Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh. Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
Parallel Translations
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Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh. Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
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O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
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O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Cross-references (34)
Passages linked to Psalms 95:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
- Psalms 81:1 Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!
- 2 Samuel 22:47 Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,
- Psalms 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!
- Psalms 96:1-2 Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth. Sing to Yahweh! Bless his name! Proclaim his salvation from day to day!
- Exodus 15:21 Miriam answered them, “Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
- 1 Chronicles 16:9 Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Tell of all his marvelous works.
- Psalms 47:6-7 Sing praises to God! Sing praises! Sing praises to our King! Sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
- Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Revelation 15:3 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.
- Psalms 34:3 Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let’s exalt his name together.
- Psalms 100:1 Shout for joy to Yahweh, all you lands!
- Psalms 66:8 Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of his praise heard,
- Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
- Psalms 66:1-2 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name! Offer glory and praise!
- Matthew 21:9 The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
- Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
- Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.
- Ezra 3:11-13 They sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Yahweh, “For he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever toward Israel.” All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised Yahweh, because the foundation of Yahweh’s house had been laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard far away.
- Psalms 117:1 Praise Yahweh, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!
- Psalms 118:1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
- Psalms 136:1-3 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods; for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords; for his loving kindness endures forever:
- Jeremiah 33:11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever;’ who bring thanksgiving into Yahweh’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed as at the first,” says Yahweh.
- Revelation 5:9 They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
- Revelation 19:6 I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!
- Psalms 89:26 He will call to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!’
- Psalms 98:4-8 Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises! Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp, with the harp and the voice of melody. With trumpets and sound of the ram’s horn, make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh. Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing for joy together.
- Psalms 101:1 I will sing of loving kindness and justice. To you, Yahweh, I will sing praises.
- Psalms 107:8 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- Psalms 107:15 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- Psalms 107:21 Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
- Isaiah 12:4-6 In that day you will say, “Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted! Sing to Yahweh, for he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth! Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”
- Psalms 148:11-13 kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens; old men and children: let them praise Yahweh’s name, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.
- Revelation 14:3 They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah. This psalm…
1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah. This psalm is suited for the Sabbath, when we know that the religious assemblies were more particularly convened for the worship of God. It is not individuals among the godly whom he exhorts to celebrate the divine praises in private; he enjoins these to be offered up in the public meeting. By this he showed that the outward worship of God principally consisted in the sacrifice of praise, and not in dead ceremonies. He enjoins haste upon them; by which they might testify their alacrity in this service. For the Hebrew word קדם, kadam, in the second verse, which I have rendered, let us come before, etc., means to make haste. He calls upon them to speed into the presence of God; and such an admonition was needed, considering how naturally backward we are when called by God to the exercise of thanksgiving. This indirect charge of indolence in the exercise, the Psalmist saw it necessary to prefer against God’s ancient people; and we should be made aware that there is just as much need of a stimulus in our own case, filled as our hearts are with similar ingratitude. In calling them to come before God’s face, he uses language which was also well fitted to increase the ardor of the worshippers; nothing being more agreeable than to offer in God’s own presence such a sacrifice as he declares that he will accept. He virtually thus says, in order to prevent their supposing the service vain, that God was present to witness it. I have shown elsewhere in what sense God was present in the sanctuary.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He showeth that God’s service standeth not in dead…
He showeth that God’s service standeth not in dead ceremonies, but chiefly in the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the…
Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Ver. 1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord] It is thought by this beginning that this psalm was not penned by David for private use, but for public assemblies, to be sung by the congregation on the sabbath and such like times. It may very well be that they began their morning sacrifice with this psalm, as the Latin Church also afterwards did their matins, or morning service.
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Let us make a joyful noise] With a clear and loud voice, as of a trumpet; singing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He speaks to the Israelites, whose backwardness to this…
He speaks to the Israelites, whose backwardness to this work in the times of the gospel was foreseen by the Spirit of God, which dictated this Psalm.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself…
The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively affections, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often backward to it and cold in it. Observe,
I. How God is to be praised. 1. With holy joy and delight in him. The praising song must be a joyful noise, Psa 95:1 and again Psa 95:2. Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise. It is the will of God (such is the condescension of his grace) that when we give glory to him as a being infinitely perfect and blessed we should, at the same time, rejoice in him as our Father and King, and a God in covenant with us. 2. With humble reverence, and a holy awe of him (Psa 95:6): "Let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before him, as becomes those who know what an infinite distance there is between us and God, how much we are in danger of his wrath and in need of his mercy." Though bodily exercise, alone, profits little, yet certainly it is our duty to glorify God with our bodies by the outward expressions of reverence, seriousness, and humility, in the duties of religious worship. 3. We must praise God with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out of the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy, and thankfulness - Sing to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to him, with psalms - as those who are ourselves much affected with his greatness and goodness, are forward to own ourselves so, are desirous to be more and more affected therewith, and would willingly be instrumental to kindle and inflame the same pious and devout affection in others also. 4. We must praise God in concert, in the solemn assemblies: "Come, let us sing; let us join in singing to the Lord; not others without me, nor I alone, but others with me. Let us come together before his presence, in the courts of his house, where his people are wont to attend him and to expect his manifestations of himself." Whenever we come into God's presence we must come with thanksgiving that we are admitted to such a favour; and, whenever we have thanks to give, we must come before God's presence, set ourselves before him, and present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he has appointed.
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II. Why God is to be praised and what must be the matter of our praise. We do not want matter; it were well if we did not want a heart. We must praise God,
1. Because he is a great God, and sovereign Lord of all, Psa 95:3. He is great, and therefore greatly to be praised. He is infinite and immense, and has all perfection in himself. (1.) He has great power: He is a great King above all gods, above all deputed deities, all magistrates, to whom he said, You are gods (he manages them all, and serves his own purposes by them, and to him they are all accountable), above all counterfeit deities, all pretenders, all usurpers; he can do that which none of them can do; he can, and will, famish and vanquish them all. (2.) He has great possessions. This lower world is here particularly specified. We reckon those great men who have large territories, which they call their own against all the world, which yet are a very inconsiderable part of the universe: how great then is that God whose the whole earth is, and the fulness thereof, not only under whose feet it is, as he has an incontestable dominion over all the creatures and a propriety in them, but in whose hand it is, as he has the actual directing and disposing of all (Psa 95:4); even the deep places of the earth, which are out of our sight, subterraneous springs and mines, are in his hand; and the height of the hills which are out of our reach, whatever grows or feeds upon them, is his also. This may be taken figuratively: the meanest of the children of men, who are as the low places of the earth, are not beneath his cognizance; and the greatest, who are as the strength of the hills, are not above his control. Whatever strength is in any creature it is derived from God and employed for him (Psa 95:5): The sea is his, and all that is in it (the waves fulfil his word); it is his, for he made it, gathered its waters and fixed its shores; the dry land, though given to the children of men, is his too, for he still reserved the property to himself; it is his, for his hands formed it, when his word made the dry land appear. His being the Creator of all makes him, without dispute, the owner of all. This being a gospel psalm, we may very well suppose that it is the Lord Jesus whom we are here taught to praise. He is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and God over all, blessed for evermore. As Mediator, he is a great King above all gods; by him kings reign; and angels, principalities, and powers, are subject to him; by him, as the eternal Word, all things were made (Joh 1:3), and it was fit he should be the restorer and reconciler of all who was the Creator of all, Col 1:16, Col 1:20. To him all power is given both in heaven and in earth, and into his hand all things are delivered. It is he that sets one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, as sovereign Lord of both (Rev 10:2), and therefore to him we must sing our songs of praise, and before him we must worship and bow down.
2. Because he is our God, not only has a dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in special relation to us (Psa 95:7): He is our God, and therefore it is expected we should praise him; who will, if we do not? What else did he make us for but that we should be to him for a name and a praise? (1.) He is our Creator, and the author of our being; we must kneel before the Lord our Maker, Psa 95:6. Idolaters kneel before gods which they themselves made; we kneel before a God who made us and all the world and who is therefore our rightful proprietor; for his we are, and not our own. (2.) He is our Saviour, and the author of our blessedness. He is here called the rock of our salvation (Psa 95:1), not only the founder, but the very foundation, of that work of wonder, on whom it is built. That rock is Christ; to him therefore we must sing our songs of praises, to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. (3.) We are therefore his, under all possible obligations: We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. All the children of men are so; they are fed and led by his Providence, which cares for them, and conducts them, as the shepherd the sheep. We must praise him, not only because he made us, but because he preserves and maintains us, and our breath and ways are in his hand. All the church's children are in a special manner so; Israel are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand; and therefore he demands their homage in a special manner. The gospel church is his flock. Christ is the great and good Shepherd of it. We, as Christians, are led by his hand into the green pastures, by him we are protected and well provided for, to his honour and service we are entirely devoted as a peculiar people, and therefore to him must be glory in the churches (whether it be in the world or no) throughout all ages, Eph 3:21.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain O come, let us sing unto the Lord,.... To…
O come, let us sing unto the Lord,.... To Jehovah the Messiah, the Lord our righteousness; setting forth, in songs of praise, the glory of his person, the riches of his grace, and our thankfulness to him for spiritual mercies by him: Christ is to be the subject of our spiritual songs, and is the person to whose honour and glory they should be directed: in the New Testament we are instructed to sing unto the Lord, the Lord Christ, Eph 5:19, and this is what Pliny (a) tells Trajan, the Roman emperor, the Christians in his time did; they sung a hymn to Christ, as to a God:
let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation; to Christ, the Rock, Co1 10:4, a Rock, for height, being higher than the saints, than the kings of the earth, than the angels in heaven, than the heavens themselves; for strength, being the mighty God, and mighty Saviour; for shelter, being the saints security from avenging justice and wrath to come: a Rock, on which the church and all believers are built, and which endures for ever; "the Rock of salvation", being the author of spiritual and eternal salvation, and the strength and security of it; not only is he strong to do it, but, being done by him, it is safe in him; wherefore shouts of joy and songs of praise are due unto him. This shows that vocal singing is meant, singing with an harmonious and musical voice; and that social singing, or singing in concert together, is intended. The Septuagint renders it, "to God our Saviour", Luk 1:47.
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(a) Ep. l. 10. ep. 97.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The author of this psalm was David, as is…
The author of this psalm was David, as is affirmed, Heb. iv, 7. It has a special reference to the days of the Messiah; as it is understood by the apostle, Heb. iii, 7, &c. and Heb. iv, 3-9. Herein we are called upon, to praise God, as a great and gracious God, ver. 1-7. To hear God's voice, and not harden our hearts, lest we fall as the Israelites did, ver. 8-11.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain An invitation to praise God, 1, 2.
PSALM XCV
An invitation to praise God, 1, 2.
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The reason on which this is founded, the majesty and dominion
of God, 3-5.
An invitation to pray to God, 6.
And the reasons on which that is founded, 7.
Exhortation not to act as their fathers had done, who rebelled
against God, and were cast out of his favour, 8-11.
NOTES ON PSALM XCV
This Psalm is also without a title, both in the Hebrew and Chaldee: but is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Syriac; and by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 4:3-7. Calmet and other eminent critics believe that it was composed during the time of the captivity, and that the apostle only followed the common opinion in quoting it as the production of David, because in general the Psalter was attributed to him.
The Psalm is a solemn invitation to the people, when assembled for public worship, to praise God from a sense of his great goodness; and to be attentive to the instructions they were about to receive from the reading and expounding of the law; and or these accounts it has been long used in the Christian Church, at the commencement of public service, to prepare the people's minds to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Houbigant, and other learned divines, consider this Psalm as composed of three parts.
1. The part of the people, Ps 95:1 to the middle of Ps 95:7.
2. The part of the priest or prophet, from the middle of Ps 95:7 to the end of Ps 95:8.
3. The part of Jehovah, Ps 95:9-11. It is written as a part of the preceding Psalm by nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; but certainly it must have been originally an ode by itself, as the subject is widely different from that in the foregoing.
Verse 1. O come, let us sing] Let us praise God, not only with the most joyful accents which can be uttered by the voice; but let us also praise him with hearts tuned to gratitude, from a full sense of the manifold benefits we have already received.
The rock of our salvation.] The strong Fortress in which we have always found safety, and the Source whence we have always derived help for our souls. In both these senses the word rock, as applied to God, is used in the Scriptures.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 95:1-3. O come, let us sing, unto the…
Psa 95:1-3. O come, let us sing, unto the Lord, &c. — Thus the pious Jews, in ancient times, exhorted and excited each other to employ their voices in honour of Jehovah, and to celebrate the rock of their salvation — And Christians are now called upon to stir up each other to the same blessed work, in the same or similar language. For the Lord is a great God — And therefore is greatly to be praised; and a great King — A great sovereign, even the universal Lord of all nations and worlds; above all gods — Above all that are accounted or called gods, whether angels, earthly potentates, or the false gods of the heathen.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain O come, let us sing unto the Lord -…
O come, let us sing unto the Lord - The word here rendered come, means properly “go;” but it is used here, as it often is, as a formula of invitation, in calling on others to share in what is done by the speaker. It is here to be understood as used by one portion of an assembly convened for worship addressing the other portion, and calling on them to unite in the praise of God.
Let us make a joyful noise - The word used here means commonly to make a loud noise, to shout, Job 30:5. It is especially used
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(a) of warlike shouts, Jos 6:16; 1Sa 17:20;
(b) of the shout of triumph, Jdg 15:14;
(c) of the sound or clangor of a trumpet, Num 10:9; Joe 2:1.
It may thus be used to denote any shout of joy or praise. In public worship it would denote praise of the most animated kind.
To the Rock of our salvation - The strong ground of our confidence; the basis of our hope; our security. See the notes at Psa 18:2.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 95
Psalms 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord:
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Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God,
And a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth:
The strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it:
And his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down:
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God;
And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
To-day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation,
And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me,
Proved me and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation,
And said, It is a people that do err in their heart,
And they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath
That they should not enter into my rest.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The Church is called upon to praise Jehovah (Psa_95:1-2); first, because of His exaltation as the supreme God and Creator (Psa_95:3-5). The call is then repeated, being supported by the relation which the Church bears to Him, and coupled with the exhortation to listen to His voice on that very day (Psa_95:6-7). Finally, the declaration of God to His people, which draws its warnings from the history of the march through the wilderness, is announced (Psa_95:8-11). No clue is afforded to the time of composition. Its fruitful application typically is shown in Heb_3:7-11; Heb_4:3-7. The Sept. has the superscription: Psalm of praise of David. The expression in Heb_4:7 : ἐν Δαβὶδ λέγων, does not refer to the person of David, but to the Book of Psalms named after him.—The Romish Church begins its daily officium with this Psalm, according to the rendering of Psa_95:2 : præoccupemus faciem ejus.
Psa_95:3-4. Above all gods.—This expression refers, as do also Psa_96:4; Psa_97:9, to the incomparable exaltation of God. It is not angels (Calvin) who are meant, but gods of the heathen (Exo_15:11; Exo_18:11). Yet a real existence is not ascribed to them. They are in Psa_96:5; Psa_97:7, after Lev_19:4; Lev_26:1, and frequently in Isaiah, called אלילים, with cutting irony.—In Psa_95:4, instead of summit, it is not advisable to translate: mines, of the mountains (Böttcher), although the etymology is obscure, and the meaning therefore doubtful also in Num_23:22; Num_24:8; Job_22:25. [The rendering “strength” in E. V. is derived from the meaning which the word must have in the first two passages above cited, where it is applied to the buffalo. Most recent critics concur in giving the translation of Dr. Moll: heights, or summit, which is that of the Septuagint. The primary idea being that of weariness, the derivation is supposed to be connected with it, by the nature of the fatigue occasioned by the ascent of a great elevation—J. F. M.]
Psa_95:7-9. We must not render: sheep of His care (Bött.), though the hand is perhaps not the creating hand, which has made the people the flock of God (Isa_19:25; Isa_64:7; Psa_80:6), but the guiding and protecting hand (Gen_30:35).—To-day. By the position of יומ at the beginning of its clause, the day on which God’s voice is not only heard, but is also obeyed, is set forth as a day of decision. The אִם would lead us to expect an apodosis, but, when this is wanting, it gives to the clause which it introduces an optative meaning. There lay stamped already upon the names Meribah and Massah [E. V., provocation—temptation,] the events which occurred there (Exo_17:1-7, Num_20:1 ff.), and they could therefore be so much the more easily applied typically (Psa_83:10, comp. Num_14:22; Deu_6:16; Deu_33:8; Psa_78:18; Psa_78:41; Psa_78:56; Psa_106:14).—In verse 9b. the meaning is not: although they saw my wonderful working (De Wette, Köster, Hengst., Del.), but: they also observed my retributive dealing (Luther, Geier, Ewald, Hupfeld, Hitzig).
Psa_95:10 f. We should not render: with that generation (Sept.), although the generation living at that time and suffering from that judgment is primarily referred to. The absence of the article rather indicates a general reference, and facilitates the application to men of like character in any circumstances. The oath of God (Psa_95:11) follows Num_14:21 f., comp. Deu_1:35. The rest is primarily the place of settlement granted by God (Num_10:33; Deu_12:9; 1Ki_8:56; Isa_11:10; Psa_132:8; Psa_132:14), but includes the idea of rest after wandering, and, according to Heb_4:8 f., may be employed as a type of the eternal rest.—The Sept. read in Psa_95:6 weep, instead of: bow down: and many ancient psalteries have after the Cod. Vat. of the Sept. the addition to Psa_95:3 : because the Lord will not reject His people.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. God, as the firm and sure ground of all help and of our salvation (Psa_89:27; Psa_94:22), is the worthy object of the praise of His adoring Church. But, when His people assemble to praise Him, they must remember that they appear before the face of Him who, exalted as the only true God above all beings that are honored by men as Divine, is the Creator of all things and the Shepherd of His people. They are, therefore, to humble themselves before Him as the One who is alone worthy of adoration, trust in Him as the Controller of all, and, in the obedience of faith, follow Him as their Guide.
2. God’s people worshipping in His sanctuary have, for the reasons and with the aim above-mentioned, both to raise their own voices to God, and to listen to His voice addressed to them. Both of these are essential to true devotion, and not only express the lively nature of the relations which exist between God and His Church, but promote also their intimacy, reality, and strength. God will preserve, protect, and rule the people of His Church as His flock, not merely physically, temporally, and outwardly, but will also spiritually, eternally, and inwardly care for them, revive them, and sanctify them for His own inheritance. For this end He employs especially His holy word, by which He compels none, but invites, instructs, and directs all.
3. In order to praise God truly, and to follow His guidance with docility, the heart must be surrendered to Him; and history, including that of God’s word, teaches us how seldom and with what difficulty men yield to this demand, and how often, on the other hand, and how easily, they, even with God’s judgments before them, and with the evidences of His blessings around them, harden themselves even to obduracy. Then they go astray in the wilderness, and do not arrive at rest with God, since in their hearts they have wandered away from Him. As long as the voice of God over us calls upon us to hear by rebuke and punishment, we are still far from the goal. But we can learn from His voice, still sounding through the Church in the preaching of His word, that we are upon the way. And from the fact that long after the time of Moses, and again after that of David, God caused such a call to be sounded forth in the Church, and appointed days of decision, impressing upon men’s minds the severity of the judgment and the preciousness of the day of grace which still runs on, we may learn that, with the possession of Canaan, neither the blessedness of Israel nor the teaching of God came to an end, but that there still remains a rest for the people of God.
[Hengstenberg: The Psalm has its full significance for the Christian Church, inasmuch as we stand in the same relation to the second coming of the Lord, of whose time and hour we know nothing, as the people of the Old Testament did to the first.—J. F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
There is reason enough for daily thanksgiving, but is there delight in it?—It is a telling accusation of our forgetfulness, indolence, and ingratitude that we need to be called upon to praise God.—All worship is based upon an acknowledgment of the Divine majesty, creative omnipotence, and watchful love of the Eternal.—We are not merely to feel what we have to thank God for and what we owe to Him, but to express it also in word and deed.—Thou hast, perhaps, a desire to speak with God; art thou also inclined to hear and to obey Him? He who would come into the rest of God, must hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and feed in His pastures as a member of His flock.—We are to-day still upon our pilgrimage; to-day we hear still the voice of God; to-day we can still seek the face of the Eternal; why then do so many wander about in the wilderness and perish?—When God’s people tempt Him instead of trusting Him, they will not stand in the day of trial.
Starke: If our hearts were not by nature so slow to serve and praise God, He would not need to awaken and encourage us.—The world rejoices and shouts in its service of sin; how it puts to shame the children of God, who are often so indolent in the far more blessed employment of praising Him!—The more thou wilt meditate upon the greatness of our God, the more tiny and insignificant will created things and thine own fancied greatness appear in thine eyes.—A Christian does not know how to humble himself sufficiently before God even in behaviour. It is ever with him as with the Psalmist: I will yet be more vile than this before the Lord (2Sa_6:22)—The whole good of the believer is contained in one word: God is his God.—As certain as are the oaths of God, whereby He promises life and blessedness to the penitent, so certain are those by which He announces eternal destruction to the obstinate ungodly.
Frisch: God’s anger falls suddenly; and then it is too late to do what is not already done.—Tholuck: God’s words speak loudly, and afford an inexhaustible subject of grateful songs of praise.—Guenther: A rest still remains even for the people of the Dispersion, but the way thither lies over Golgotha.—Diedrich: God Himself is the Rock on which our salvation rests, and that is one great consolation, for if it rested on our own strength, it would be a tottering support.—Taube: God, who is worthy to be praised, who has led the people of His pasture to Himself through the acceptable days of salvation, and who feeds them until the full enjoyment of the eternal Sabbath rest, calls upon us to triumph in His power and mercy; but the warning example of those of old, the shortness of today, the sweeping progress and terrible deceitfulness of sin, the labyrinth of errors in our own hearts, call upon us o exercise a holy fear of the Lord.
[Matth. Henry: The more experience we have had of the power and goodness of God, the greater is our sin if we distrust Him. What, to tempt Him in the wilderness when we live upon Him! This is as ungrateful as it is absurd and unreasonable—Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all our distrusts of God and quarrels with Him. That is a hard heart which receives not the impressions of Divine discoveries, and conforms not to the intentions of the Divine will; which will not melt, which will not bend.
Hengstenberg: The more clearly God makes Himself known, the more base is our conduct, if we only put Him to the test in time of need; as though He could not till then give proof of His true Divinity.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1, 2. Let us sing unto the Lord—In Psa_95:1-2,…
1, 2. Let us sing unto the Lord—In Psa_95:1-2, the language describes the most jubilant and noisy demonstrations known in the Hebrew worship. Yet it is carefully chastened with reverence by the designation “to Jehovah,” “to the rock of our salvation;” also by the quality of the loud shouting, namely, with thanksgiving and with psalms, which belonged to the regular order of worship. The occasion was not one of mourning, confession of sin, and penitence, but of triumph, praise, gladness, which accords naturally with the associations of the feast of tabernacles.
The rock—Christ, to whom the author of Hebrews (Heb_3:6) applies the psalm. The Septuagint reads, “God our Saviour.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. O come, let us sing aloud unto Jehovah:
1. O come, let us sing aloud unto Jehovah:
Let us shout unto the Rock of our salvation.
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Let us greet our God, Whose power has been manifested in the deliverance of His people, with the anthems and acclamations which befit a victorious King. Cp. Psa_47:1; Psa_66:1; Psa_89:26, Psa_94:22.
1, 2. A call to unite in worshipping Jehovah.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) O come.—The invitation is general, and may be…
(1) O come.—The invitation is general, and may be contrasted with the heathen warning to the uninitiated, procul este profani. This exhortation to worship God, not with penitence, but with loud thanksgiving, is, as Perowne notes, the more remarkable considering the strain in which the latter part of the psalm is written.
Make a joyful noise.—There is no one English expression for the full burst of instrumental and vocal music which is meant by the Hebrew word here applied to the Temple service. Vulg., jubilemus.
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Rock of our salvation.—As in Psa_89:26. (Comp. “rock of refuge,” Psa_94:22.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THIS is a liturgical psalm, probably composed for the…
THIS is a liturgical psalm, probably composed for the temple service, and still used in the synagogue as one of the Friday evening Psalms which introduce the sabbath. The Western Church has adopted it into its daily "Order for Prayer a position which it continues to occupy in our own Matins. It consists of two parts (vers. 1-7 and vers. 7-11), so strongly contrasted, that separatist critics suggest an accidental combination of two quite unconnected fragments (Professor Cheyne). But a deeper and more penetrating exegesis sees in the composition two trains of thought, purposely set over against each other one joyous, the other plaintive; one setting forth the "goodness" of God, the other his "severity"; (Rom_11:22) one inviting to joy and thankfulness, the other to self-examination and repentance; one calling to mind God"s greatness and loving kindness, the other bringing into prominence man"s weakness and danger.
In the Septuagint the psalm is ascribed to David, and this view seems to have been taken by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (Heb_4:7) But modern critics are generally of opinion that the style is not that of the Davidical psalms.
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Vers. 1-7a. The song of praise. This seems to terminate with the words, "We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
O come, let us sing unto the Lord. From this opening phrase, which finds an echo in vers. 2 and 6, this psalm has been called "The Invitatory Psalm." As it invited the Jews, so it now invites Christian congregations, to join in the worship of the sanctuary. Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. (comp. Psa_33:3 Psa_98:4) Loudness of voice was regarded as indicating earnestness of heart. (see 2Ch_20:19 Ezr_3:13 Neh_12:42, etc.) The expression, "Rock of our salvation" is taken from Deu_32:15. (comp. 2Sa_22:47 Psa_89:26) It is well paraphrased in our Prayer book Version, "the strength of our salvation.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-11. The invitatory psalm.
It has been thus called in Christian Liturgies throughout Christendom, and chiefly because of its fervent invitation to praise. But it is also an equally earnest invitation to hearken and to believe. Let us take that which stands at the beginning, and consider
I THE INVITATION TO PRAISE. In this is shown:
1. To whom the praise is to be rendered. It is to Jehovah, the Rock of our salvation.
2. Think of the many ministries which the word rock reminds us of. Shade: for God was to his people as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land;" and he is so still. Defence: "Thou art my Rock and my Fortress." Strength: "Thou hast set my feet upon a rock." Supply: "He smote the rock," etc. (Psa_78:20 Psa_81:16) Dwelling place: we read both in Isaiah and Jeremiah of "the inhabitants of the rock." Such were the ideas that gathered round this name of the Lord which the psalm summons men to praise.
3. The manner of the praise. It was to be by joyful song and resonant shout, with thanksgiving and with psalms. So hearty, so jubilant, so universal, so emphatic, was to be the praise of the Lord. But in ver. 6 there is the call to yet more profound adoration and worship, since yet higher manifestations of God"s grace are to be commemorated. Therefore note:
4. The reasons for all this worship. And
(1) because of what God is supreme over all the gods of the heathen;
(2) because of his rule over the whole earth its depths, its heights, the sea, and the land;
(3) because and here comes the summons to the higher praise spoken of of what God is to his people their Maker, their God, the Giver of their peace and rest; (cf. Ps 23, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures so his people are "the people of his pasture." He is also their Guide, Defender, Ruler sheep of his hand." Such are the grounds and surely they are adequate for this reverent and yet exultant worship. And they all remain still.
II THE CALL TO HEAR GOD"S VOICE. (Ver. 8) For as the former verses had told of the rich and lofty privileges of the people of God, so these tell of their great peril the peril of unbelief. This had been their ruin in days gone by, in all that weary forty years. Nothing else could harm them; but this wrought all their woo. (cf. Heb_4:6-9) And what was true of old and of Israel, is true today and of ourselves. The righteous live by faith; no unbeliever can enter into God"s rest.
III THE CALL TO FAITH. For this is the condition of our obtaining the prize of our high calling. The rest of God is God"s reward to his faithful people a rest not alone in heaven hereafter, but here and now, whilst in this world, which Christ promises to give, and does give. Saints of old knew it; saints today enter into it. Christ dwelt in it, and so may we if we believe. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Everybody called to praise God.
The call to offer God joyful thanksgiving is made to everybody, without qualification or limitation. It may be that certain forms of Divine worship are properly reserved for those who are in certain states of mind, or have voluntarily entered into certain relations; but the common duties of thanksgiving rest on all humanity the claims of the God of providence and mercy should be felt, and should be responded to, by every man made in the Divine image. A strange notion has been allowed to gain some acceptance, that praise and thanksgiving from the unconverted can never be acceptable to God. The Scriptures give no countenance whatever to such a notion. Every man is invited to praise God as well as he can. What God resists is insincerity. It does not matter how imperfect the praise may be, if it is but sincere. The terms of the text imply the union of music and song in God"s worship. The psalmist invites to a full burst of instrumental and vocal music, which will use up all kinds of human talents. Being a general call, it is a call to worship God with thanksgiving, which every man may be expected to feel; not with penitence, which only a few may feel.
I ALL MEN MAY JOIN IN RECOGNIZING WHAT GOD IS TO ALL MEN.
1. God the Creator. Open out the idea that what God could say of his daily handiwork, "Behold, it is very good," man, observing the further workings, the operations, of what God has made, can repeat after him. Explain that, in a large way, man could always, by observation, see the goodness of God in creation; in minute detail man"s science sees it still.
2. God the Provider. "Giving to all their meat in due season." Here show that the extraordinary, such as provision of manna, only illustrates the ordinary, God giving all their daily bread.
3. God the Saviour. In the lower sense of Preserver, Defender, Deliverer, from the common ills and perils of life. Apart, then, from all theological distinctions, all men should praise God.
II SOME MEN MAY JOIN IN RECOGNIZING WHAT GOD IS TO SOME MEN.
1. Some men have special personal experiences of God"s dealings.
2. Some men know God as their Saviour from sin. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-11. Public worship its necessity and advantage.
I ITS NATURE.
1. Thanksgiving and praise. (Vers. 1, 2) We need special seasons for thinking over our privileges and cultivating gratitude, and the utterance of the spirit of praise.
2. Adoration and prayer. (Ver. 6) God"s love thus a cause for our cleansing. Christ"s promises and grace inexhaustible. Who can drink the river of his love dry? Confession and supplication.
3. Listening to the voice of God. (Ver. 7) In his spoken Word and in our own hearts. Hearing what God speaks to us is as much worship as our speaking to God.
II REASONS OF WORSHIP.
1. God"s supremacy. (Vers. 3-5) Here is the theme of the loftiest praise; a reason for the largest prayers; and an argument for submission to his perfect will.
2. God"s tender guardianship. "He is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." intimate relationship to him: "our God." Living upon his bounty: "people of his pasture." We are being guided by him: "sheep of his hand.
3. God"s oath against those who are hardened. "Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
4. He is the Rock of our salvation. (Ver. 1) The eternal Foundation and Shelter of the soul. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain This Psalm has no title, and all we know…
This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as "in David." (Heb 4:7.) It is true that this may merely signify that it is to be found in the collection known as David's Psalms; but if such were the Apostle's meaning it would have been more natural for him to have written, "saying in the Psalms; "we therefore incline to the belief that David was the actual author of this poem. It is in its original a truly Hebrew song, directed both in its exhortation and warning to the Jewish people, but we have the warrant of the Holy Spirit in the epistle to the Hebrews for using its appeals and entreaties when pleading with Gentile believers. It is a psalm of invitation to worship. It has about it a ring like that or church bells, and like the bells it sounds both merrily and solemnly, at first ringing out a lively peal, and then dropping into a funeral knell as if tolling at the funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness. We will call it THE PSALM OF THE PROVOCATION.
It would be correct as to the sense to divide this psalm into an invitation and a warning so as to commence the second part with the last clause of Ps 95:7: but upon the whole it may be more convenient to regard Ps 95:6 as "the beating heart of the psalm, "as Hengstenberg calls it, and make the division at the end of Ps 95:5. Thus it will form (1) an invitation with reasons, and (2) an invitation with warnings.
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Ver. 1. O come, let us sing unto the LORD. Other nations sing unto their gods, let us sing unto Jehovah. We love him, we admire him, we reverence him, let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our noblest faculty for its noblest end. It is well thus to urge others to magnify the Lord, but we must be careful to set a worthy example ourselves, so that we may be able not only to cry "Come", but also to add "let us sing", because we are singing ourselves. It is to be feared that very much even of religious singing is not unto the Lord but unto the car of the congregation: above all things we must in our service of song take care that all we offer is with the heart's sincerest and most fervent intent directed toward the Lord himself.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. With holy enthusiasm let us sing, making a sound which shall indicate our earnestness; with abounding joy let us lift up our voices, actuated by that happy and peaceful spirit which trustful love is sure to foster. As the children of Israel sang for joy when the smitten rock poured forth its cooling streams, so let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. The author of this song had in his mind's eye the rock, the tabernacle, the Red Sea, and the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all in this first part of his hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock, and in him we find deliverance and safety, therefore it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.
"Come let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.
"Come let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.
"Come let us to the Lord sing out
With trumpet voice and choral shout."
Whole Psalm. These six psalms, 95 to 100, form, if I mistake not, one entire prophetic poem, cited by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, under the title of the Introduction of the First Born into the world. Each Psalm has its proper subject, which is some particular branch of the general argument, the establishment of the Messiah's Kingdom. The 95th Psalm asserts Jehovah's Godhead, and his power over all nature, and exhorts his people to serve him. In Psalm 96th all nations are exhorted to join in his service, because he cometh to judge all mankind, Jew and Gentile. In the 97th Psalm, Jehovah reigns over all the world, the idols are deserted, the Just One is glorified. In the 98th Psalm, Jehovah hath done wonders, and wrought deliverance for himself: he hath remembered his mercy towards the house of Israel; he comes to judge the whole world. In the 99th, Jehovah, seated between the cherubim in Zion, the visible Church, reigns over all the world, to be praised for the justice of his government. In the 100th Psalm, all the world is called upon to praise Jehovah the Creator, whose mercy and truth are everlasting. Samuel Horsley.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is twice quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as a warning to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, in the writer's day, that they should not falter in the faith, and despise God's promises, as their forefathers had done in the wilderness, lest they should fail of entering into his rest; see He 3:7, where verse 7 of this Psalm is introduced with the words, "As the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, "and see He 4:7, where it is said, "Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today." It has by some been inferred from these words that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews ascribes this Psalm to David. It may be so. But it seems not improbable that the words "in David" mean simply "the Book of Psalms, "the whole being named from the greater part; and that if he had meant that David wrote the Psalm, he would have written, "David spake, "or, "the Holy Ghost spake by David, "and not as it is written, "as it is said in David." Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, etc. The first verse of the Psalm begins the invitation unto praise and exultation. It is a song of three parts, and every part (like Jacob's part of the sheep) brings forth twins; each a double string, as it were, in the music of this praise, finely twisted of two parts into a kind of discordant concord, falling into a musical close through a differing yet reconciled diapason. The first couple in this song of praise are multitude and unity, concourse and concord: "O come", there's multitude and concourse; "let us, "there's unity and concord. The second twisted pair, are tongue and heart, "let us sing, "there's the voice and sound; and "heartily rejoice, "there's the heart and soul. The third and last intertwisted string, or part in the musick, is might and mercy, (rock or) strength and salvation; God's strength and our salvation: "to the strength (or rock) of our salvation." Charles Herle (1598-1659) in a "Sermon before the House of Lords", entitled, "David's Song of Three Parts".
Ver. 1. Come. The word "come" contains an exhortation, exciting them to join heart and lips in praising God; just as the word is used in Genesis, where the people, exciting and encouraging each other, say, "Come, let us make bricks; "and "Come, let us make a city and a town; "and, in the same chapter, the Lord says, "Come, let us go down, and there confound their tongue." Bellarmine.
Ver. 1. If it be so that one "come, let us" goes further than twenty times go and do, how careful should such be whom God hath raised to eminence of place that their examples be Jacob's ladders to help men to heaven, not Jeroboam's stumbling blocks to lie in their way, and make Israel to sin. Charles Herle.
Ver. 1. There is a silent hint here at that human listlessness and distraction of cares whereby we are more prompt to run after other things than to devote ourselves seriously to the becoming praises and service of God. Our foot has a greater proclivity to depart to the field, the oxen, and the new wife, than to come to the sacred courts, Lu 14:18, seq. See Isa 2:3, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." Martin Geier.
Ver. 1. Joyful noise. The verb eyrh, signifies to make a loud sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the psalms, it generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the Temple service. This wide sense of the word cannot be expressed otherwise in the English language than by a periphrasis. Samuel Horsley.
Ver. 1. The rock of our salvation. Jesus is the Rock of ages, in which is opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness; the Rock which attends the church in the wilderness, pouring forth the water of life, for her use and comfort; the Rock which is our fortress against every enemy, shadowing and refreshing a weary land. George Horne.
Ver. 1. An invitation to praise the Lord.
1. A favourite method of worship"let us sing."
2. A fitting state of mind for singingjoyful gratitude.
3. A fitting subject to excite both gladness and thankfulnessthe rock of our salvation.
Ver. 1. The rock of our salvation. Expressive imagery. Rock of shelter, support, indwelling, and supplyillustrate this last by the water flowing from the rock in the wilderness.
Psalms 95:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain O come, let us sing unto the Lord.
Psa_95:1-11
O come, let us sing unto the Lord.
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The grandest of creature services
I. It is the most righteous. Adoration rendered to--
1. The greatest Being.
(1) Great in Himself (Psa_95:3).
(2) Great in His possessions (Psa_95:4).
2. The kindest Being.
(1) He made us. Possessing reason, imagination, conscience, freedom, etc.
(2) He supports us--provides for our necessities, watches over us, guides us through intricacies, and guards us from perils.
(3) He delivers us. The rock of our salvation. The strong ground of our confidence, the foundation on which our safety rests. Who will say then that this service is not the most righteous,--to adore most the most adorable, to thank most the supremely kind?
II. It is the most delightful. Joyful noise. Worship is the only service that ensures happiness.
1. It accords with the highest dictates of conscience.
2. It gratifies our highest love.
3. It engages our highest powers.
III. It is the most urgent (Psa_95:7-8).
1. The neglect of this service is the hardening of the heart.
2. The hardening of the heart leads to procrastination.
3. This procrastination involves most calamitous results.
(1) It provokes the Almighty (Psa_95:8).
(2) It leads to ruin (Psa_95:11). (Homilist.)
The Venite
I. A call to praise (Psa_95:1-2; Psa_95:6). Our call to praise and thanksgiving leads on, as we should expect such an one as David to teach us, to prayer. We praise for evidences of His nature, and such praise must lead us to pray that His attributes may find their exercise towards us; that He will deal with us as His perfect nature has dealt with other generations and other people. We offer thanks for the past, and every past mercy is ground of prayer for future mercies; every received mercy is a ground of hope upon which we build our prayers for new mercies.
II. The causes which demand our praise.
1. He is not only the Author of oar salvation, but He has made it strong, firm, immovable, resting upon Him, the Rock of Ages (Psa_95:1-2).
2. We praise God for permitting us to observe His greatness; for the power to know Him in His works. It is not until we begin to examine the details of Creation--plants, birds, insects--to use the telescope upon the heavens, or the microscope upon invisible objects--that every single work, in itself a wonder, helps us to look up awestruck to the One Mind which made and which sustains all.
3. His individual care for each of us (Psa_95:7).
III. A caution against the loss of the accepted time (Psa_95:7-10). Alas! we have daily teaching like the men in the wilderness, that the chastened may only harden themselves against the hand of love which chastens! And poverty and sickness, by which God seeks to draw His children to Him, and to purify them for Himself, are made the very grounds for neglecting and disobeying Him!
IV. Rejection could not finally pass unpunished. There was a sentence upon those despisers (Psa_95:11). Gods truth requires that His promises should be as sure to His opposers as to His followers and friends; and the sentence will follow. They could not enter into Gods offered rest, as Paul explains to the Romans, on account of unbelief. (D. Laing, M.A.)
The genesis of praise
This has been called the Invitatory Psalm. The Temple at Jerusalem had been restored. Its doors were again open for worship. And the psalmist sought to allure the people to a worship long neglected in the time of their exile. From the earliest times this psalm has filled a somewhat similar place in the services of the Western Church. It is the first note of praise in the order for morning prayer.
I. The spontaneity of song. Jehovah did not say: Sing unto Me, but men said one to another: O come, let us sing unto the Lord! Men sang because they could not help but sing. There are some things so natural to men that no Divine command is needed. Song is one of these. It grows naturally out of the emotions of a godly heart. The deepest feelings of the race have always found their fullest expression in poetry, and poetry reaches its highest utterance when wedded to music, on whose wings it soars to heaven.
II. The religious inspiration of song. Love is the great kindler of song, and takes on its noblest, purest forms as it goes out to God. And hence it will be found that in proportion to the strength of love in any religion is the place and power of its song. To the lovelessness of most of the pagan and heathen religions is due the poverty and even absence of song in their worship. To all intents and purposes the Hebrew and its successor, the Christian, faith are the only ones in which song prevails. And it will be found, if you look into the history, that as their conception of God grew in depth and tenderness, the more lovable He was seen to be, so their song grew in volume and worth. The theology of each age is reflected in its hymnody.
III. The religious occasion of song. The psalm before us probably sprang out of joy at the reopened temple at Jerusalem, that the feet of Israel could once more stand within the gates of Zion. Every lofty hymn has a sacred history. And thus the experience of elect souls is made to help other souls to higher levels of thought and feeling. They are like climbers who have reached the mountain summit, and beckon those in the valley to share with them the grand outlook to which their eye has reached. It is for us to respond to their call, so that as we sing we may be drawn upwards from the mists of earth to those. Goethe once advised, as a means of making life less commonplace, that we should every day, at least, hear or read a good poem. Better still would it be if we allowed no day to pass without joining in a hymn of praise. Marvellous has been the influence of song in the furtherance of religion in the days that are past. The Arians were among the first to discover its power. They organized singing processions to propagate their doctrine. Then the orthodox party followed their example. When Ambrose, the good Bishop of Milan, was ordered to give up one of his churches for Arian worship, he refused, and his devoted followers surrounded his house day and night to protect him from the troops of the Emperor. He arranged for his defenders hymns for every hour of the day and night. It was a charge against Luther that he was singing the whole German people into the Reformation doctrine. The Lollards gained their name from their custom of lulling--that is, singing softly. The Methodist Revival owed quite as much to the hymns of Charles Wesley as to the preaching of her saintly brother. The Oxford Movement owed its success not only to the Tracts for the Times and the sermons of Newman, but to The Christian Year of Keble. Where would the Moody and Sankey movement have been but for the Sacred Songs and Solos? The Salvation Army could not carry on its work without its rough but inspiring music. And my own conviction is that holy song will be one means of bringing to the Church a deeper unity. Through it the heart is permitted to speak, and by means of the heart, rather than the intellect, Christian people are drawn closer together. Theology has too often proved a dividing influence. Song usually tends to unity. (W. G. Horder.)
Psalmody
I. The practice of singing. Old Testament saints, as well as New, seem never weary of celebrating the praises of their Lord and Saviour; because He was made an offering for their sins, dead, risen, and ascended to His throne. And this is still the sweetest subject in the Church of Christ; for happy are they who have the Lord for their God--yea, thrice happy they who have the kingdom of God set up within them, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
II. The object of singing psalms. The object of singing is, we see distinctly, the praise of Jesus. It is very important for you to notice that; for as the joy of the believer arises from his conscious standing in Jesus, so this joy is expressed in celebrating the praises of the glorious person and redeeming work of Jesus--for God would have all men to honour the Son even as they honour the Father. Singing is the outward expression of inward joy; and this is no doubt why the Holy Ghost has enjoined it on believers. It shows their sense of the infinite love of God in Christ Jesus. But at the same time that believers find joy in singing the praises of Jesus, as they are set forth in the Book of Psalms, they may also as they sing learn lessons for the practice of daily life. They have an interest not only in all Jesus was, but also in what Jesus is. Do they see that His trust in God was unshaken? They trust Him to make theirs steadfast also. Again: was His walk holy, and harmless, and undefiled, so that He could say in truth, I have set the Lord alway before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved? Then they depend upon Him for strength to tread in His steps. Were His tempers perfectly holy, so that He could say, Thou hast proved Mine heart; Thou hast visited Me in the night; Thou hast tried Me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that My mouth shall not transgress?--when, I say, they sing of this, they admire His example, and through His Spirit they strive daily to put off the old man and to put on the new. Again: was He carried through the greatest sufferings in perfect resignation, so that He could say, Not My will, but Thine, O Lord, be done? Then may they look up to Him in every trial for His promised support. Have the everlasting gates been opened, and the King of glory gone in? It is promised to them that they shall see the King in His beauty--yea, that they shall partake of that very glory.
III. The spirit in which we are to sing. Two things are necessary--that a man should sing spiritually, and that he should sing intelligently--that he should know what he has to thank God for, otherwise he cannot do it intelligently. Have we not mercies to thank God for? Why not, then, join the Church of Christ in thanking Him for them? The believer should live as he sings; his life should be in harmony with his principles. (J. W. Reeve, M.A.)
Praise the outcome of Divine influence
The whole of Glasgow is supplied with water from Loch Katrine. It is brought through the intervening country, and is distributed in pipes along every street, and from the palaces above Kelvin Grove to the wretched flats in the Saltmarket it tells, to those who have ears to hear, sweet stories of lofty peaks, wooded slopes, cataracts, and sparkling rivulets in its Highland home. Embosomed in the Mountains of Eternity, and reflecting in its placid sweep the magnificent devices of uncreated wisdom, we see the vast unfathomable ocean of Divine love. From that ocean a bountiful outflow of holy influence has come down into the human mind, and been divided into little rills known as psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Not to the rich only do they ripple, but also to the poor; labour forgets its weariness while taking in or giving out their sacred words, and the widow mingles their sweetness with her scanty food, and even the little child sends forth a triumph caught from their melody.
Inciting one another to praise God
You know how the birds stir up each other to sing. One bird in a cage will excite its fellow, who looks at him and seems to say, You shall not outstrip me: I will sing with you, till all the little minstrels quiver with an ecstasy of song, and form a choir of emulating songsters. Hark how the early morning of the spring is rendered musical by the full orchestra of birds. One songster begins the tune, and the rest hasten to swell the music. Let us be like the blessed birds. Bless the Lord till you set the fashion, and others bless Him with you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Rock of our salvation.--
Christ the Rock of our salvation
The shipwrecked mariner, hoping for safety on the sea-girt rock; the hunted fugitive, flying for a refuge to the cliff on the plain; the fainting traveller, throwing himself down in the shade of rock in the desert; the steep and precipitous hill, with its encircling stream, forming the site of a mighty fortress: each of these pictures tells us of weakness finding comfort and aid, each sets forth the value of the redeeming work, and the mighty mission of Christ our Lord. For the very idea of a rock is that of stability and strength, that which cannot be moved, that on which we may rest secure. For us and our salvation Christ died, says the noble language of our Creed. He is the great example of self-sacrifice, and of the One who devoted Himself to death and suffering for the benefit of the many. But how shall we apply to our own selves the benefit of Christs work? How shall we find a refuge in the Rock of our salvation.? By a humble and faithful realization of what He has done for us. (J. W. Hardman, LL.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 95
Psalms 95
THIS psalm is obviously divided into two parts, but there is no reason for seeing in these two originally unconnected fragments. Rather does each part derive force from the other; and nothing is more natural than that, after the congregation has spoken its joyful summons to itself to worship, Jehovah should speak warning words as to the requisite heart preparation, without which worship is vain. The supposed fragments are fragmentary indeed, if considered apart. Surely a singer has the liberty of being abrupt and of suddenly changing his tone. Surely he may as well be credited with discerning the harmony of the change of key as some later compiler. There could be no more impressive way of teaching the conditions of acceptable worship than to set side by side a glad call to praise and a solemn warning against repeating the rebellions of the wilderness. These would be still more appropriate if this were a post-exilic hymn; for the second return from captivity would be felt to be the analogue of the first, and the dark story of former hard-heartedness would fit very close to present circumstances.
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The invocation to praise in Psa_95:1-2, gives a striking picture of the joyful tumult of the Temple worship. Shrill cries of gladness, loud shouts of praise, songs with musical accompaniments, rang simultaneously through the courts, and to Western ears would have sounded as din rather than as music, and as more exuberant than reverent. The spirit expressed is, alas! almost as strange to many moderns as the manner of its expression. That swelling joy which throbs in the summons, that consciousness that jubilation is a conspicuous element in worship, that effort to rise to a height of joyful emotion, are very foreign to much of our worship. And their absence, or presence only in minute amount, flattens much devotion, and robs the Church of one of its chief treasures. No doubt; there must often be sad strains blended with praise. But it is a part of Christian duty, and certainly of Christian wisdom, to try to catch that tone of joy in worship which rings in this psalm.
The three following verses (Psa_95:3-5) give Jehovahs creative and sustaining power, and His consequent ownership of this fair world, as the reasons for worship. He is King by right of creation. Surely it is forcing unnatural meanings on words to maintain that the psalmist believed in the real existence of the "gods" whom he disparagingly contrasts with Jehovah. The fact that these were worshipped sufficiently warrants the comparison. To treat it as in any degree inconsistent with Monotheism is unnecessary, and would scarcely have occurred to a reader but for the exigencies of a theory. The repeated reference to the "hand" of Jehovah is striking. In it are held the deeps: it is a plastic hand. "forming" the land, as a potter fashioning his clay: it is a shepherds hand. protecting and feeding his flock (Psa_95:7). The same power created and sustains the physical universe, and guides and guards Israel. The psalmist has no time for details; he can only single out extremes, and leave us to infer that what is true of these is true of all that is enclosed between them. The depths and the heights are Jehovahs. The word rendered "peaks" is doubtful. Etymologically it should mean "fatigue," but it is not found in that sense in any of the places where it occurs. The parallelism requires the meaning of heights to contrast with depths, and this rendering is found in the LXX, and is adopted by most moderns. The word is then taken to come from a root meaning "to be high." Some of those who adopt the translation summits attempt to get that meaning out of the root meaning fatigue, by supposing that the labour of getting to the top of the mountain is alluded to in the name. Thus Kay renders "the mountains toilsome heights," and so also Hengstenberg. But it is simpler to trace the word to the other root, to be high. The ownerless sea is owned by Him; He made both its watery waste and the solid earth.
But that all-creating Hand has put forth more wondrous energies than those of which heights and depths, sea and land, witness. Therefore, the summons is again addressed to Israel to bow before "Jehovah our Maker."
The creation of a people to serve Him is the work of His grace, and is a nobler effect of His power than material things. It is remarkable that the call to glad praise should be associated with thoughts of His greatness as shown in creation, while lowly reverence is enforced by remembrance of His special relation to Israel. We should have expected the converse. The revelation of Gods love, in His work of creating a people for Himself, is most fittingly adored by spirits prostrate before Him. Another instance of apparent transposition of thoughts occurs in Psa_95:7 b, where we might have expected "people of His hand and sheep of His pasture." Hupfeld proposes to correct accordingly, and Cheyne follows him. But the correction buys prosaic accuracy at the cost of losing the forcible incorrectness which blends figure and fact. and by keeping sight of both enhances each. "The sheep of His hand" suggests not merely the creative but the sustaining and protecting power of God. It is hallowed forever by our Lords words, which may be an echo of it: "No man is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand."
The sudden turn from jubilant praise and recognition of Israels prerogative as its occasion to grave warning is made more impressive by its occurring in the middle of a verse. Gods voice breaks in upon the joyful acclamations with solemn effect. The shouts of the adoring multitude die on the poets trembling ear, as that deeper Voice is heard. We cannot persuade ourselves that this magnificent transition, so weighty with instruction, so fine in poetic effect, is due to the after thought of a compiler. Such a one would surely have stitched his fragments more neatly together than to make the seam run through the centre of a verse-an irregularity which would seem small to a singer in the heat of his inspiration. Psa_95:7 c may be either a wish or the protasis to the apodosis in Psa_95:8. "If ye would but listen to His voice!" is an exclamation, made more forcible by the omission of what would happen then. But it is not necessary to regard the clause as optative. The conditional meaning, which connects it with what follows, is probably preferable, and is not set aside by the expression "His voice" instead of "My voice"; for "similar change of persons is very common in utterances of Jehovah, especially in the Prophets" (Hupfeld). "Today" stands first with strong emphasis, to enforce the critical character of the present moment. It may be the last opportunity. At all events, it is an opportunity, and therefore to be grasped and used. A doleful history of unthankfulness lay behind; but still the Divine voice sounds, and still the fleeting moments offer space for softening of heart and docile hearkening. The madness of delay when time is hurrying on, and the long-suffering patience of God, are wonderfully proclaimed in that one word, which the Epistle to the Hebrews lays hold of, with so deep insight, as all-important.
The warning points Israel back to ancestral sins, the tempting of God in the second year of the Exodus, by the demand for water. {Exo_17:1-7} The scene of that murmuring received both names, Massah (temptation) and Meribah (strife). It is difficult to decide the exact force of Psa_95:9 b. "Saw My work" is most naturally taken as referring to the Divine acts of deliverance and protection seen by Israel in the desert, which aggravated the guilt of their faithlessness. But the word rendered "and" will, in that case, have to be taken as meaning "although"-a sense which cannot be established. It seems better, therefore, to take "work" in the unusual meaning of acts of judgment-His "strange work." Israels tempting of God was the more indicative of hardheartedness that it was persisted in, in spite of chastisements. Possibly both thoughts are to be combined, and the whole varied stream of blessings and punishments is referred to in the wide expression. Both forms of Gods work should have touched these hard hearts. It mattered not whether He blessed or punished. They were impervious to both. The awful issue of this obstinate rebellion is set forth in terrible words. The sensation of physical loathing followed by sickness is daringly ascribed to God. We cannot but remember what John heard in Patmos from the lips into which grace was poured: "I will spue thee out of My mouth."
But before He cast Israel out, He pled with them, as Psa_95:10 b goes on to tell: "He said, A people going astray in heart are they." He said so, by many a prophet and many a judgment, in order that they might come back to the true path. The desert wanderings were but a symbol, as they were a consequence, of their wanderings in heart. They did not know His ways; therefore they chose their own. They strayed in heart; therefore they had an ever-increasing ignorance of the right road. For the averted heart and the blind understanding produce each other.
The issue of the long-protracted departure from the path which God had marked was, as it ever is, condemnation to continue in the pathless wilderness, and exclusion from the land of rest which God had promised them, and in which He Himself had said that He would make His resting place in their midst. But what befell Israel in outward fact was symbolical of universal spiritual truth. The hearts that love devious ways can never be restful. The path which leads to calm is traced by God, and only those who tread it with softened hearts, earnestly listening to His voice, will find repose even on the road, and come at last to the land of peace. For others, they have chosen the desert, and in it they will wander wearily, "forever roaming with a hungry heart."
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is laying hold of the very kernel of the psalm, when he adduces the fact that, so many centuries after Moses, the warning was still addressed to Israel, and the possibility of entering the Rest of God, and the danger of missing it, still urged, as showing that the Rest of God remained to be won by later generations, and proclaiming the eternal truth that "we which have believed do enter into rest."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain “This Psalm is one of a series intended for…
INTRODUCTION
“This Psalm is one of a series intended for the Temple worship, and possibly composed for some festal occasion. Both the joyfulness of its opening verses, and its general character, in which it resembles the 81st Psalm, would render it suitable for some of the great national feasts.
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“As to the date of its composition nothing certain can be said. The LXX call it a Psalm of David; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in making a quotation from the Psalm, uses the expression ‘in David,’ but this is evidently only equivalent to saying ‘in the Psalms.’ In the Hebrew it has no inscription.
“It consists of two very distinct parts:—
“I. The first is an invitation to a joyful public acknowledgment of God’s mercies. Psa_95:1-7.
“II. The second (beginning with the last member of Psa_95:7 to the end) is a warning to the people against the unbelief and disobedience through which their fathers had perished in the wilderness.”—Perowne.
AN INVITATION TO WORSHIP
(Psa_95:1-7)
The Psalmist, in this invitation to worship, brings before us—
I. The method of worship. “O come, let us sing unto the Lord,” &c., Psa_95:1-2; Psa_95:6. We are exhorted to worship—
1. Joyfully. “Let us make a joyful noise.” “Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise.” In drawing near to God in worship we have many and forcible reasons for rejoicing in Him. By holy delight in His worship we honour Him, and commend His service to others.
2. Readily. “Let us come before His presence.” Margin, as in Heb., “Let us prevent His face.” Hengstenberg: “Let us anticipate His presence.” Perowne: “Let us go to meet His face.” He says, “Such is the proper and strict rendering of the word. ‘Come before’ does not sufficiently express the forwardness, the ready alacrity, which are really denoted by the verb.” The exhortation of the Psalmist presupposes unreadiness to worship, and implies that worship should be offered with pleasure and zeal.
3. Gratefully. “With thanksgiving.” In worship we should gratefully recognise God’s gracious dealings with us. For all the blessings which God in His mercy bestows upon us, He expects and requires to be thanked. He bestows them freely and generously for our good, and He would have us give the glory to Him. Thankfulness of heart is one of the great impulses to worship.
4. Reverently. “Let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” “All the expressions here employed denote a posture of profound reverence in worship, and the passage is a standing rebuke of all irreverent postures in prayer.”—Barnes. Reverence of feeling should be expressed in reverent attitudes. If we are duly sensible of the immeasurable distance between us and God, humility and sacred reverence will fill our hearts and be expressed in our words and attitude in worshipping Him. In the worship of God joy should be wedded to seriousness, gratitude to humility, confidence to reverence, and zeal to holy awe.
II. The motives of worship. “For the Lord is a great God,” &c. The Psalmist invites to worship—
1. Because Jehovah is Supreme. “The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all Gods.” The word “gods” is sometimes applied to angels, sometimes to judges, and sometimes to heathen deities. It is used in this place to designate the latter. We are not to suppose that the Psalmist credited these heathen deities with any real existence or power. “For all the gods of the nations are idols.” “He is merely contrasting heathen objects of worship, clothed in the imagination of their worshippers with certain attributes, and the one true supreme Object of worship, who is really all, and more than all, which the heathen think their gods to be.”—Perowne. Probably the surrounding idolatrous nations regarded Jehovah as some small local deity, far inferior to their “gods.” The Psalmist here declares that in His perfections He is exalted far above the highest position ascribed to the gods of the heathen. Let us worship Him because He is supreme over all, the Ruler over all.
2. Because He is the Creator and Proprietor of all things. “In His hand are the deep places of the earth,” &c. The second clause of Psa_95:4 is variously rendered. Alexander says, “The word translated ‘strength’ is plural in Hebrew, and seems properly to mean fatiguing exertions, from which some derive the idea of strength, others that of extreme height, which can only be reached by exhausting effort.” Margin: “The height of the hills are His.” Perowne: “The heights of the mountains are His.” So also Hengstenberg. “The exertions,” or “heights of the mountains” is parallel with “the searchings,” or “deep places of the earth;” and it “is a poetical expression for the highest summits of the mountains, which can be reached only by exertion.” Here are two ideas
(1) Jehovah is Creator of all things. Mountain summits and cavern depths, sea and land, all were made by Him.
(2) He is the Proprietor and Sovereign of all things. Creatorship affords the highest and most valid claim to Proprietorship and Sovereignty. By indisputable right Jehovah is the absolute Owner and Ruler of all things. “However deep man may penetrate into the depths, or however high he may ascend into the heights, he is still within the dominions of God, and never comes beyond His boundaries.”
3. Because of His relations to His people.
(1) He is their Creator. “Jehovah our Maker.” He has made us capable of worship, and to Him alone our worship should be offered.
(2) He is the Source of their salvation. “The Rock of our salvation.” “God is called the Rock of salvation as being its unchangeable foundation and faithful author.” Our salvation is entirely owing to Him. Its origin, its outworking, &c., are all due to Him. Therefore gratitude urges us to worship Him.
(3) He is in covenant relation with them. “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture.” God had covenanted with them that they should obey Him, and promised them, saying, “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.” We who have “made a covenant with Him by sacrifice” are under special obligations to worship Him. We have special manifestations of His presence, special communications of His lovingkindness, &c. We have made promises of consecration and service, &c.
(4) He exercises the most watchful care over them. They are “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” He is their Shepherd,—a relation involving guidance, government, protection, and provision. (See an outline on Psa_71:2.)
CONCLUSION. Worship such as this—spontaneous, joyous, grateful, reverent—is not only our duty, but our precious and exalted privilege. It calls into exercise the noblest faculties of our being; it engages the thoughts and affections upon the most sublime themes; it brings the spirit into the presence of the Supremely Great and Good; and it transforms it into the Divine image. Therefore, “O come, let us worship and bow down,” &c.
A WARNING AGAINST UNBELIEF
(Psa_95:7 (last clause) to 11)
The Psalmist, speaking by the Holy Ghost, here holds up the unbelief and disobedience of the Israelites in the wilderness as a warning to their descendants in his day. Consider—
I. The ensample of human sin. “Your fathers tempted Me,” &c. Notice,
1. The sin itself. The root-sin of which Israel was guilty in the wilderness was unbelief. This is distinctly stated by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (Heb_3:18-19.) Here it is spoken of as
(1) Tempting God. Two instances of this are mentioned in Psa_95:8. “Harden not your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah (trial) in the wilderness.” “Meribah, ‘striving’ or ‘provocation;’ Massah, ‘temptation,’ or ‘trial.’ From Exo_17:1-7 it would appear that both names were given to the same locality. But according to Num_20:1-13, the names were given to two different places on different occasions. Comp. also Deu_33:8.”—Perowne. (See Alford on Heb_3:8.) “Your fathers tempted by way of trial—’tempted (Me) in trying’ or ‘proving (Me.)’ ”—Alford. “Unbelief of every kind and every degree may be said to tempt God. For not to believe on the evidence which He has seen fit to give, is to provoke Him to give more, offering our possible assent if proof were increased as an inducement to Him to go beyond what His wisdom has prescribed. And if in this, and the like sense, God may be tempted, what can be more truly said of the Israelites, than that they tempted God in Massah?”—H. Melville. And Spurgeon: “Not to acquiesce in the will of God is virtually to tempt Him to alter His plans to suit our imperfect views of how the universe should be governed.” “They tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?”
(2) Disobedience of God. “They have not known My ways.” God’s ways are the ways which He prescribed for them to walk in. In matters of practical religion, not to know the ways of God implies the not walking in them. The Israelites were guilty not only of disobedience, but of oft-repeated acts of rebellion in the wilderness. Unbelief is the parent of disobedience.
2. Their persistency in sin. “It is a people that do err in their heart.” Heb.: “A people of wanderers in heart.” “I understand καρδία here,” says Stuart, “as used according to the Hebrew idiom (in which it is often pleonastic, at least it seems so to us), so that the phrase imports simply, They always err, i.e., they are continually departing from the right way.” Or, if it be taken to mean that their sins were deep-rooted, not mere errors of judgment, but the utterances of a heart far estranged from God, still their persistency in evil comes into view. Disobedience and rebellious murmurings were not exceptional in their case. Strong, indeed, were their proclivities to evil. Nor are we aware of any improvement, until the adult population that came out of Egypt had passed away by death.
3. The aggravation of their sin. “Saw My work.” They had seen His wonders in Egypt and His marvellous doings for them at the Red Sea. In the miraculous supply of manna, and in the stream from the rock that followed them, they had incontestable proofs of God’s powerful and gracious presence with them, and yet in their unbelief “they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?” The works of the Lord which they had seen should have inspired them with an all-conquering faith. But through their perversity His works aggravated their sin, increased their guilt. (Num_14:22-23.)
II. The ensample of Divine judgment. The Lord was not unmindful of their sin. He saw and was grieved. “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.” The word rendered “grieved” is expressive of loathing and disgust. Hengstenberg renders it “disgusted.” For forty years their conduct was such that the Lord could not but regard them with displeasure and aversion. And in His anger He sware that they should not enter into the promised land. In God’s wrath there is nothing revengeful, passionate, or stormy. It is a calm, just, holy anger against sin. Their rebellions had been many and heinous. All the means used for their moral improvement had grievously failed. Warnings and entreaties, the richest mercies and the most startling and solemn judgments, had produced no lasting impression for good. So Jehovah solemnly resolves and declares that they shall not enter into His rest. (Num_14:21-23; Num_14:28-35; Deu_1:34-35.) Meditate on this judgment. Think of the wondrous works wrought on their behalf, the design of which they entirely frustrated, so far as that generation was concerned; the years wasted in apparently fruitless wanderings; the expectations which perished; the rest which they forfeited; rest from slavery and from wandering, rest as a free people in a goodly land, &c.
III. The improvement to be made of these ensamples. “To-day if ye will hear His voice,” &c. Consider—
1. The import of hearing His voice. It is not mere hearing; but hearing with attention, faith, and obedience. Hearing is of no avail without believing, and faith which is not followed by action in harmony therewith is unreal, dead. Attend to, believe, and obey His voice. The Holy Ghost, by the Psalmist, indicates one sin as particularly incompatible with proper attention to the Divine voice. “Harden not your heart.” In this case, to harden the heart, is to disregard the Divine precepts and warnings, to neglect the Divine voice, and persist in disobedience. “An old man, one day taking a child on his knee, entreated him to seek God now—to pray to Him, and to love Him; when the child, looking up at him, asked, ‘But why do not you seek God?’ The old man, deeply affected, answered, ‘I would, child; but my heart is hard—my heart is hard.’ ”—Arvine. “The pirate Gibbs, whose name for many years was a terror to commerce, was finally captured, and executed in the city of New York. He acknowledged before his death, that, when he committed the first murder, his conscience made a hell within his bosom; but, after he had sailed for years under the black flag, his conscience became so blunted, he could rob a vessel, murder all its crew, and then lie down as peacefully to rest as an infant in its cradle.”—Dict. of Illus.
2. The time for hearing His voice. “To-day.” Now. This day of grace, which may be lost. “If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.”—Mason. “He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hath not promised life till we repent.”—Quarles. “You cannot repent too soon, because you know not how soon it may be too late.”—Fuller.
3. The arguments for hearing His voice.
(1) Inattention to God’s voice excludes from His rest. A glorious rest is provided for the people of God. Rest from guilt, sin, sorrow, suffering, anxiety, wearisome toil. The rest of holiness, love, delightful activities, satisfied affections, &c. Heaven. Unbelief excludes from this rest. “There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart.” Heb_3:12; Heb_3:18-19.
(2) God is deeply solicitous that we should attend to His voice. He says, “To-day, oh that ye would hear His voice!” He knows the worth of the soul, the blessedness and glory of the rest, the loss and sin and woe involved in exclusion from it; and hence His solicitude that we should hear His voice, &c.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Let the people of God beware that they provoke Him not by their unbelief or ingratitude, &c.
2. Let the unbeliever hear God’s voice, believe, and be saved to-day, now.
SINNERS ENTREATED TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE
Psa_95:7-8. “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”
I would press the importance, the necessity, of immediately becoming religious:—
I. Because of the shortness and uncertainty of life. You are mortal; it is appointed to all men once to die. You are frail, and may die soon and suddenly. Those who enjoy the most vigorous health are most exposed to many of those diseases which arrest their victims by surprise, and cut short the thread of life as in a moment. See the risk of delay. You stake your soul without any equivalent; for if life should be spared you gain nothing; but should it be cut short, you lose all, you are ruined for eternity.
II. Because you cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. To-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day is the only time which you can properly give to God.
III. Because if you defer the commencement of a religious life, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands and exhorts you to commence a religious life immediately. If you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. And this act of disobedience to God’s commands tends most powerfully to harden the heart; for after we have once disobeyed, it becomes more easy to repeat the disobedience. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach you and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one; if none can readily be found, you will invent one.… This tends most powerfully to harden the heart.
IV. If you do not commence a religious life to-day, there is great reason to fear that you will never commence it. The very causes which induce you to defer its commencement, render it highly improbable that you will ever become religious. You allege, perhaps, that you are not able to become religious, or that you cannot give your minds to it, or you know not how to begin. Now, all these causes will operate with equal force another day.… Every day’s delay will render it more difficult.
V. Because, after a time, God ceases to strive with sinners and to afford them the assistance of His grace. He gives them up to a blinded mind, a seared conscience, and a hard heart. Thus He dealt with the old world; the wicked sons of Eli; the Jews in the time of Isaiah (Psa_6:9-10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviour’s time (Luk_19:41-42).
VI. Because you are, while you delay, constantly making work for repentance; you are doing what you mean to be sorry for; you are building up to-day what you mean to throw down to-morrow. How irrational and absurd is this! I will not now hear God’s voice, but I mean to mourn, to be grieved for it hereafter. Could you say this to your fellow-creatures without blushing?
VII. Because it is the express command of God. “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” And the Holy Ghost saith, Obey God’s command, hear His voice to-day, and do not harden your hearts against it. Dare any of you trample on a known command of God?
CONCLUSION.—What, after all, is there so very irksome, or disagreeable, in a religious life, that you should wish to defer its commencement? If you must begin some time, why not begin today?—Dr. E. Payson.—Abridged.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain This Psalm suggests a great many subjects of interest,…
Psa 95:6
This Psalm suggests a great many subjects of interest, but the point to which the text directs our attention is the import and bearing of its invitation to worship.
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I. In the strictness of the word, adoration is the expression, by an outward, but much more by an inward, act, of man’s sincere conviction that his first duty to Almighty God is submission; and thus it is distinct from many other acts of the soul which are sometimes apt to be mistaken for it. (1) Contrast it, for example, with admiration. As admirers, we take it for granted that we are so far on a level with the object admired as to do Him justice; as admirers, we presuppose and exercise, although favourably, our rights as critics. In adoration we abandon all such pretensions as profane, as grotesque; we have no thought but that of God’s solitary and awful greatness, and of our own utter insignificance before Him. (2) Thanksgiving, praise, and prayer for blessings all three differ from adoration in this, that in each of them the soul is less prostrate, more able to bear the thought of self, than in pure and simple adoration. Pure adoration has no heart for self; it lies silent at the foot of the throne, conscious only of two things: the insignificance of self, the greatness of God.
II. Notice some of the leading benefits of worship, which explain the importance which is assigned to it by the Church of Christ. (1) It places us, both as individuals and as a body of men, in our true place before God our Creator. (2) Worship obliges us to think what we are ourselves. (3) Worship is a stimulus to action when, and only when, it is sincere. If it be true that to work is to pray, it is no less true that to pray is to work. Prayer, in fact, is work, since it makes a large demand upon the energies of the will. Contact with the highest reality cannot but brace us, and we find in all ages that the noblest resolves to act or to suffer have again and again been formed as though in obedience to what seems a sudden overpowering flash of light during worship.
H. P. Liddon, Family Churchman, Aug. 18th, 1886 (see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 104).
The goodness, the power, the wisdom, the providence, the presence, of God are abundantly shown and manifested to us in all the works of the Creator. There is nothing in all these works that looks, as it were, the work of chance; all bear marks of care, and design, and adaptation of means to the end; all seem to say to the hearing ear, "The hand that made us is Divine." And it is to the worship of this Divine Head, it is to the acknowledgment of God as our Creator, that the text calls us. The contemplation of God’s works is calculated: (1) to fill our souls with noble and worthy thoughts about God; and (2) to make us humble in our estimate of ourselves, as forming a small part in these mighty works. These two things help to make accepted worship.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 176.
References: Psa 95:6.—F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 369; H. Hayman, Rugby Sermons, p. 119. Psa 95:7, Psa 95:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1551; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xx., p. 204. Psa 95:8.—G. Moberly, Sermons in Winchester College, 2nd series, p. 283. Psalm 95—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 216. Psa 96:6.—A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 3rd series, p. 128. Psa 96:8.—E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 179.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain The two fold testimony of judgment and salvation.
The two fold testimony of judgment and salvation.
The ninety-fifth psalm gives us now the testimony, not yet actually of the Lord coming, but of the need of the obedience to Him, if Israel is to have the security of His care. While at the same time He is celebrated as the God of the whole earth, to whom everything is subject. It is thus, practically, (though neither so wide in its address, nor so definite in its announcement,) the message of the "everlasting gospel" in Rev 14:1-20: "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." That the hour of His judgment is come is not in fact declared: but the next psalm declares it, and for this the present one prepares the way. Israel, however, is alone in view here: the invitation and the warning are distinctly addressed to them.
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1. The psalm opens with the exhortation to sing to Jehovah as the Rock of their salvation; to answer with "confession," of what He is to them, -the word for "thanksgiving" being literally "confession." For Jehovah their God is a great God, and a great King over all that man would exalt to deity. The earth in its depths and heights is then claimed as His and the sea and the dry land. which He has formed. In these last two cases the idea of control seems prominent, and that as necessarily inferred in the fact of His making them.
2. Then they are exhorted again to do Him homage, and His loving relationship to them as their Shepherd is put before them as what may well incite them to this. But there is added as the necessary condition to the continuance of this, "today, if ye will hear His voice! "* Apart from such obedient hearing there could be no walking together, of those not agreed. Grace only fulfills -not sets aside -such conditions.
{* The Masoretic division of the verses is an apparent difficulty but Delitzsch points out that the "if ye will hear His voice" cannot be really the condition of what follows in the next verse, but is the expression of desire for them. It may then be really the condition of what precedes, -that is, of the continuance of it. And this seems to suit well with the character of the psalm as a whole. The use of the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews is not against this, the quotation being from the Septuagint, and the division of the subject no way affecting the purpose of the apostle.}
A sad page of their history is now brought before them, the time of their "strife" with God at Meribah, and "tempting" Him at Massah. And this was but a sample of forty years in which He was grieved by a generation finally cut off in the wilderness for unbelief. They are exhorted not to harden their hearts as did their fathers, when they tempted and proved God, and saw His work, -found Him alike faithful in His promises and in His threatenings. And now the rest of God is so near at hand, and in proportion to the blessedness of all implied in it, is the awful irremediable ruin of being cut off from it.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain This Ps. (the 'Venite,' 'Invitatory Psalm') consists of a…
This Ps. (the 'Venite,' 'Invitatory Psalm') consists of a call to praise God as King, as the Creator of the world, and the Shepherd of His people (Psa_95:1-7), followed by a warning against unbelief, drawn from the fate of the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness (Psa_95:7-11). There is nothing to mark its date, but like the other Pss. of the same group it may be referred to the days of the return from Babylon.
4. Strength of the hills] RV 'heights of the mountains.'
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7. If ye will] RV 'Oh that ye would.'
8. In the provocation] RV 'at Meribah' (Num_20:13). Temptation] RV 'Massah' (Exo_17:7).
7-11. These vv. are quoted in Heb_3:7-11, and are the basis of the argument that follows.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Psalm 95
Psalm 95
In Anticipation of His Coming
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1. Singing unto Him? (Psa 95:1-5)
2. Let us worship and bow down (Psa 95:6-11)
It is a call to Israel in anticipation of the soon appearing of the expected Saviour-King. The next Psalm will show that He has come. How are they, His people, to welcome Him? With singing, with confession (this is the literal translation of thanksgiving in Psa 95:2), with worship and prostration. And there is the warning now not to harden their hearts, not be like their fathers who could not enter into His rest. His people must welcome Him as a willing, as an obedient people and such will be the humble remnant, having passed through the gracious discipline of the tribulation days. The end verses are quoted in Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-16.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Admonition to Praise Jehovah and Hear His Word.
Admonition to Praise Jehovah and Hear His Word.
By comparing verse 8 of this psalm with Heb 4:7, we find that it should be ascribed to David, either written by him personally or by one of his singers.
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v. 1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, this appeal sounding again and again in Scripture on account of the natural inertia and sluggishness of men; let us make a joyful noise, in the highest exultation, to the Rock of our salvation.
v. 2. Let us come before His presence, literally, "before His face," to His holy Sanctuary, with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms, hymns setting forth His wonderful attributes.
v. 3. For the Lord is a great God, occupying a position of unique grandeur in this respect, and a great King above all gods, the idols falsely called gods by the heathen.
v. 4. In His hand, by virtue of His essential creative power and omnipotence, are the deep places of the earth, the very depths of the ocean; the strength of the hills, the summits of the highest mountains, is His also, under His absolute government.
v. 5. The sea is His, and He made it, the mighty ocean being a creature of His hand; and His hands formed the dry land, Gen 1:9-10. His alone is the majesty of creative omnipotence and the government of the universe.
v. 6. O come, let us worship and bow down, in humble adoration; let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, to whom we also owe our being, life, and breath.
v. 7. For He is our God, the emphasis being both upon "He" and upon "our"; and we are the people of His pasture, the flock nourished by Him, through His Word, and the sheep of His hand, the flock guided and protected by His almighty hand. Today, if ye will hear His voice, the admonition calling upon all men to decide in favor of the Lord and His Word,
v. 8. harden not your heart, as in the provocation, when the children of Israel contended with the Lord in the wilderness, at Meribah and Massah, Exo 17:7, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when the conduct of the Israelites tested out the Lord’s long-suffering and patience;
v. 9. when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work, this summarizing the Lord’s complaint, Num 14:22.
v. 10. Forty years long, during the entire wilderness journey, was I grieved with this generation, vexed with the people whom He had chosen, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, deliberately following the way of error and sin, and they have not known My ways, they refused to accept the Lord’s precepts governing their conduct;
v. 11. unto whom I sware in My wrath, a section of this solemn oath of Jehovah being quoted here, that they should not enter into My rest. Cf Num 14:30. It was an emphatic declaration, supported by His oath, and it resulted in the death of all those who were above the age of forty at the time of the exodus from Egypt. As far as we Christians are concerned, Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:13 is, in effect, an application of this psalm to the condition in the Church of God at all times, a most searching passage, which we shall do well to heed in these last days of general apostasy.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the rock of our salvation
The psalmist speaks of Yahweh as if Yahweh were a mountain the people could climb so they would be safe. See how "rock" and "of my salvation" are translated in Psalms 18:46. AT: "the rock where we can go and God will save us" (See: Metaphor)
enter his presence
The psalmist speaks as if he is telling the readers to go into the throne room of a king. AT: "go to where he is" (See: Metaphor)
with thanksgiving
"thanking him as we enter his presence"
superior to all gods
Possible meanings are that Yahweh is a great king 1) "who rules over all other gods," or 2) "who is much better than all gods."
translationWords
Yahweh
joy
save
psalm
praise
God
king
false god
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ps 95 This call to worship urges the people…
Ps 95 This call to worship urges the people to respond to the Lord, the Shepherd, and to follow him faithfully. The previous generation, who refused to obey, did not receive the blessings of the Promised Land.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.