Twice His

Psalm 100:1-3

A psalm of thanksgiving.

1Shout with joy to the LORD, O earth!

2Worship the LORD with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

3Acknowledge that the LORD is God!

He made us, and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Nine-year-old Joey worked for nearly a year carving and crafting a toy boat. When he finished, he took it down to the river to test it. But the wind was too strong, pushing the little boat out into the middle of the river. Heartbroken, Joey watched his prize creation drift out of sight.

A few months later Joey was walking downtown and was stunned to see his boat in a storefront window. When he told the manager that it was his boat, the man told him, “That may well be true, but somebody found that boat down by the river and sold it to me. I’ve got to get back my investment.”

Over the next few weeks Joey worked feverishly to earn the money to buy back his boat. When he finally earned enough money, he rushed back to the store and bought his boat. Cradling the boat in his arms, Joey said, “Little boat, you’re mine twice. I made you, and I bought you.”

God must feel the same way about us, his prize creation. We chose to drift away, but God bought us back. “He made us,” Psalm 100:3 tells us, “and we are his.” It is fitting that the same verse calls us “the sheep of his pasture,” for sheep tend to wander off. Isaiah says, “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on [Jesus] the guilt and sins of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep (John 10:15) to buy us back for the one who made us. So, as the psalm says, “We are his”—twice.

Let those refuse to sing

Who never knew our God,

But children of the heavenly King

May speak their joys abroad.

ISAAC WATTS

Fascinating Fact

British Christians attached this psalm to a tune that became known as “Old Hundredth.” In The Courtship of Miles Standish, Longfellow calls the “Old Hundredth” “the grand old Puritan anthem.”

Bible Networking

It is possible this psalm was sung in connection with an offering of thanksgiving for the good gifts of God. That offering is described in Leviticus 7:11-18.

Notable Quotable

“When I think of God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes leap and dance as they leave my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, I serve him with a cheerful spirit.”

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN