All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell,
Come ye before him and rejoice.

Know that the Lord is God indeed;
Without our aid he did us make:
We are his flock, he doth us feed,
And for his sheep he doth us take.

O enter then his gates with praise,
Approach with joy his courts unto:
Praise, laud, and bless his name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good,
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

Scottish Psalter and Paraphrases, 1650

A call to praise the LORD for showing grace and faithfulness toward "the sheep of his pasture" (v.3).

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-2
st. 2 = v. 3
st. 3 = v. 4
st. 4 = v. 5

Psalm 100 brings to a close a collection of psalms that celebrate the LORD's righteous rule over all creation (93, 95-99). Like the others, it was composed to be sung by the Levites at a high religious festival that annually celebrated the LORD's kingship over the entire world (perhaps the Feast of Tabernacles). Psalm 100 is the Hebrew equivalent of a cheerleader's shout–a strong call to worship the LORD with joyful song (st. 1, 3): the LORD is the one true God who made us to be "the sheep of his pasture" (st. 2), and God's love and faithfulness never fail (st. 4).

The Psalter Hymnal includes both an English and a French versification. The English text by William Kethe (b. Scotland [?], date unknown; d. Dorset, England, c. 1594) is the oldest metrical psalm text in the Psalter Hymnal It first appeared in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of l561 and in John Day's Psalmes of David in English Metre (PHH 69), also of 1561. Since then it has been published in virtually all English-language psalters and hymnals. The French text (opposite 101 in the Psalter Hymnal) is taken from the French hymnal Psaumes et Cantiques (1891); it is included as a tribute to the original language of the Calvinist Psalter.

Both the time and place of Kethe's birth and death are unknown, although scholars think he was a Scotsman. A Protestant, he fled to the continent during Queen Mary's persecution in the late 1550s. He lived in Geneva for some time but traveled to Basel and Strasbourg to maintain contact with other English refugees. Kethe is thought to be one of the scholars who translated and published the English-language Geneva Bible (1560), a version favored over the King James Bible by the Pilgrim fathers. The twenty-five psalm versifications Kethe prepared for the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561 were also adopted into the Scottish Psalter of 1565. His versification of Psalm 100 is the only one that found its way into modern psalmody.

Liturgical Use:
Many uses beyond its traditional role at the beginning of worship.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook