Lent Meditation: Day 28 - March 17, 2026

📖 Scripture Verse

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

come into his presence with singing.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

—Psalm 100:1-3

🕯️Meditation

During the 16th Century Protestant reformation, translating the Bible into English for use in public worship began in earnest, with one of the most popular, known as The Geneva Bible, being done by protestant refugees from England in Geneva, Switzerland during Mary Tudor’s reign. (Mary wanted to return England to the Roman Catholic Church after it had already begun to break away during the reign of her father, Henry VIII, and her half-brother, Edward VI).  As the Bible was translated for reading in public worship, there was a desire to translate the psalms into English poetry (meter) to make them easy to sing as hymns in worship.  The first hymn books of the protestant churches in England and Scotland were metrical psalters.  One of the oldest and most beloved hymns in this 16th century work of versification is still in our hymnal today.  “All creatures that on earth do dwell” is a paraphrase of Psalm 100.  The first two stanzas of this hymn paraphrase the three verses from Psalm 100 quoted above.  The work attempts to translate this psalm as well as expound protestant, particularly Calvinistic theological insights.

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 folk, he doth us feed, and for his sheep he doth us take.

The tune for this is Old 100th, by French protestant composer Louis Bourgeois, who also lived and worked in the early 16th Century.

🙏 Prayer

Pause for a moment if you can today, and listen to this Psalm and classic tune.  The recoding below is from Westminster Abbey in 2022.

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