“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.” Psalm 100:1-2.

The above has been included to maintain context. We will now consider Psalm 100:3.

“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100:3.

Taking this verse as a whole for a moment, notice how it is stated that “…the Lord, He is God”, this is a known fact throughout the earth at this point in time.

The mention of carved images and idols ceased in Psalm 97 of this series; all other religions have also ceased to exist.

He is the only Creator God, and He created us, and as the sheep of His pasture, He cares for us. God’s care for us as His children will also extend to those who enter the millennium.

“He [Jesus] was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:2-3.

“He [Jesus] came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name…” John 1:11-12.

“…it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” Psalm 100:3b.

According to the marginal in my Bible the words “and not we ourselves” is rendered in some older manuscripts as “and His we are” which would change this phrase in this manner, “…it is He who has made us, and His we are…” Psalm 100:3b.

While this makes more sense I have found that the New King James Version (NKJV), the King James Version (KJV), the New American Standard Version (NASB), and the Darby Translation all render this phrase “…it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” Psalm 100:3b.

Even the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition Catholic Bible which was translated from the Latin Vulgate says the same thing as above, as well as the Wycliffe Bible which is the first English translation from the Latin Vulgate completed in 1382, long before the King James which was completed in 1611.

“…it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” verse 3b, this line seems rather nonsensical until you realize that there is much more to this than it appears.

For instance, the theory of evolution tells us that we crawled out of the slime and through countless ages of struggle we finally climbed out of a tree.

And again we struggled against all of nature molding ourselves to become the ascendant beast over all the animal kingdom. Huzzah, we did it! God says no because He was there.

We did not create ourselves through evolution or in any other way, man cannot glorify himself!

Evolution is a doctrine of demons and was invented to embolden atheists, confuse man, and dishonor God. It has accomplished all three goals and sits as one of Satan’s more successful inventions.

“Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” Richard Dawkins.

When the psalmist says that God has made us and not we ourselves, he is speaking to believers, whether they are children of Israel from the times when this psalm was written or Christians from our present age, or to Christians who come out of the tribulation.

This is important to remember because not one of us is the same person we were when we first received Christ.

“Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Ecclesiastes 7:29.

“For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” Ecclesiastes 7:20.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8.

“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” Romans 3:10-18.

“…There is none righteous, no, not one…” this means all of humanity, all of us, me and you.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…” Ephesians 2:1-5.

Everyone needs to know that God loves sinners, but He does not love the sin.

People slander God continually by saying that He hates all mankind because we are sinners and He cannot wait to throw us all into hell.

This is a horrendous lie, and as the verses above in Ephesians 2 tell us, “…because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses”, consider that carefully, even when we were utterly dead in trespasses and sin He loved us.

Men need to stop seeing God as an adversary who hates us. No normal person creates something to hate it, whether it is a coffee table, a hutch, or a home for themselves, they create to create beauty.

God is the same, He created us to love us and while men may build and then hate their work for some flaw or poor workmanship, God is perfect, and all of His works are perfect.

It is sin and the love of sin that has flawed man, not God.

It is when the sinner has come to the end of himself that God’s Holy Spirit can come in and touch their hearts with the message of salvation, and then God starts to rebuild what has been marred and destroyed by sin.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:28-29.

God foreknew from eternity past those who would accept His offer of eternal life. And those whom He foreknew He also had a plan which predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son.

God wants to look into the eyes of all who have accepted His Son as Savior and He wants to see Jesus.

Being conformed to the image of Christ is not a matter of losing our identity it is more a change in our attitude and responses. To put it bluntly, Christians should be nicer people which is not always the case.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

Jesus displayed all of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit throughout His life.

If you study all nine of them you will find that they are admirable qualities to be desired not feared as though they would turn you into some kind of zombie or mindless robot.

The call of God goes out to all men and women of every type. The poor are called, the rich are called and some answer, they are called out of houses of prostitution, opium dens, crack houses.

They are called in alleys, on the street, drunken or drugged, the witch out of the coven, the homosexual, adulterer, or fornicator is called, the thief, and the murderer is called, often more than once the call is heard.

The call is whosoever will may come; for God is not willing that anyone should perish. He will call you, but the one thing He will not do is force you against your will.

Some of these are the movie stars and the socialites that everyone fawns over. The rich and the powerful, alas, are no different than the dregs of society, because, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6.

“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” Psalm 100:3a.

When we look at this broken world and realize that all who come to Christ are crushed by sin in some way it becomes easier to see what is meant by the words, He has made us and not we ourselves.

The last phrase in Psalm 100:3 is “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Jesus is the good shepherd and He is pledged to care for us. It is important for us not to turn our back on that care.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My father are one.” John 10:27-30.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23, King James Version.

Study the promises in Psalm 23 and understand them, then answer this question. Do you believe them?

This is the meaning of the last phrase in Psalm 100:3, “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture”; God is our shepherd, now and always.

Do you believe this?

Psalm 100:3 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-5-15, updated on 2-14-23.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.