Psalm 100: 1-3, 5
This week’s responsorial psalm is from Psalm 100, a hymn of joyful praise that celebrates the people’s identity as God’s people, “the flock he tends.”
This responsorial beautifully echoes our first reading from Exodus, calling those whom God has chosen as his own to respond with gratitude and gladness.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; serve the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful song.
A triple imperative showing the psalmist’s eagerness to have this invitation to worship accepted. Note that the invitation is extended not only to the Israelites but to “all you lands.”
Praise of God, if sincere, is always accompanied by joy, which stems from our faith and from the conviction that we belong to him and feel safe when he is our guide.
“This psalm of praise commands and exhorts us to rejoice in the Lord. But it does not command a particular part of the world or one house or people to sing the praises of God; rather, since he pours out his blessings over the whole world, all peoples in all places should rejoice” (Saint Augustine, Commentaria in Psalmos, 99).
Know that the LORD is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends.
Although the people call on all the nations of the world to join in their hymn, they are conscious of being the chosen people of God.
The LORD is good: his kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations.
This triple profession of faith corresponds to the triple proclamation of the Lord’s power and love in the prior verse.
- The psalmist proclaims that the LORD is “good” (tov), which conveys not only moral goodness but a fullness of life, beauty, and blessing rooted in God’s own nature.
- God’s kindness (hesed) is steadfast, covenantal love: his faithful commitment to his people that does not depend on their merit but on his enduring promise.
- God’s faithfulness (’emunah) highlights God’s reliability and trustworthiness across time.
This is covenant language, affirming that God is not only good in himself, but unwaveringly faithful in his relationship with his people, sustaining them with merciful love from generation to generation.
This is truly reason to rejoice!
Sunday Readings 