Here is another excerpt from Brueggemann’s sermon on Psalm 100 [“Psalm 100,” Interpretation 39 (1985): 65-69]. In this section he is making the point that worship along the lines called for in Psalm 100 is a summons to reorient life in light of the reality that God is our Creator and Shepherd.

To sing in this way to Yahweh is to abandon self-groundedness. A life without praise is more likely a life turned in on self. It is a life of autonomy and self-invention, which imagines that one is self-made, need answer no other and can rely on no other. Such a notion of self-groundedness is a pervasive temptation among us, which may lead to cynicism and anxiety or to pride and domination. But this psalm is an acknowledgment that life is a gift. Life is always and regularly to be referred back to the giver. Such ultimate submission of sheep to shepherd leaves one free and unencumbered by the burden of self-invention.