What Does Psalm 100:2 Mean?
Serve the LORD with gladness; come before his face with a ringing cry.
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
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.THE KEY
The Hebrew joins service and gladness to song, so coming near to the LORD is itself glad work.
THE MEANING
Your service to the LORD is joined to gladness; approaching him is not a grim transaction. His presence is met with singing, giving joy a voice as you come near.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that serving God must be joyless labor or that gladness can come only after the work is done.
THE ROOT
עִבְדוּ
ʿivdû
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work, labor, serve.
“serve” in this verse is ʿivdû. The Hebrew command עִבְדוּ comes from עבד, a root for concrete work and service. Here that service is held together with gladness and song, revealing a lived action rather than a detached religious category.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
The same ע־ב־ד consonants name the one who serves, linking the command to the person engaged in service.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, service.
עֲבֹדָה
This noun shares the root’s consonants and makes the work within “serve” audible.
בְּשִׂמְחָה
b’simchah
GROWS FROM
שמח
Rejoice, be glad.
The word for gladness belongs to a family that also speaks of rejoicing and making glad. Joy here is woven into the act of service itself, not held apart as a private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
sameach: Glad, rejoicing.
שָׂמֵחַ
Its ש־מ־ח consonants connect the state of being glad to the gladness accompanying service in this verse.
simmeach: Make glad, gladden.
שִׂמֵּחַ
This causative form shares the root and shows the same family expressing gladness as something brought about.
בִּרְנָנָה
bir’nanah
GROWS FROM
רנן
Cry aloud, sing joyfully.
“a ringing cry” in this verse is bir’nanah. The root רנן carries the sense of a voiced cry as well as joyful song. The approach described here has an audible shape: gladness rises into singing.
ALSO GROWS
ranan: Sing aloud, shout joyfully.
רָנַן
This verb shares the root’s ר־נ־נ consonants and names the vocal action present in the verse’s “singing.”
renanah: Joyful singing, a cry of joy.
רְנָנָה
This noun shares the same root consonants and is the song-word used in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Coming before the LORD joins service with voiced gladness and praise.
Let us come before his face with extended hands, and shout to him with songs of plucked strings.And he set some of the Levites to attend before the ark of the LORD, to call to memory, and to extend their hands in thanks and to praise the LORD God of Israel.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.THE THREAD
Serve the LORD in awe, and leap with trembling.The Hebrew verb עִבְדוּ, from עבד, appears in both verses. Psalm 2:11 joins that same service to fear and rejoicing, while this verse gives it gladness and song.
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