Psalm 100

All people that on earth do dwell

with OLD 100TH (GENEVAN 134)

I. Text: Origins

During the tumultuous religious upheaval of the Reformation, a group of British Protestants migrated to Geneva, mostly for the purpose of escaping the wrath of Queen Mary I (reigned 1553–1558). While in Geneva, the English Protestants learned from the French disciples and colleagues of Jean Calvin, (1509–1564), who had been preparing a complete metrical paraphrase of the Psalms. As a basis for the English edition, the Reformers used the work of Thomas Sternhold, a former “groom of robes” of King Edward VI (reigned 1547–1553). “All people that on earth do dwell,” a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 100, was contributed to the effort by William Kethe (d 1594), one of the Anglo-Genevan reformers, and first published in five stanzas in Foure score and seuen Psalmes of Dauid in Englishe mitre (Geneva, 1560/1), which was appended to The forme of prayers and ministration of the sacraments, &c. vsed in the English Congregation at Geneua. This version of the psalter was reprinted in London in 1561 (Fig. 1).

In the first complete edition of the English psalter, The whole booke of Psalmes collected into Englysh metre by T. Starnhold, I. Hopkins, & others (London: John Day, 1562), Kethe’s paraphrase was replaced with “In God the Lorde be glad and lyght” by John Hopkins. For unknown reasons, subsequent editions reverted to the paraphrase by Kethe; Kethe’s text has found an enduring place in English hymnals ever since.

II. Text: Development

Some hymnals and psalters carry a revised version of the text from the Scottish Psalms of David in Meeter (Edinburgh, 1650 | Fig. 2). In this version, the line “Him serve with fear” has been changed to read “Him serve with mirth,” which better reflects the text of Psalm 100:2, “Serve the Lord with gladness” (KJV, 1611). Kethe’s line, “The Lord, ye know, is God indeed,” was changed to “Know that ye Lord is good indeed,” although this was corrected later back to God, in keeping with the Scripture. In Psalm 100:3, the KJV English reads “we are his people,” which is represented in Kethe as “we are his folk,” whereas the Scottish gives “we are his flock,” reflecting the subsequent phrase about sheep. The change to “flocke” had appeared in some editions of Sternhold & Hopkins as early as 1582.

III. Genevan Tune

GENEVAN 134 / OLD 100TH

The tune used by the English reformers for Psalm 100 was borrowed from the French psalters, where it had been used for Psalm 134. The melody is generally credited to French composer Loys Bourgeois (ca. 1510–1559), and it was first printed in Pseavmes octantetrois de Dauid mis en rime Francoise (Geneva, 1551 | Fig. 3). The French paraphrase is by Theodore Beza (1519–1605). In some hymnals, the tune has appeared with its French designation, GENEVAN 134. In the English psalters, it was first printed as PSALM 100 in the Anglo-Genevan Foure score and seuen Psalmes of David (1560/1 | Fig. 1 above).

In the English tradition, the tune was originally known simply as PSALM 100, but it came to be called OLD 100TH (OLD HUNDREDTH) following the publication of the New Version of the Psalms of David by Nicholas Tate and Nahum Brady in 1696 and subsequent attempts by composers to write new tunes for this Psalm. It was first dubbed “Old” in J. Boyse, Family Hymns for morning and evening worship. . . . All taken out of the Psalms (Dublin: Matthew Gunne, 1701). This tune is sometimes known colloquially as “The Doxology,” owing to its frequent pairing with the text “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” by Thomas Ken (1637–1711).

Harmonizations

Most hymnals use a variation of a common harmonization, which has its roots in the songbooks of English composer John Playford (1623–1686). Playford’s earliest known arrangement appeared in A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1658 | Fig. 4), where it was given in two parts, melody and bass (treble clef and bass clef, cut time). The beginnings of the familiar bass line are evident in this early arrangement; the ascending scale in the second line would not survive into some later editions. By the third edition (1660), the final line had taken its iconic shape, still printed this way in modern hymnals, except the first note is usually given at the upper octave.

When the tune appeared in Playford’s edition of The Whole Book of Psalms (1677), it was given in three parts, in a closer form to what would become the standard version of the bass line in England.

For the next 170 years, Playford’s version continued to be reprinted in various arrangements, with the inner voices completed to make four parts, including in the work of William Henry Havergal (1793–1870), who lovingly referred to it as the “common monotonous version.” In his Old Church Psalmody (1847), he offered two versions, one based on the psalter of John Day from 1563, the other from Playford, but misdated as 1580 (instead of 1680). His commentary on the tune was as follows:

The present version gives the melody exactly as in Day’s Psalter of 1563. The harmony is constructed partly from Parson’s copy in that Psalter, and partly from the Herborne version of 1595. It avoids the formidable objection which hangs upon the common harmonization, viz., that with only one exception, each strain begins and ends with the tonal harmony. “Another of the same” is merely a consistent arrangement of the common monotonous version. The shape of the melody, however, is more ancient than sometimes is supposed. The editor has it in a Psalter of 1580. The harmony of the former version my be used to the rhythmical arrangement of the latter.[1]

Havergal would later publish a more detailed study of various printings of the tune, A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune, with Specimens (1854).

In the United States, the arrangement was slowly modified and refined by Lowell Mason (1792–1872), beginning with his inclusion of it in The Choir, or Union Collection (1832). Mason’s bass line differs from Havergal’s presentation of it in the way the third phrase starts with a minor vi chord rather than the tonic I, and the penultimate chord of that phrase goes up to V before landing in I. Mason’s arrangement put the melody in the tenor part, which was still in fashion at the time in America. It was misattributed to Martin Luther.

It’s first appearance as a cantional setting (soprano melody) was in Mason’s The Modern Psalmist (1839).

His approach continued to be refined in Cantica Laudis (1850) and the Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book (1859), the latter book being especially suitable and popular for congregational singing, because it had a vertical format with full texts, as opposed to Mason’s frequent publication of oblong tunebooks. The arrangement printed in most American hymnals is therefore essentially by Playford, revised by Mason.

Some other arrangements in the United States are based on the one given in The English Hymnal (1906), sometimes as revised for the Episcopal Hymnal (1918), in which the third phrase begins and ends on a vi chord, and the final phrase begins with an inverted V chord.

For the gospel doxology tune by Roberta Martin, see “Roberta Martin’s Doxology.”

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
29 August 2018
rev. 16 March 2023

Footnotes:

1. William Henry Havergal, Old Church Psalmody, 2nd ed. (1850), p. 8.

Related Resources:

William Henry Havergal, A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune, with Specimens (NY: Mason Brothers, 1854): Archive.org

Louis Benson, “All people that on earth do dwell,” Studies of Familiar Hymns, Second Series (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1923), pp. 1–11: Archive.org

Erik Routley, “All people that on earth do dwell,” Hymns and the Faith (Greenwich, CT: Seabury Press, 1956), pp. 19–22.

Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, 3 vols. (Bärenreiter, 1962): WorldCat

Fred L. Precht, “All people that on earth do dwell,” Lutheran Worship Hymnal Companion (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), p. 452.

Beth Quitslund, The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins, and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008): Amazon

Beth Quitslund & Nicholas Temperley, The Whole Book of Psalms: A Critical Edition (Tempe, AZ: ACMRS, 2018), vol. 1, pp. 313–314; vol. 2, pp. 723–726: Amazon

“All people that on earth do dwell,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/all_people_that_on_earth_do_dwell

J.R. Watson, “All people that on earth do dwell,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: 
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/all-people-that-on-earth-do-dwell.

Nicholas Temperley, “OLD HUNDREDTH,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: 
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/o/old-hundredth

Hymn Tune Index:
http://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu