Psalms 100:3
Know ye that the Lord he is God [1]
Own and acknowledge him to be God, as well as man; and though a man, yet not a mere man, but the great God and our Savior, the true God and eternal life; so a man, as that he is Jehovah's fellow; or our God, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature, God manifest in the flesh:
[it is] he [that] hath made us
As men, without whom nothing is made that was made; in him we live, move, and have our being; and, as new creatures, we are his workmanship, created in him, and by him; regenerated by his Spirit and grace, and formed for himself, his service and glory; and made great and honorable by him, raised from a low to an high estate; from being beggars on the dunghill, to sit among princes; yea, made kings and priests unto God by him; so, Kimchi, “He hath brought us up, and exalted us:”
And not we ourselves
That is, did not make ourselves, neither as creatures, nor as new creatures; as we have no hand in making either our souls or bodies, so neither in our regeneration, or in the work of God upon our hearts; that is solely the Lord's work: there is a double reading of this clause; the marginal reading is,
And we are his
Which is followed by the Targum and Aben Ezra: both are approved of by Kimchi, and the sense of both is included; for if the Lord has made us, and not we ourselves, then we are not our own, but his, and ought to serve and glorify him: we are his by creation; “we are also his offspring”, as said Aratus, an Heathen poet, cited by the Apostle Paul, Acts 17:28 ,
We are his people
By choice and covenant; by his Father's gift, and his own purchase; and by the power of his grace, bringing to a voluntary surrender and subjection to him; even the Gentiles particularly, who were not his people, but now his people, 1 Peter 2:9
And the sheep of his pasture
His sheep also by gift and purchase, called by him, made to know his voice, and follow him; for whom he provides pasture, leads to it, and feeds them with it himself; see Psalms 74:1 .
[1] John Gill, “Psalm 100:3” John Gill’s Exposition of the Old & New Testament, Vol. IV (London: Mathews & Leigh, 1809; reprint, Paris, AR.: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 122-123 (page citations are to the reprint edition).
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