Psalm 100
Words: Isaac Watts
A plain translation. Praise to our Creator.
1 Ye nations round the earth, rejoice
Before the Lord, your sov'reign King;
Serve him with cheerful heart and voice,
With all your tongues his glory sing.
2 The Lord is God; 'tis he alone
Doth life, and breath, and being give;
We are his work, and not our own,
The sheep that on his pastures live.
3 Enter his gates with songs of joy,
With praises to his courts repair;
And make it your divine employ
To pay your thanks and honors there.
4 The Lord is good, the Lord is kind,
Great is his grace, his mercy sure;
And the whole race of man shall find
His truth from age to age endure.
A paraphrase.
1 Sing to the Lord with joyful voice,
Let ev'ry land his name adore;
The British isles shall send the noise
Across the ocean to the shore.
2 Nations, attend before his throne
With solemn fear, with sacred joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can create and he destroy.
3 His sov'reign power, without our aid,
Made us of clay and formed us men;
And when, like wand'ring sheep, we strayed,
He brought us to his fold again.
4 We are his people, we his care,
Our souls and all our mortal frame:
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker, to thy name?
5 We'll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heav'ns our voices raise;
And earth with her ten thousand tongues
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
6 Wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity thy love!
Firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.