This psalm is related to the ninety-ninth as the ninety-eighth is to the ninety-seventh. The prophecy there latent is here clothed in a genuine lyrical form. There is also the same likeness as to structure and arrangement. The theme, propounded in ver. 1, is amplified in two short stanzas, of two verses each. In both these an exhortation to praise God is followed by a reason for so doing. Men ought to praise him as their creator and preserver, ver. 2, 3. They ought also to praise him for his infinite goodness, constancy, and faithfulness, ver. 4, 5. Besides completing the foregoing psalm, it closes the whole series or cycle of harmonious addresses to the nations or the world at large.
1. A Psalm. For thanksgiving. Shout unto Jehovah, all the earth! The title resembles that of Ps. xcvii., but is rendered more specific by the addition for thanksgiving. The version praise is too restricted. See above, on Ps. xcix. 3. The rest of the verse is identical with Ps. xcviii. 4. See also Ps. ii. 11, lxvi. 1.
2. Serve Jehovah with joy, come before him with singing! Since he is the king of the nations, they are his subjects, and as such bound to serve him. What they are required to do in Ps. ii. 11 with fear and trembling, as repentant rebels, they are here invited to do with joy and gladness, as his willing subjects.
3. Know ye that Jehovah is God; (it is) He (that) made us, and not we (ourselves), his people, and the sheep of his pasture. This is the first reason given for acknowledging Jehovah’s sovereignty, to wit, that he has made his people what they are. With the first clause compare Ps. xlvi. 11 (10). Instead of and not we ourselves, the keri or masoretic reading in the margin of the Hebrew Bible has, and his we are. These phrases, though so unlike in English, difi”er only in a single letter, and not (N?) we, and to him (17) we. The first is adopted by the Septuagint and Vulgate, the second by the Targum and Jerome. In favour of the latter is the similar construction of the pronoun (linjJ^) we with iyoyl) his people in Ps. lxxix. 13. xcv. 7. In favour of the other is its antiquity, and its greater significancy and appropriateness to the context. Some who adopt it read, it is he that has made us (to be) his people the sheep, &c. But besides the violence of this construction, he made us has no doubt the same sense as in Ps. xcv. 6, and his people must mean us who are his people. Sheep (or flock) of his pasture, as in Ps. lxxiv. 1, lxxix. 13, xcv. 7.
4. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks unto him, bless his name I Compare Ps. lxxxiv. 3 (2), xcii. 14 (13), xcv. 2, xcvi. 2, 8, xcvii. 12. The substance of the exhortation is, join in the worship of his people. That the reference to the sanctuary at Jerusalem is merely typical or metaphorical, is clear from the analogy of Isa. lxvi. 23, where all mankind are required to come up every sabbath, a command which, if literally understood, is perfectly impracticable. The combination of the verb to thank (iniH) with its derivative noun (H^ii^) may throw some light upon the title, a psalm for thanksgiving (n’^SDT)-
5. For good (is) Jehovah, to eternity his mercy, and even to generation and generation his faithfulness (or truth). This verse assigns a second reason for the invitation to praise Jehovah, namely, the goodness, truth, and constancy of the divine nature. With the first clause compare Ps. xxv. 8, xxxiv. 9 (8), lxxxvi. 5; with the second, Isa. liv. 8, 10; with the third, Ps. lxxxix. 2 (1), xcii. 3 (2).
Here ends what Hengstenberg describes as a decalogue of Psalms (xci.-c), all intended to exhibit the relation between Israel and the world at large; all of a cheering and triumphant character, without the slightest intermixture of complaint or lamentation; all crowded with citations from the older Scriptures, or allusions to them; almost all pointing to a glorious theophany still future; and almost all distinguished by emphatic repetitions, and the frequent use of musical terms, especially the names of instruments. That these psalms are not thrown together at random, is apparent from the fact that the series begins with a general assurance of divine protection (Ps. xci.), and of God’s power both to save the righteous and destroy the wicked (Ps. xcii.), followed by variations on the grand theme that the Lord reigneth (Ps. xciii.-xcix.), and closing with an earnest exhortation to the whole world to receive him as their sovereign (Ps. c). The mutual relation of the several psalms has been already indicated in the exposition. According to Hengstenberg, these ten psalms are in Psalmody what the later chapters of Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.) are in Prophecy; and as the former are undoubtedly anterior to the exile, they confirm the genuineness of the latter.
