始于我们近来屡次遇见的那个呼召（诗100:1）：「普天下当向耶和华欢呼」——「普天下」——地上的众居民。当万民都作了门徒，福音传给凡受造的，那时这呼召才完全得着应和。但我们若将前一篇解为（如我们所作）呼召犹太教会因所处的神国之治理而喜乐（如同其前的四篇是为弥赛亚之日所设），本篇或许是归依者——从列国来归犹太教的人——所用。无论如何，此处我们有，1. 敬拜神的有力邀请；并非神需要我们或我们所有、所能作的任何事物，而是他的旨意要我们「事奉耶和华」，要我们献身事奉他、专心从事其中；并且不仅要在各样顺服他律法的事上事奉他，更要在他所设、并应许在其中显明自己的常例中「来到他面前」（诗100:2），要「进入他的门、他的院」（诗100:4），要在他的仆人中伺候他，并住在他设朝之处。在一切敬拜的操练中——无论在隐密处或在家庭中——我们都来到神面前事奉他；但特别在公众敬拜中，我们才「进入他的门、他的院」。百姓不得进入圣所；惟独祭司进去事奉。但愿百姓因自己在神殿的院内得着一席而感谢，他们得准入内并在其中事奉。2. 在敬拜神时，得着了极大的勉励以欢欣去行（诗100:2）：「你们当乐意事奉耶和华」。这话含着预言——在福音之时必有特别的喜乐缘由；这话又定了敬拜的规则：「要以乐意事奉耶和华」。我们借圣洁的喜乐，实在是事奉神；以他为乐便是尊荣他；我们也当以圣洁的喜乐事奉他。福音的敬拜者当是喜乐的敬拜者；我们若以正直事奉神，便当以乐心事奉。我们必须甘心、情愿——被邀「上耶和华的殿去」便为乐（诗122:1），视与神相交为一生的安慰；我们又必须在其中愉快喜乐——必须说：「在这里真好」，在每样本分中亲近神，「就如神是我的极大喜乐」（诗43:4）。我们必须「欢唱来到他面前」——不仅是喜乐的歌，更是赞美的歌。「当称谢进入他的门」（诗100:4）。我们不仅要以喜乐自慰，更要以喜乐荣耀神，让他得着我们所享受的喜乐之赞美。「当感谢他，称颂他的名」；即（1）我们得以进入他的事奉被视为恩惠，我们当为此感谢他，因我们得以自由进入他面前，因他设立了常例、并继续赐我们机会在他的常例中等候。（2）我们必须在一切事奉中交织赞美和感恩。这条金线当贯穿每样本分（来13:15），因为这是天使的工作。「凡事谢恩」——在每一样常例中，正如在每一样护理中。
二、赞美的内容和缘由，十分重要（诗100:3,5）。你们当知道神自己是什么，他对你们是什么。注意，知识是敬虔和一切顺服之母：瞎眼的祭总不能讨看见之神的喜悦。「你们当晓得」——当思想、当应用，如此你们在他敬拜上便更密切、更恒久、更内在、更严肃。让我们认识耶和华——我们在一切宗教敬拜的操练中所交往的这位——以下七件事：——1.「耶和华是神」——独一又真又活的神——他是无限完全、自有、自足的，是众有的源头；他是神，并不像我们这样的人。他是永恒的灵，不可测、不依靠，是首因和终因。外邦所拜的，是人自己幻想出来的受造之物；工匠造了它，所以它不是神。我们所拜的，是造了我们和全世界的；他是神，其他一切所谓的神明都是虚谎，是他所胜过的。2. 他是我们的创造主：「我们是他造的，并不是我们自己造的自己」。我发现我在，但不能说「我是自有永有的」，因此必须问：我从何来？谁造了我？「造我的神在哪里？」造我的是耶和华。他赐我们存在，他赐我们这存在；他既是我们身体的制造者，也是我们灵的父亲。我们没有，也不能造自己。自己的存在以自己为因，是神独有的特权；我们的存在是派生的、依附的。3. 因此他是我们合法的主人。马所拉学者借更改希伯来文一字母，读作「他造了我们，我们是属他的」或「我们归于他」。把两种读法合在一起，我们便学到：因为「我们是他造的，并不是我们自己造的自己」，所以我们不是自己的，而是他的。他对我们和万有有无可争辩的权利和所有权。我们是属他的，当被他的权能所感，被他的旨意所安排，并奉献归他的尊荣和荣耀。4. 他是我们的至高治理者：「我们是他的民」或他的臣民，他是我们的君王、我们的治理者，作为有道德的受造者向我们赐律，并将我们要为所行的向他交账。「耶和华是审判我们的，耶和华是给我们设律法的」。我们不可随意而行，必须总是以谨守遵行所吩咐为本。5. 他是我们丰盛的恩主。我们不仅是他有权柄的羊，更是「他草场的羊」，是他所看顾的；「他所喂养的羊群」（可如此读）；因此也是「他手中的羊」（诗95:7）；既为他草场之羊，便在他手中受安排。造我们的，也保守我们，并「厚赐百物给我们享受」。6. 他是无限怜悯良善的神（诗100:5）：「耶和华本为善」，所以行善；「他的慈爱存到永远」——是永不枯竭的泉源。圣徒如今是怜悯所分别为圣的器皿，将来直到永远要作怜悯得荣耀的纪念碑。7. 他是不可违言实信实之信实的神：「他的信实直到万代」，他的话语无一落空，不被废去，不被撤回。应许「临到一切后裔」，世世代代都是确实。
英文原文
Importunate Exhortations to Praise God; Motives for Praising God
A psalm of praise.
¹ Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
² Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
³ Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Here, I. The exhortations to praise are very importunate. The psalm does indeed answer to the title, A psalm of praise; it begins with that call which of late we have several times met with (Ps 100:1), Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands, or all the earth, all the inhabitants of the earth. When all nations shall be discipled, and the gospel preached to every creature, then this summons will be fully answered to. But, if we take the foregoing psalm to be (as we have opened it) a call to the Jewish church to rejoice in the administration of God's kingdom, which they were under (as the four psalms before it were calculated for the days of the Messiah), this psalm, perhaps, was intended for proselytes, that came over out of all lands to the Jews' religion. However, we have here, 1. A strong invitation to worship God; not that God needs us, or any thing we have or can do, but it is his will that we should serve the Lord, should devote ourselves to his service and employ ourselves in it; and that we should not only serve him in all instances of obedience to his law, but that we should come before his presence in the ordinances which he has appointed and in which he has promised to manifest himself (Ps 100:2), that we should enter into his gates and into his courts (Ps 100:4), that we should attend upon him among his servants, and keep there where he keeps court. In all acts of religious worship, whether in secret or in our families, we come into God's presence, and serve him; but it is in public worship especially that we enter into his gates and into his courts. The people were not permitted to enter into the holy place; there the priests only went in to minister. But let the people be thankful for their place in the courts of God's house, to which they were admitted and where they gave their attendance. 2. Great encouragement given us, in worshipping God, to do it cheerfully (Ps 100:2): Serve the Lord with gladness. This intimates a prediction that in gospel-times there should be special occasion for joy; and it prescribes this as a rule of worship: Let God be served with gladness. By holy joy we do really serve God; it is an honour to him to rejoice in him; and we ought to serve him with holy joy. Gospel-worshippers should be joyful worshippers; if we serve God in uprightness, let us serve him with gladness. We must be willing and forward to it, glad when we are called to go up to the house of the Lord (Ps 122:1), looking upon it as the comfort of our lives to have communion with God; and we must be pleasant and cheerful in it, must say, It is good to be here, approaching to God, in every duty, as to God our exceeding Joy, Ps 43:4. We must come before his presence with singing, not only songs of joy, but songs of praise. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, Ps 100:4. We must not only comfort ourselves, but glorify God, with our joy, and let him have the praise of that which we have the pleasure of. Be thankful to him and bless his name; that is, (1.) We must take it as a favour to be admitted into his service, and give him thanks that we have liberty of access to him, that we have ordinances instituted and opportunity continued of waiting upon God in those ordinances. (2.) We must intermix praise and thanksgiving with all our services. This golden thread must run through every duty (Heb 13:15), for it is the work of angels. In every thing give thanks, in every ordinance, as well as in every providence.
II. The matter of praise, and motives to it, are very important, Ps 100:3,5. Know you what God is in himself and what he is to you. Note, Knowledge is the mother of devotion and of all obedience: blind sacrifices will never please a seeing God. "Know it; consider and apply it, and then you will be more close and constant, more inward and serious, in the worship of him." Let us know then these seven things concerning the Lord Jehovah, with whom we have to do in all the acts of religious worship:—1. That the Lord he is God, the only living and true God—that he is a Being infinitely perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient, and the fountain of all being; he is God, and not a man as we are. He is an eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and independent, the first cause and last end. The heathen worshipped the creature of their own fancy; the workmen made it, therefore it is not God. We worship him that made us and all the world; he is God, and all other pretended deities are vanity and a lie, and such as he has triumphed over. 2. That he is our Creator: It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves. I find that I am, but cannot say, I am that I am, and therefore must ask, Whence am I? Who made me? Where is God my Maker? And it is the Lord Jehovah. He gave us being, he gave us this being; he is both the former of our bodies and the Father of our spirits. We did not, we could not, make ourselves. It is God's prerogative to be his own cause; our being is derived and depending. 3. That therefore he is our rightful owner. The Masorites, by altering one letter in the Hebrew, read it, He made us, and his we are, or to him we belong. Put both the readings together, and we learn that because God made us, and not we ourselves, therefore we are not our own, but his. He has an incontestable right to, and property in, us and all things. His we are, to be actuated by his power, disposed of by his will, and devoted to his honour and glory. 4. That he is our sovereign ruler: We are his people or subjects, and he is our prince, our rector or governor, that gives law to us as moral agents, and will call us to an account for what we do. The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver. We are not at liberty to do what we will, but must always make conscience of doing as we are bidden. 5. That he is our bountiful benefactor. We are not only his sheep, whom he is entitled to, but the sheep of his pasture, whom he takes care of; the flock of his feeding (so it may be read); therefore the sheep of his hand; at his disposal because the sheep of his pasture, Ps 95:7. He that made us maintains us, and gives us all good things richly to enjoy. 6. That he is a God of infinite mercy and goodness (Ps 100:5): The Lord is good, and therefore does good; his mercy is everlasting; it is a fountain that can never be drawn dry. The saints, who are now the sanctified vessels of mercy, will be, to eternity, the glorified monuments of mercy. 7. That he is a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness: His truth endures to all generations, and no word of his shall fall to the ground as antiquated or revoked. The promise is sure to all the seed, from age to age.
许多人在宗教聚会中极其频繁地唱这首诗,是很有道理的;因它极其合宜,既能表达、又能激发我们借圣洁律例亲近神之时向他所发的敬虔情感;我们若心随词行,便是在此向耶和华歌唱。犹太人说本诗是为配合他们的感谢祭而作;或许如此;但我们说,既然其中并无局限于他们体制的特殊内容,且开头即呼召万民赞美神,显然便将其延展至福音教会。本篇内容如下:一、我们蒙呼召来赞美神、因他喜乐(诗100:1,2,4);二、我们获赐赞美的内容;我们当赞美他,念及他的所是与我们他的关系(诗100:3),并他的慈爱与诚实(诗100:5)。这些是平易常见的事,因此更适合作敬虔的内容。