All People that on Earth Do Dwell

Sing to the Lord with Cheerful Voice

All People Who on Earth Do Dwell is written by Wil­liam Kethe (d.1608?). Likely born in Scotland, Kethe was a Protestant exile who lived on the continent during the reign of Queen Mary (1542-1587). While in Switzerland he helped translate the Geneva Bible (which predates the KJV by 51 years) and translated twenty-five of the Psalms from French into English verse; one of which was Psalm 100, better know as All People Who on Earth Do Dwell. In 1561 it was included in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter, which was published to serve the expatriate English Protestant community living there. It is set to the the tune that Lou­is Bour­geois (c.1510–1560) had originally composed for Psalm 134 in John Calvin's Genevan Psalter of 1551. The melody has since become so closely associated with Kethe's paraphrase of Psalm 100, that the tune is known as the Old Hundredth. In the Divine Office it is sung at Morning Prayer.

Tune: Old Hundredth

ALL PEOPLE THAT ON EARTH DO DWELL by William Kethe, 1561 (Public Domain)

1. All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell;
Come ye before Him and rejoice.

2. The Lord, ye know, 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.

3. O enter then His gates with praise;
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His Name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

4. For why? the Lord our God is good;
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

5. To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
The God Whom Heaven and earth adore,
From men and from the angel host
Be praise and glory evermore.