What Does Psalm 100:1 Mean?
A Psalm of praise. Shout to the LORD, all the earth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.THE KEY
The “joyful noise” is a raised public acclamation, placing every land inside one shared voice of praise.
THE MEANING
You are included in “all ye lands”: joy is voiced toward the LORD as part of a response that spans the whole earth. Praise here has a public, shared form, and every land belongs within its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that praise belongs to one people alone dissolves in the words “all ye lands,” which widen the address to every place.
THE ROOT
הָרִיעוּ
hāriʿu
GROWS FROM
רוע
Raise a shout or cry; sound an acclamation, sometimes a signal or alarm.
The phrase carries a raised cry of acclamation, with the same root also naming a signal shout that can sound an alarm. Here, that forceful public cry is directed toward joy, so praise is heard as a shared, voiced response.
ALSO GROWS
ruaʿ: To shout or raise a cry.
רוּעַ
The verse uses this verbal action: joy becomes audible and collective.
teruʿah: An acclamation or signal shout; also an alarm.
תְּרוּעָה
This related noun shows the root’s range of raised public cries; here the setting gives the shout its joyful character.
תּוֹדָה
todah
GROWS FROM
ידה
Give thanks, acknowledge, or praise; in some forms, confess.
The heading identifies this as a song of thanksgiving, linking voiced praise to acknowledgment. The root gathers thanks and confession under the act of openly acknowledging what is before you, so praise becomes an expression of recognition.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: To give thanks, acknowledge, praise, or confess.
יָדָה
This verb links thanksgiving with openly recognizing what is true.
todah: Thanksgiving, thanks, or acknowledgment.
תּוֹדָה
This noun names the response framing the psalm: praise as an expression of thanks.
THE PATTERN
Praise is a shared response that crosses boundaries of people and place.
Shout to the LORD, all the earth. Burst open, ring out, and make music.For you shall go out in joy, and be carried forth in wholeness. The mountains and the hills shall burst into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their palms.And again, Praise the LORD, all you nations, and let all the peoples praise him.THE THREAD
Shout to the LORD, all the earth. Burst open, ring out, and make music.The same Hebrew shout-root, רוע (ruaʿ, “raise an acclamation”), carries “Make a joyful noise” in both verses. Psalm 98:4 repeats and expands the call to “all the earth,” revealing a shared voice that reaches beyond any one land.
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