Exodus 17:7(v8)He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is…
Hebrews 4:3(v11)For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although…
Hebrews 3:8-9(v8)don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried…
Hebrews 4:7(v7)he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his…
Hebrews 3:15(v7)while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.”
Show all 76 cross-references
Revelation 3:20(v7)Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and…
Numbers 20:13(v8)These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.
Numbers 14:11(v8)Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have…
Numbers 14:23(v11)surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.
Hebrews 3:11(v11)As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ”
Hebrews 4:5(v11)and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
Numbers 14:22(vv8–9)because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten…
Hebrews 3:15-19(v8)while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” For who, when they heard, rebelled?…
Psalms 48:14(v7)For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.
Hebrews 3:7-11(v7)Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the…
Hebrews 3:18(v11)To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
Deuteronomy 6:16(v8)You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
1 Samuel 6:6(v8)Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t…
Hebrews 3:17(v10)With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
John 10:14-16(v7)I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for…
1 Peter 2:25(v7)For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Psalms 74:1(v7)God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Jeremiah 6:16(v11)Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for…
Matthew 11:28-29(v11)“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am…
Romans 2:5(v8)But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
Hebrews 12:25(v8)See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we…
Deuteronomy 1:34-35(vv8, 11)Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the…
Exodus 15:2(v7)Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Psalms 23:1(v7)Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.
Proverbs 1:22-29(v10)“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? Turn…
Ezekiel 34:30-31(v7)They will know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh. You my…
Acts 20:28(v7)Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the…
1 Corinthians 10:9(v9)Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
Hebrews 3:9-10(v10)where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said,…
Deuteronomy 12:9(v11)for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you.
Psalms 79:13–80:1(v7)So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations. Hear us,…
Psalms 100:3(v7)Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 40:10-11(v7)Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before…
Jude 1:5(v8)Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward…
Hebrews 3:13(vv7–8)but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Exodus 17:2(v8)Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you…
Numbers 14:28-30(v11)Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you. Your dead bodies shall fall in this…
Psalms 78:56(v9)Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
Psalms 115:3(v7)But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
Isaiah 63:17(v10)O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your…
Matthew 3:2-3(v7)“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in…
Matthew 17:5(v7)While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved…
Acts 13:18(v10)For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
Acts 19:9(v8)But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the…
Hebrews 11:16(v7)But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has…
Revelation 14:13(v11)I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they…
Exodus 8:15(v8)But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
Exodus 20:2(v7)“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Numbers 14:27(v8)“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which…
Numbers 32:13(v10)Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation who…
Deuteronomy 2:14-16(v10)The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years: until all the generation of…
Psalms 78:17-18(v9)Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert. They tempted God in their heart by asking food…
Psalms 78:40-41(v9)How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert! They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the…
Proverbs 1:7(v10)The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
Jeremiah 9:6(v10)Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 31:33(v7)“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward…
Daniel 5:20(v8)But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they…
Acts 7:36(v10)This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
Genesis 6:6(v10)Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
Numbers 14:33-34(v10)Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in…
Deuteronomy 1:3(v10)In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that…
Psalms 67:6(v7)The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.
Isaiah 55:3(v7)Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Matthew 11:20-22(v9)Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin!…
John 10:3-4(v7)The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. Whenever he…
John 15:24(v9)If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and…
Romans 1:28(v10)Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Ephesians 4:30(v10)Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Genesis 2:2-3(v11)On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God…
Proverbs 8:6(v7)Hear, for I will speak excellent things. The opening of my lips is for right things.
John 3:19-21(v10)This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.…
76 distinct cross-references across this passage (79 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7–117 Because he is our God While it is…
7 Because he is our God While it is true that all men were created to praise God, there are reasons why the Church is specially said to have been formed for that end, (Isaiah 61:3.) The Psalmist was entitled to require this service more particularly from the hands of his chosen people. This is the reason why he impresses upon the children of Abraham the invaluable privilege which God had conferred upon them in taking them under his protection. God may indeed be said in a sense to have done so much for all mankind. But when asserted to be the Shepherd of the Church, more is meant than that he favors her with the common nourishment, support, and government which he extends promiscuously to the whole human family; he is so called because he separates her from the rest of the world, and cherishes her with a peculiar and fatherly regard. His people are here spoken of accordingly as the people of his pastures, whom he watches over with peculiar care, and loads with blessings of every kind. The passage might have run more clearly had the Psalmist called them the flock of his pastures, and the people of his hand; or, had he added merely — and his flock — the figure might have been brought out more consistently and plainly. But his object was less elegancy of expression than pressing upon the people a sense of the inestimable favor conferred upon them in their adoption, by virtue of which they were called to live under the faithful guardianship of God, and to the enjoyment of every species of blessings. They are called the flock of his hand, not so much because formed by his hand as because governed by it, or, to use a French expression, le Troupeau de sa conduite. The point which some have given to the expression, as if it intimated how intent God was upon feeding his people, doing it himself, and not employing hired shepherds, may scarcely perhaps be borne out by the words in their genuine meaning; but it cannot be doubted that the Psalmist would express the very gracious and familiar kind of guidance which was enjoyed by this one nation at that time. Not that God dispensed with human agency, intrusting the care of the people as he did to priests, prophets, and judges, and latterly to kings. No more is meant than that in discharging the office of shepherd to this people, he exercised a superintendence over them different from that common providence which extends to the rest of the world.
To-day, if you will hear his voice According to the Hebrew expositors, this is a conditional clause standing connected with the preceding sentence; by which interpretation the Psalmist must be considered as warning the people that they would only retain possession of their privilege and distinction so long as they continued to obey God. The Greek version joins it with the verse that follows — to-day, if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, and it reads well in this connection. Should we adopt the distribution of the Hebrew expositors, the Psalmist seems to say that the posterity of Abraham were the flock of God’s hand, inasmuch as he had placed his Law in the midst of them, which was, as it were, his crook, and had thus showed himself to be their shepherd. The Hebrew particle אם, im, which has been rendered if, would in that case be rather expositive than conditional, and might be rendered when, the words denoting it to be the great distinction between the Jews and the surrounding nations, that God had directed his voice to the former, as it is frequently noticed he had not done to the latter, (Psalm 147:20; Deuteronomy 4:6, 7.) Moses had declared this to constitute the ground of their superiority to other people, saying, “What nation is there under heaven which hath its gods so nigh unto it?” The inspired writers borrow frequently from Moses, as is well known, and the Psalmist, by the expression to-day, intimates how emphatically the Jews, in hearing God’s voice, were his people, for the proof was not far off, it consisted in something which was present and before their eyes. He bids them recognize God as their shepherd, inasmuch as they heard his voice; and it was an instance of his singular grace that he had addressed them in such a condescending and familiar manner. Some take the adverb to be one of exhortation, and read, I would that they would hear my voice, but this does violence to the words. The passage runs well taken in the other meaning we have assigned to it. Since they had a constant opportunity of hearing the voice of God — since he gave them not only one proof of the care he had over them as shepherd, or yearly proof of it, but a continual exemplification of it, there could be no doubt that the Jews were chosen to be his flock.
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 10, 11That is, the flock, whom he governeth with his…
That is, the flock, whom he governeth with his own hand. He showeth wherein they are God’s flock, that is, if they hear his voice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Psa 95:7 For he [is] our God; and we…
Psa 95:7 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,
Ver. 7. The people of his pasture] Whom he turns not out into commons and fallows, but feeds among lilies, Son 2:16.
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And the sheep of his hand] His cades brought up at hand, eating of his meat and drinking of his cup, and lying in his bosom, as Uriah’s ewe lamb did, 2Sa 12:3.
Today if ye will hear his voice] i.e. While the day of grace lasteth, which is not long, 2Co 6:2. Qui paenitenti veniam spospondit, peccanti crastinum non promisit, saith Gregory.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Our God, in a peculiar manner; and therefore it…
Our God, in a peculiar manner; and therefore it will be most unreasonable and abominable for us to forsake him, when the Gentiles submit to his law. The people of his pasture; whom he feedeth and keepeth in his own proper pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself.
The sheep of his hand; which are under his special care and conduct, or government; which is oft expressed by the hand, as Num 4:28; 31:49; Jdg 9:29.
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Today, i.e. forthwith or presently, as this word is used, Deu 4:4,8; 27:9; Jos 22:16,18, &c. Or, this day; in this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets. And this word, though belonging to the following clause, as appears from Heb 3:7, may seem to be thus placed, to show that it had some respect to the foregoing words also. For the sense of the place may be this, We (Jews) are or shall be the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand; God will still own us for his people this day, i.e. in the days of the Messiah, if this day or in that time we shall hear his voice. Otherwise God will reject us, and receive the Gentiles in our stead.
If ye will hear his voice; if you will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands; which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that God’s presence and favour was not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but was suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which if they violated they should be rejected, and the Gentiles performing it should be received to his mercy. And this clause may be connected either,
1. With the former words, as the condition of their interest in God as their God, as was now said. Or,
2. With the following verse; If you are willing to hearken to God’s call delivered by his Son, take the following counsel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v7The latter part of this psalm, which begins in…
The latter part of this psalm, which begins in the middle of a verse, is an exhortation to those who sing gospel psalms to live gospel lives, and to hear the voice of God's word; otherwise, how can they expect that he should hear the voice of their prayers and praises? Observe,
I. The duty required of all those that are the people of Christ's pasture and the sheep of his hand. He expects that they hear his voice, for he has said, My sheep hear my voice, Joh 10:27. We are his people, say they. Are you so? Then hear his voice. If you call him Master, or Lord, then do the things which he says, and be his willing obedient people. Hear the voice of his doctrine, of his law, and, in both, of his Spirit; hear and heed; hear and yield. Hear his voice, and not the voice of a stranger. If you will hear his voice; some take it as a wish, O that you would hear his voice! that you would be so wise, and do so well for yourselves; like that, If thou hadst known (Luk 19:42), that is, O that thou hadst known! Christ's voice must be heard today; this the apostle lays much stress upon, applying it to the gospel day. While he is speaking to you see that you attend to him, for this day of your opportunities will not last always; improve it, therefore, while it is called today, Heb 3:13, Heb 3:15. Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. Today, if by faith you accept the gospel offer, well and good, but tomorrow it may be too late. In a matter of such vast importance nothing is more dangerous than delay.
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II. The sin they are warned against, as inconsistent with the believing obedient ear required, and that is hardness of heart. If you will hear his voice, and profit by what you hear, then do not harden your hearts; for the seed sown on the rock never brought any fruit to perfection. The Jews therefore believed not the gospel of Christ because their hearts were hardened; they were not convinced of the evil of sin, and of their danger by reason of sin, and therefore they regarded not the offer of salvation; they would not bend to the yoke of Christ, nor yield to his demands; and, if the sinner's heart be hardened, it is his own act and deed (he hardening it himself) and he alone shall bear the blame for ever.
III. The example they are warned by, which is that of the Israelites in the wilderness.
1. "Take heed of sinning as they did, lest you be shut out of the everlasting rest as they were out of Canaan." Be not, as your fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, Psa 78:8. Thus here, Harden not your heart as you did (that is, your ancestors) in the provocation, or in Meribah, the place where they quarrelled with God and Moses (Exo 17:2-7), and in the day of temptation in the wilderness, Psa 95:8. So often did they provoke God by their distrusts and murmurings that the whole time of their continuance in the wilderness might be called a day of temptation, or Massah, the other name given to that place (Exo 17:7), because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or is he not? This was in the wilderness, where they could not help themselves, but lay at God's mercy, and where God wonderfully helped them and gave them such sensible proofs of his power and tokens of his favour as never any people had before or since. Note, (1.) Days of temptation are days of provocation. Nothing is more offensive to God than disbelief of his promise and despair of the performance of it because of some difficulties that seem to lie in the way. (2.) 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, where we live upon him! This is as ungrateful as it is absurd and unreasonable. (3.) 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. (4.) The sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition, Co1 10:11.
2. Now here observe,
(1.) The charge drawn up, in God's name, against the unbelieving Israelites, Psa 95:9, Psa 95:10. God here, many ages after, complains of their ill conduct towards him, with the expressions of high resentment. [1.] Their sin was unbelief: they tempted God and proved him; they questioned whether they might take his word, and insisted upon further security before they would go forward to Canaan, by sending spies; and, when those discouraged them, they protested against the sufficiency of the divine power and promise, and would make a captain and return into Egypt, Num 14:3, Num 14:4. This is called rebellion, Deu 1:26, Deu 1:32. [2.] The aggravation of this sin was that they saw God's work; they saw what he had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt, nay, what he was now doing for them every day, this day, in the bread he rained from heaven for them and the water out of the rock that followed them, than which they could not have more unquestionable evidences of God's presence with them. With them even seeing was not believing, because they hardened their hearts, though they had seen what Pharaoh got by hardening his heart. [3.] The causes of their sin. See what God imputed it to: It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. Men's unbelief and distrust of God, their murmurings and quarrels with him, are the effect of their ignorance and mistake. First, Of their ignorance: They have not known my ways. They saw his work (Psa 95:9) and he made known his acts to them (Psa 103:7); and yet they did not know his ways, the ways of his providence, in which he walked towards them, or the ways of his commandments, in which he would have them to walk towards him: they did not know, they did not rightly understand and therefore did not approve of these. Note, The reason why people slight and forsake the ways of God is because they do not know them. Secondly, Of their mistake: They do err in their heart; they wander out of the way; in heart they turn back. Note, Sins are errors, practical errors, errors in heart; such there are, and as fatal as errors in the head. When the corrupt affections pervert the judgment, and so lead the soul out of the ways of duty and obedience, there is an error of the heart. [4.] God's resentment of their sin: Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. Not, The sins of God's professing people do not only anger him, but grieve him, especially their distrust of him; and God keeps an account how often (Num 14:22) and how long they grieve him. See the patience of God towards provoking sinners; he was grieved with them forty years, and yet those years ended in a triumphant entrance into Canaan made by the next generation. If our sins have grieved God, surely they should grieve us, and nothing in sin should grieve us so much as that.
(2.) The sentence passed upon them for their sin (Psa 95:11): "Unto whom I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest, then say I am changeable and untrue:" see the sentence at large, Num 14:21, etc. Observe, [1.] Whence this sentence came - from the wrath of God. He swore solemnly in his wrath, his just and holy wrath; but let not men therefore swear profanely in their wrath, their sinful brutish wrath. God is not subject to such passions as we are; but he is said to be angry, very angry, at sin and sinners, to show the malignity of sin and the justice of God's government. That is certainly an evil thing which deserves such a recompence of revenge as may be expected from a provoked Deity. [2.] What it was: That they should not enter into his rest, the rest which he had prepared and designed for them, a settlement for them and theirs, that none of those who were enrolled when they came out of Egypt should be found written in the roll of the living at their entering into Canaan, but Caleb and Joshua. [3.] How it was ratified: I swore it. It was not only a purpose, but a decree; the oath showed the immutability of his counsel; the Lord swore, and will not repent. It cut off the thought of any reserve of mercy. God's threatenings are as sure as his promises.
Now this case of Israel may be applied to those of their posterity that lived in David's time, when this psalm was penned; let them hear God's voice, and not harden their hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were stiffnecked like them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges of his temple at Jerusalem, of which he had said, This is my rest. But it must be applied to us Christians, because so the apostle applies it. There is a spiritual and eternal rest set before us, and promised to us, of which Canaan was a type; we are all (in profession, at least) bound for this rest; yet many that seem to be so come short and shall never enter into it. And what is it that puts a bar in their door? It is sin; it is unbelief, that sin against the remedy, against our appeal. Those that, like Israel, distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer the garlick and onions of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will justly be shut out from his rest: so shall their doom be; they themselves have decided it. Let us therefore fear, Heb 4:1.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–11For he is our God,.... God over all, blessed…
For he is our God,.... God over all, blessed for ever, truly and properly God, and therefore to be worshipped: "our God"; in whom we have interest, who became our head and surety in covenant; took upon him our nature, is our "Immanuel", God with as, which increases the obligation to worship him; these are the words of New Testament saints:
and we are the people of his pasture; for whom he has provided a good pasture; whom he leads into it, and feeds in it, even by the ministry of the word and ordinances:
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and the sheep of his hand; made and fashioned by his hand, both in a natural and spiritual sense; led and guided by his hand, as a flock by the hand of the shepherd; are in his hand, being put there for safety by his Father; and upheld by it, and preserved in it, and from whence none can pluck them; see Deu 33:3 receiving such favours from him, he ought to be worshipped by them. The Heathens had a deity they called Pan, whom they make to be a keeper of sheep (e); and some Christian writers have thought that Christ the chief Shepherd is meant; since, when the Heathen oracles ceased, after the coming and death of Christ, a voice is (f) said to be heard at a certain place, "the great Pan is dead: today, if ye will hear his voice"; the voice of the Shepherd, the voice of God, says Aben Ezra, his Word, as the Targum; the voice of the Messiah, both his perceptive voice, his commands and ordinances, which ought to be hearkened to and obeyed; and the voice of his Gospel, and the doctrines of it; which is to be heard not only externally, but internally: when it is heard as to be understood, to be approved of and believed, and to be distinguished; so as to have a spiritual and experimental knowledge of it; to feel the power and efficacy of it, and practically attend to it; it is an evidence of being the sheep of Christ; see Joh 10:4, where the sheep are said to know the voice of the shepherd, and not that of a stranger; of which Polybius (g) gives a remarkable instance in the goats of the island of Cyrnon, who will flee from strangers, but, as soon as the keeper sounds his trumpet, they will run to him: though the words may be connected with what follows, as they are in Heb 3:7, where they are said to be the words of the Holy Ghost, and are applied to times, and are interpreted of the voice of the Son of God in his house; for though it may refer to some certain day in David's time, as the seventh day sabbath, in which the voice of God might be heard, the word of God read and explained; and in Gospel times, as the Lord's day, in which Christ speaks by his ministers; and to the whole time of a man's life, which is called "while it is today", Heb 3:13, yet it chiefly respects the whole day of the Gospel, the whole Gospel dispensation, Co2 6:2.
(e) "Pan ovium custos----" Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. v. 17. "Pana deum pecoris veteres coluisse feruntur", Ovid. Fasti, l. 2. (f) Plutarch. de orac. defect. p. 419. (g) Hist. l. 12. in principio.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his…
Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself. The sheep - Which are under his special care. Today - Forthwith or presently.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9, 10Verse 7. For he is our God] Here is…
Verse 7. For he is our God] Here is the reason for this service. He has condescended to enter into a covenant with us, and he has taken us for his own; therefore -
We are the people of his pasture] Or, rather, as the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and AEthiopic read, "We are his people, and the sheep of the pasture of his hand." We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us.
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To-day if ye will hear his voice] To-day-you have no time to lose; to-morrow may be too late. God calls to-day; to-morrow he may be silent. This should commence the eighth verse, as it begins what is supposed to be the part of the priest or prophet who now exhorts the people; as if he had said: Seeing you are in so good a spirit, do not forget your own resolutions, and harden not your hearts, "as your fathers did in Meribah and Massah, in the wilderness;" the same fact and the same names as are mentioned Ex 17:7; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 10, 11Psa 95:7. For he is our God — He…
Psa 95:7. For he is our God — He not only has dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in a special relation to us. He is our God in a peculiar sense, and therefore it would be most unreasonable and wicked if we should forsake him, when even the Gentiles shall submit to his law. And we are the people of his pasture — Whom he feeds in his church, with his word and by his ordinances, and defends by his watchful providence. And the sheep of his hand — Under his special care and government. To-day — That is, forthwith, or presently, as this word is often used. Or the expression may mean this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets; if ye will hear his voice — If ye will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands, which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that God’s presence and favour were not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but were suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which, if they violated, they should be rejected, and the Gentiles, performing it, should be received for his people. And this clause may be connected with the preceding, and considered as expressing the condition of their interest in God as their God, thus: “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, &c., if ye will hear his voice;” that is, if ye will be his obedient people he will continue to be your God. Or else the word אם, im, translated if, may be rendered in the optative form, O that you would hear his voice to-day, saying unto you, Harden not your hearts. “However this be,” says Dr. Horne, “what follows, to the end of the Psalm, is undoubtedly spoken in the person of God himself, who may be considered as addressing us, in these latter days, by the gospel of his Son; for so the apostle teaches us to apply the whole passage, Heb 3:4. The Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, had a day of probation, and a promised rest to succeed it; but by unbelief and disobedience, they to whom it was promised, that is, the generation of those who came out of Egypt, fell short of it, and died in the wilderness. The gospel, in like manner, offers, both to Jew and Gentile, another day of probation in this world, and another promised rest to succeed it, which remaineth for the people of God in heaven. All whom it concerns are, therefore, exhorted to beware, lest they forfeit the second rest, as murmuring and rebellious Israel came short of the first.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–11For he is our God - Not only the…
For he is our God - Not only the God whom we worship as the true God, but One who has revealed himself to us as our God. We worship him as God - as entitled to praise and adoration because he is the true God; we worship him also as sustaining the relation of God to us, or because we recognize him as our God, and because he has manifested himself as ours.
And we are the people of his pasture - whom he has recognized as his flock; to whom he sustains the relation of shepherd; who feeds and protects us as the shepherd does his flock. See the notes at Psa 79:13; compare Psa 23:1-3.
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And the sheep of his hand - The flock that is guided and fed by his hand.
To day if ye will hear his voice - His voice calling you; commanding you; inviting you; encouraging you. See this passage explained in the notes at Heb 3:7-11. The word “today” here means “the present time;” now. The idea is, that the purpose to obey should not be deferred until tomorrow; should not be put off to the future. The commands of God should be obeyed at once; the purpose should be executed immediately. All God’s commands relate to the present. He gives us none for the future; and a true purpose to obey God exists only where there is a willingness to obey “now,” “today;” and can exist only then. A purpose to repent at some future time, to give up the world at some future time, to embrace the Gospel at some future time, is “no obedience,” for there is no such command addressed to us. A resolution to put off repentance and faith, to defer attention to religion until some future time, is real disobedience - and often the worst form of disobedience - for it is directly in the face of the command of God. “If ye will hear.” That is, If there is a disposition or willingness to obey his voice at all; or, to listen to his commands. See the notes at Heb 3:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–117. For he is our God—The reasons for this…
7. For he is our God—The reasons for this lively, willing, and unreserved devotion were, in Psa_95:3-5, drawn from the greatness of God as creator and governor of the world. In Psa_95:6-7 the motives appeal more directly to the heart and the moral feelings. He is “our God,” “our Maker,” and we are his “people,” his “sheep.”
Sheep of his hand—That is, we are guided, cared for, and protected by “his hand,” his personal attention. Psalm 77:21; Psa_100:3; Psa_23:3-4.
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Today—The “to-day,” or this day, indicates that a decisive moment, a crisis, had come. So the apostle applies it (Heb_3:7-11) to the Jews of his day, who stood, with reference to the gospel, as the Hebrews at Kadesh did in reference to Canaan. Thus it applies to every sinner each moment of his probation. “Hereby is meant the whole time by which Christ speaketh by his gospel.”—Ainsworth.
If ye will hear his voice—Taking the conjunction here in its conditional sense, the apodosis, or concluding clause, seems obscure. Hengstenberg supplies it by reading: “‘If ye will hear his voice,’ he will bless you, his people.” This accords with the passage (Exo_23:22,) “If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” But it equally answers the grammatical and doctrinal demand to supply, as the sense implies, אן, (then, on this account,) after “voice,” and read: “To day, if ye will hear his voice, [then] harden not your hearts.” The hearing implies heeding—hearing with a view to obeying—which is impossible while unbelief hardens the heart and perverts the will. The conditioning protasis does not anticipate a promissory apodosis, but a caution; not the blessings which flow upon hearing, but the moral preparation implied in obedient hearing.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–117. our God] P. B.V. the Lord our God,…
7. our God] P. B.V. the Lord our God, from the Vulg.
the people &c.] The people whom He shepherds, the flock which is His own especial charge. Cp. Psa_74:1, note.
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To day if ye will hear &c.] The A.V. follows the LXX in taking this clause as the protasis to Psa_95:8. But here the Psalmist is still speaking (‘his voice’), while in Psa_95:8 God speaks; and it is better to take it as a wish, Oh that to-day ye would hearken to his voice! Cp. Deu_5:29. As the Psalmist recalls God’s care for His people in the wilderness, He cannot forget their thankless disobedience, and the earnest wish springs to his lips that this generation may not repeat the sin of their forefathers. This wish leads up naturally to the solemn warning of Psa_95:8-11. To day is emphatic, and has a special significance if the Psalm was sung at the Dedication of the Second Temple: now, in contrast to that former time; now, when Jehovah has visibly manifested His goodness; now, while the door of opportunity lies open before you. His voice is not merely the words which follow, but all His message. Cp. Deu_4:30.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–11(7) To-day if . . .—In joining this clause…
(7) To-day if . . .—In joining this clause with Psa_95:8-9 the Authorised Version follows the LXX. The Masoretic text connects it with the preceding part of the verse, and there seems no good reason for departing from that arrangement. Indeed, the change from the third person, “his voice,” to the first, “tempted me,” in the same sentence is intolerable even in Hebrew poetry. Nor is there any necessity to suppose the loss of a line. Render: “For He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. Today would that ye would hearken to his voice.” The Oriental custom of leading flocks by the voice is doubtless alluded to, as in Joh_10:4. Notice the resemblance in Psa_95:6-7 to Psa_100:3-4.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–11For he is our God. A second, and a…
For he is our God. A second, and a more urgent, reason for worshipping God. Not only is he a "great God" (ver. 3), but he is also our God our own God brought into the closest personal relationship with us. And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (comp. Psa_74:1 Psa_79:13 Psa_80:1, etc.) We are led by him, tended by him, fed by him, folded by him. We owe everything to his shepherding.
Vers. 7b-11. The warning against waywardness. This is delivered in four, or rather four and a half, verses, and commences with the words, "Today if ye will hear his voice.
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Today. This word, standing prominently forward as it does, is a startling call, intimating that the time is come for a momentous decision. If ye will hear his voice. God is crying to his people will they hear, or will they forbear? If the former, all will go well; if the latter, than assuredly they shall not enter into his rest. The "voice" intended proceeds to give the warning of vers. 8-11.
Our moral relations with God.
"People of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." Some writers try to amend this sentence, because the poetical figure seems complicated. It is much better to leave it in its poetical suggestiveness. It indicates familiarity with Eastern shepherding. The shepherd lives with his flock day and night; feels for them a personal affection; tends them in all their times of need with his own hands. So the Eastern sheep and shepherd figures, for God and his people, are stronger and more suggestive than we can realize if we keep ourselves to Western shepherd associations. In so carefully putting people into one sentence, and sheep into the other, the psalmist reminds us that God"s sheep are moral beings, and the mere physical relations of shepherds to their sheep do but represent and illustrate the moral relations in which God stands to his people as moral beings. So we rise into a sphere in which we need the help of another figure that of the father and his family. The "Lord our Maker" here brings God before us as the Universal Creator; and as the Founder of the Israelite nation.
I OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR CHARACTERS. Illustrate from the shepherd"s estimate of each sheep. But the end at which the shepherd aims is health, fatness. The end at which God aims is cultured, developed, perfected character. And this is the Divine aim for every man, and the Divine work in every man. If we can see the issue more plainly reached in some men than in others, this need not dim our confidence that the work is going on in all.
II OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR MOODS. For no man can study human nature without observing that men are constantly acting, on occasion, out of harmony with their characters. The difficulty of dealing wisely with children lies in their occasional strange lapses and oddities. God bears shepherd-like relation to the odd moods of his moral beings.
III OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR SINS. This brings us into a very familiar field, and opens to view the redeeming and sanctifying work of God. These moral relations of God to us are the real reason why we should "worship and bow down. R.T.
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. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv7–11Ver. 7. For he is our God. Here is…
Ver. 7. For he is our God. Here is the master reason for worship. Jehovah has entered into covenant with us, and from all the world beside has chosen us to be his own elect. If others refuse him homage, we at least will render it cheerfully. He is ours, and our God; ours, therefore will we love him; our God, therefore will we worship him. Happy is that man who can sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to himself.
And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. As he belongs to us, so do we belong to him. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." And we are his as the people whom he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not ours, but his; we draw all our supplies from his stores. We are his, even as sheep belong to the shepherd, and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our government, our succour, our source of supply. Israel was led through the desert, and we are led through this life by "that great Shepherd of the sheep." The hand which cleft the sea and brought water from the rock is still with us, working equal wonders. Can we refuse to "worship and bow down" when we clearly see that "this God is our God for ever and ever, and will be our guide, even unto death"?
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But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one whir the less required by ourselves. The favoured nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice": will this turn out to be our character also? God forbid.
To day if ye will hear his voice. Dreadful "if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God." Today, "in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limiteth a certain day, "he presses for immediate attention, for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Ghost saith "Today, "will we grieve him by delay?
Ver. 7. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. See how elegantly he hath transposed the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to be "the sheep", who are also "the people." He said not, the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his hand; which might be thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the pasture; but he said, "the people of his pasture": the people themselves are sheep. But again, since we have sheep which we buy, not which we create; and he had said above, "Let us fall down before our Maker"; it is rightly said, "the sheep of his hand." No man maketh for himself sheep, he may buy them, they may be given, he may find them, he may collect them, lastly he may steal them; make them he cannot. But our Lord made us; therefore "the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand", are the very sheep which he hath deigned by his grace to create unto himself. Augustine.
Ver. 7. The sheep of his hand, is a fit though figurative expression, the shepherd that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it by his hand, which manages the rod and staff (Ps 23:4), by which they are administered. The Jewish Arabs read, the people of his feeding or, flock, and the sheep of his guidance. H. Hammond.
Ver. 7. For we are his people whom he feeds in his pastures, and his sheep whom he leads as by his hand. (French Version.) Here is a reason to constrain us to praise God; it is this, that not only has he created us, but that he also directs us by special providence, as a shepherd governs his flock. Jesus Christ, Divine Shepherd of our souls, who not only feeds us in his pastures, but himself leads us with his hand, as intelligent sheep. Loving Shepherd, who feeds us not only from the pastures of Holy Wilt, but even with his own flesh. What subjects of ceaseless adoration for a soul penetrated by these great verities! What a fountain of tears of joy at the sight of such prodigious mercy! Quesnel.
Ver. 7. Today if ye will hear his voice. If we put of repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. W. Mason.
Ver. 7. He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hath not promised to preserve our lives till we repent. Francis Quarles.
Ver. 7. You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late. Thomas Fuller.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. Oh! what an if is here! what a reproach is here to those that hear him not! "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"; "but ye will not come to me that ye might have life." And yet there is mercy, there is still salvation, if ye will hear that voice. Israel heard it among the thunders of Sinai, "which voice they that heard it entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more"; so terrible was the sight and sound that even Moses said, "I exceedingly quake and fear": and yet they heard too the Lord's still voice of love in the noiseless manna that fell around their tents, and in the gushing waters of the rock that followed them through every march for forty years. Yet the record of Israel's ingratitude runs side by side with the record of God's mercies"My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me." Barton Bouchier.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. And yet, as S. Bernard tells us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing it; on the contrary, the difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is it in enunciation, so constant in appeal. Yet there are many who do not hear, from divers causes; because they are far off; because they are deaf; because they sleep; because they turn their heads aside; because they stop their ears; because they hurry away to avoid hearing; because they are dead; all of them topics of various forms and degrees of unbelief. Bernard and Hugo Cardinalis, in Neale and Littledale.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. These words seem to allude to the preceding words, in which we are represented as the sheep of God's pasture, and are to be considered as an affectionate call of our heavenly Shepherd to follow and obey him. From "Lectures on the Liturgy, from the Commentary of Peter Waldo", 1821.
Ver. 7-8. It will be as difficult, nay, more difficult, to come to Christ tomorrow, than it is today: therefore today hear his voice, and harden not your heart. Break the ice now, and by faith venture upon your present duty, wherever it lies; do what you are now called to. You will never know how easy the yoke of Christ is, till it is bound about your necks, nor how light his burden is, till you have taken it up. While you judge of holiness at a distance, as a thing without you and contrary to you, you will never like it. Come a little nearer to it; do but take it in, actually engage in it, and you will find religion carries meat in its mouth; it is of a reviving, nourishing, strengthening nature. It brings that along with it, that enables the soul cheerfully to go through with it. Thomas Cole (1627-1697) in the "Morning Exercises."
Ver. 7. The entreaty of the Holy Ghost.
1. The special voice"the Holy Ghost saith"
(a) In Scripture.
(b) In the hearts of his people.
(c) In the awakened.
(d) By his deeds of grace.
2. A special duty, "hear his voice", instructing, commanding, inviting, promising, threatening.
3. A special time"today." While God speaks, after so long a time, in the day of grace, now, in your present state.
4. The special danger"harden not your hearts", by indifference, unbelief, asking for signs, presumption, worldly pleasures, etc.
Ver. 7. Sinners entreated to hear God's voice. "Hear his voice", because
1. Life is short aud uncertain;
2. You cannot properly or lawfully promise to give what is not your own;
3. If you defer, though but till tomorrow, you must harden your hearts;
4. There is great reason to fear that, if you defer it today, you will never commence;
5. After a time God ceases to strive with sinners;
6. There is nothing irksome or disagreeable in a religious life, that you should wish to defer its commencement.
Edward Payson.
Ver. 7. The Difference of Times with respect to Religion. Upon a spiritual account there is great difference of time. To make this out, I will shew you,
1. That sooner and later are not alike, in respect of eternity.
2. That times of ignorance and of knowledge are not alike.
3. That before and after voluntary commission of known iniquity, are not alike.
4. That before and after contracted naughty habits, are not alike.
5. That the time of God's gracious and particular visitation and the time when God withdraws his gracious presence and assistance, are not alike.
6. The flourishing time of our health and strength, and the hour of sickness, weakness, and approach of death, are not alike.
7. Now and hereafter, present and future, this world and the world to come, are not alike.
Benjamin Whichcot.
Ver. 7. This supposition, If ye will hear, and the consequence inferred thereupon, harden not your hearts, doth evidently demonstrate that a right hearing will prevent hardness of heart; especially hearing of Christ's voice, that is, the gospel. It is the gospel that maketh and keepeth a soft heart. William Gouge.
Psalms 95:8*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 10, 11To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not…
Psa_95:7-8
To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
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To-day
I. The time specified--To-day if ye will hear His voice. This is the uniform time and tense of the Holy Ghosts exhortations. Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord. I command thee this thing today. Son, go work to-day in My vineyard. Therefore, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.
1. To-day is a time of obligation Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord today, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day.
2. Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favoured day, for it is the Lords day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. Today our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that He might declare the justification of His people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore I pray you to seize the golden moments.
3. Remember that it is a time limited (Heb_4:7). To-day will not last for ever; a day is but a day. When days are longest, shadows fall at last and night comes on. The longest life soon wanes into the evening of old age, and old age hastens to the sunset of the tomb.
4. A word of encouragement: it is a time of promise, for when God says to a man, Come to Me at such a time, He by that very word makes an engagement to meet him. He has made no appointment with thee to meet with thee to-morrow, but He has engaged to speak with thee to-day, if thou wilt hear His voice. Never shall one wait and say, like young Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth, without Gods speaking in words of love ere long.
II. The voice to be regarded. His.
1. Remember that the voice of God is the voice of authority. God has a right to speak to you; shall the creature refuse to hear the Creator? Shall those who are nourished and fed by Him turn a deaf ear to the Preserver of men? When He saith to-day, who among us shall dare to say that he will not hearken to-day, but by and by?
2. It is the voice of love. How wooing are its tones!
3. It is the voice of power. Old man, the Holy Ghost saith still, To-day, to-day; and He that saith to-day can make to-day for thee a day of tenderness and melting, till you will be no longer like a stone.
4. It is a pledging voice. When He saith, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, He doth, as it were, covenant that He will be found of you. Listen, then, to His promising voice, His cheering voice; it will cast all unbelieving fear out of you, and drive away Satan better than Davids harp drove the evil spirit out of Saul. God help you so to do.
5. The voice of God should be easy to hear; for the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
III. the evil to be dreaded. Harden not your heart.
1. It will be a serious evil if you do. Under the sound of loves entreaties, within ear-shot of mercys imploring tones, the sinner is hardening his heart. Sad work to harden ones heart against ones own welfare! Shall any man do this and go unpunished? What think you?
2. It is a greater sin in some than in others, for the Scripture quotes the instance of Israel (Heb_3:8). Some of you are the highly privileged as compared with others.
3. This dreadful sin can be committed in a great many ways. Some harden their hearts by a resolution not to feel, some by wishing to wait, some by getting into evil company.
4. This sin will bring with it the most fearful consequences. He sware in His wrath, they shall not enter into My rest! You wish to rest at last, you long to rest even now. But it cannot be till you yield to God. You are not at peace now, and you never will be if you harden your hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sinners entreated to hear Gods voice
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. 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. 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. Every days 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 (6:9,10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviours 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 Gods 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 Gods 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? (E. Payson, D.D.)
Hardening process
In the winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is far past the meridian glory, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a two-fold reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable. In the first place, the frost, with increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods; on the other hand, the genial rays of the sun, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. As long as the sinner remains unconverted, he is under a double process of hardening. The frosts of eternal night are settling down upon his soul, and the Sun of Righteousness is withdrawing His powerful beams for evermore. If grace do not penetrate the heart to-day, there will be less chance of it to-morrow. (R. Venting.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v9Temptation. Psa 106:14; Gen 3:1; Jas 1:2.
tempted
Temptation. Psa 106:14; Gen 3:1; Jas 1:2.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv8, 10General Information:
General Information:
Now the writer writes the words that Yahweh spoke.
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harden your heart
"become stubborn"
Meribah, ... Massah
These are places in the desert that Moses named because the Israelites rebelled against God. (See: How to Translate Names and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
tested me ... tried me
These two phrases are both metaphors for the people seeing how much evil they could do before Yahweh would punish them. The phrases say basically the same thing and can be combined. AT: "tested me" or "wanted to see if they could do evil things without my punishing them ... tested whether I would continue to be patient with them" (See: Metaphor and Doublet)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv8, 9, 1195:8-11 If people want to enter into the Lord’s…
95:8-11 If people want to enter into the Lord’s rest, they need to respond immediately (see Heb 3:7–4:11).
95:8 To harden your hearts means to be stubborn and resist the Lord’s grace (see Num 20:2-13; see also Matt 13:3-23; John 12:37-43; Eph 4:17-32; Heb 3:6-19; 4:6-11).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–11 7 Because he is our God While it is…
7 Because he is our God While it is true that all men were created to praise God, there are reasons why the Church is specially said to have been formed for that end, (Isaiah 61:3.) The Psalmist was entitled to require this service more particularly from the hands of his chosen people. This is the reason why he impresses upon the children of Abraham the invaluable privilege which God had conferred upon them in taking them under his protection. God may indeed be said in a sense to have done so much for all mankind. But when asserted to be the Shepherd of the Church, more is meant than that he favors her with the common nourishment, support, and government which he extends promiscuously to the whole human family; he is so called because he separates her from the rest of the world, and cherishes her with a peculiar and fatherly regard. His people are here spoken of accordingly as the people of his pastures, whom he watches over with peculiar care, and loads with blessings of every kind. The passage might have run more clearly had the Psalmist called them the flock of his pastures, and the people of his hand; or, had he added merely — and his flock — the figure might have been brought out more consistently and plainly. But his object was less elegancy of expression than pressing upon the people a sense of the inestimable favor conferred upon them in their adoption, by virtue of which they were called to live under the faithful guardianship of God, and to the enjoyment of every species of blessings. They are called the flock of his hand, not so much because formed by his hand as because governed by it, or, to use a French expression, le Troupeau de sa conduite. The point which some have given to the expression, as if it intimated how intent God was upon feeding his people, doing it himself, and not employing hired shepherds, may scarcely perhaps be borne out by the words in their genuine meaning; but it cannot be doubted that the Psalmist would express the very gracious and familiar kind of guidance which was enjoyed by this one nation at that time. Not that God dispensed with human agency, intrusting the care of the people as he did to priests, prophets, and judges, and latterly to kings. No more is meant than that in discharging the office of shepherd to this people, he exercised a superintendence over them different from that common providence which extends to the rest of the world.
To-day, if you will hear his voice According to the Hebrew expositors, this is a conditional clause standing connected with the preceding sentence; by which interpretation the Psalmist must be considered as warning the people that they would only retain possession of their privilege and distinction so long as they continued to obey God. The Greek version joins it with the verse that follows — to-day, if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, and it reads well in this connection. Should we adopt the distribution of the Hebrew expositors, the Psalmist seems to say that the posterity of Abraham were the flock of God’s hand, inasmuch as he had placed his Law in the midst of them, which was, as it were, his crook, and had thus showed himself to be their shepherd. The Hebrew particle אם, im, which has been rendered if, would in that case be rather expositive than conditional, and might be rendered when, the words denoting it to be the great distinction between the Jews and the surrounding nations, that God had directed his voice to the former, as it is frequently noticed he had not done to the latter, (Psalm 147:20; Deuteronomy 4:6, 7.) Moses had declared this to constitute the ground of their superiority to other people, saying, “What nation is there under heaven which hath its gods so nigh unto it?” The inspired writers borrow frequently from Moses, as is well known, and the Psalmist, by the expression to-day, intimates how emphatically the Jews, in hearing God’s voice, were his people, for the proof was not far off, it consisted in something which was present and before their eyes. He bids them recognize God as their shepherd, inasmuch as they heard his voice; and it was an instance of his singular grace that he had addressed them in such a condescending and familiar manner. Some take the adverb to be one of exhortation, and read, I would that they would hear my voice, but this does violence to the words. The passage runs well taken in the other meaning we have assigned to it. Since they had a constant opportunity of hearing the voice of God — since he gave them not only one proof of the care he had over them as shepherd, or yearly proof of it, but a continual exemplification of it, there could be no doubt that the Jews were chosen to be his flock.
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 On vv7, 8, 10, 11 That is, the flock, whom he governeth with his…
That is, the flock, whom he governeth with his own hand. He showeth wherein they are God’s flock, that is, if they hear his voice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Psa 95:7 For he [is] our God; and we…
Psa 95:7 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,
Ver. 7. The people of his pasture] Whom he turns not out into commons and fallows, but feeds among lilies, Son 2:16.
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And the sheep of his hand] His cades brought up at hand, eating of his meat and drinking of his cup, and lying in his bosom, as Uriah’s ewe lamb did, 2Sa 12:3.
Today if ye will hear his voice] i.e. While the day of grace lasteth, which is not long, 2Co 6:2. Qui paenitenti veniam spospondit, peccanti crastinum non promisit, saith Gregory.
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 On vv7–11 Our God, in a peculiar manner; and therefore it…
Our God, in a peculiar manner; and therefore it will be most unreasonable and abominable for us to forsake him, when the Gentiles submit to his law. The people of his pasture; whom he feedeth and keepeth in his own proper pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself.
The sheep of his hand; which are under his special care and conduct, or government; which is oft expressed by the hand, as Num 4:28; 31:49; Jdg 9:29.
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Today, i.e. forthwith or presently, as this word is used, Deu 4:4,8; 27:9; Jos 22:16,18, &c. Or, this day; in this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets. And this word, though belonging to the following clause, as appears from Heb 3:7, may seem to be thus placed, to show that it had some respect to the foregoing words also. For the sense of the place may be this, We (Jews) are or shall be the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand; God will still own us for his people this day, i.e. in the days of the Messiah, if this day or in that time we shall hear his voice. Otherwise God will reject us, and receive the Gentiles in our stead.
If ye will hear his voice; if you will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands; which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that God’s presence and favour was not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but was suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which if they violated they should be rejected, and the Gentiles performing it should be received to his mercy. And this clause may be connected either,
1. With the former words, as the condition of their interest in God as their God, as was now said. Or,
2. With the following verse; If you are willing to hearken to God’s call delivered by his Son, take the following counsel.
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 On v7 The latter part of this psalm, which begins in…
The latter part of this psalm, which begins in the middle of a verse, is an exhortation to those who sing gospel psalms to live gospel lives, and to hear the voice of God's word; otherwise, how can they expect that he should hear the voice of their prayers and praises? Observe,
I. The duty required of all those that are the people of Christ's pasture and the sheep of his hand. He expects that they hear his voice, for he has said, My sheep hear my voice, Joh 10:27. We are his people, say they. Are you so? Then hear his voice. If you call him Master, or Lord, then do the things which he says, and be his willing obedient people. Hear the voice of his doctrine, of his law, and, in both, of his Spirit; hear and heed; hear and yield. Hear his voice, and not the voice of a stranger. If you will hear his voice; some take it as a wish, O that you would hear his voice! that you would be so wise, and do so well for yourselves; like that, If thou hadst known (Luk 19:42), that is, O that thou hadst known! Christ's voice must be heard today; this the apostle lays much stress upon, applying it to the gospel day. While he is speaking to you see that you attend to him, for this day of your opportunities will not last always; improve it, therefore, while it is called today, Heb 3:13, Heb 3:15. Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. Today, if by faith you accept the gospel offer, well and good, but tomorrow it may be too late. In a matter of such vast importance nothing is more dangerous than delay.
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II. The sin they are warned against, as inconsistent with the believing obedient ear required, and that is hardness of heart. If you will hear his voice, and profit by what you hear, then do not harden your hearts; for the seed sown on the rock never brought any fruit to perfection. The Jews therefore believed not the gospel of Christ because their hearts were hardened; they were not convinced of the evil of sin, and of their danger by reason of sin, and therefore they regarded not the offer of salvation; they would not bend to the yoke of Christ, nor yield to his demands; and, if the sinner's heart be hardened, it is his own act and deed (he hardening it himself) and he alone shall bear the blame for ever.
III. The example they are warned by, which is that of the Israelites in the wilderness.
1. "Take heed of sinning as they did, lest you be shut out of the everlasting rest as they were out of Canaan." Be not, as your fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, Psa 78:8. Thus here, Harden not your heart as you did (that is, your ancestors) in the provocation, or in Meribah, the place where they quarrelled with God and Moses (Exo 17:2-7), and in the day of temptation in the wilderness, Psa 95:8. So often did they provoke God by their distrusts and murmurings that the whole time of their continuance in the wilderness might be called a day of temptation, or Massah, the other name given to that place (Exo 17:7), because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or is he not? This was in the wilderness, where they could not help themselves, but lay at God's mercy, and where God wonderfully helped them and gave them such sensible proofs of his power and tokens of his favour as never any people had before or since. Note, (1.) Days of temptation are days of provocation. Nothing is more offensive to God than disbelief of his promise and despair of the performance of it because of some difficulties that seem to lie in the way. (2.) 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, where we live upon him! This is as ungrateful as it is absurd and unreasonable. (3.) 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. (4.) The sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition, Co1 10:11.
2. Now here observe,
(1.) The charge drawn up, in God's name, against the unbelieving Israelites, Psa 95:9, Psa 95:10. God here, many ages after, complains of their ill conduct towards him, with the expressions of high resentment. [1.] Their sin was unbelief: they tempted God and proved him; they questioned whether they might take his word, and insisted upon further security before they would go forward to Canaan, by sending spies; and, when those discouraged them, they protested against the sufficiency of the divine power and promise, and would make a captain and return into Egypt, Num 14:3, Num 14:4. This is called rebellion, Deu 1:26, Deu 1:32. [2.] The aggravation of this sin was that they saw God's work; they saw what he had done for them in bringing them out of Egypt, nay, what he was now doing for them every day, this day, in the bread he rained from heaven for them and the water out of the rock that followed them, than which they could not have more unquestionable evidences of God's presence with them. With them even seeing was not believing, because they hardened their hearts, though they had seen what Pharaoh got by hardening his heart. [3.] The causes of their sin. See what God imputed it to: It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. Men's unbelief and distrust of God, their murmurings and quarrels with him, are the effect of their ignorance and mistake. First, Of their ignorance: They have not known my ways. They saw his work (Psa 95:9) and he made known his acts to them (Psa 103:7); and yet they did not know his ways, the ways of his providence, in which he walked towards them, or the ways of his commandments, in which he would have them to walk towards him: they did not know, they did not rightly understand and therefore did not approve of these. Note, The reason why people slight and forsake the ways of God is because they do not know them. Secondly, Of their mistake: They do err in their heart; they wander out of the way; in heart they turn back. Note, Sins are errors, practical errors, errors in heart; such there are, and as fatal as errors in the head. When the corrupt affections pervert the judgment, and so lead the soul out of the ways of duty and obedience, there is an error of the heart. [4.] God's resentment of their sin: Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. Not, The sins of God's professing people do not only anger him, but grieve him, especially their distrust of him; and God keeps an account how often (Num 14:22) and how long they grieve him. See the patience of God towards provoking sinners; he was grieved with them forty years, and yet those years ended in a triumphant entrance into Canaan made by the next generation. If our sins have grieved God, surely they should grieve us, and nothing in sin should grieve us so much as that.
(2.) The sentence passed upon them for their sin (Psa 95:11): "Unto whom I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest, then say I am changeable and untrue:" see the sentence at large, Num 14:21, etc. Observe, [1.] Whence this sentence came - from the wrath of God. He swore solemnly in his wrath, his just and holy wrath; but let not men therefore swear profanely in their wrath, their sinful brutish wrath. God is not subject to such passions as we are; but he is said to be angry, very angry, at sin and sinners, to show the malignity of sin and the justice of God's government. That is certainly an evil thing which deserves such a recompence of revenge as may be expected from a provoked Deity. [2.] What it was: That they should not enter into his rest, the rest which he had prepared and designed for them, a settlement for them and theirs, that none of those who were enrolled when they came out of Egypt should be found written in the roll of the living at their entering into Canaan, but Caleb and Joshua. [3.] How it was ratified: I swore it. It was not only a purpose, but a decree; the oath showed the immutability of his counsel; the Lord swore, and will not repent. It cut off the thought of any reserve of mercy. God's threatenings are as sure as his promises.
Now this case of Israel may be applied to those of their posterity that lived in David's time, when this psalm was penned; let them hear God's voice, and not harden their hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were stiffnecked like them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges of his temple at Jerusalem, of which he had said, This is my rest. But it must be applied to us Christians, because so the apostle applies it. There is a spiritual and eternal rest set before us, and promised to us, of which Canaan was a type; we are all (in profession, at least) bound for this rest; yet many that seem to be so come short and shall never enter into it. And what is it that puts a bar in their door? It is sin; it is unbelief, that sin against the remedy, against our appeal. Those that, like Israel, distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer the garlick and onions of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will justly be shut out from his rest: so shall their doom be; they themselves have decided it. Let us therefore fear, Heb 4:1.
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 On vv7–11 For he is our God,.... God over all, blessed…
For he is our God,.... God over all, blessed for ever, truly and properly God, and therefore to be worshipped: "our God"; in whom we have interest, who became our head and surety in covenant; took upon him our nature, is our "Immanuel", God with as, which increases the obligation to worship him; these are the words of New Testament saints:
and we are the people of his pasture; for whom he has provided a good pasture; whom he leads into it, and feeds in it, even by the ministry of the word and ordinances:
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and the sheep of his hand; made and fashioned by his hand, both in a natural and spiritual sense; led and guided by his hand, as a flock by the hand of the shepherd; are in his hand, being put there for safety by his Father; and upheld by it, and preserved in it, and from whence none can pluck them; see Deu 33:3 receiving such favours from him, he ought to be worshipped by them. The Heathens had a deity they called Pan, whom they make to be a keeper of sheep (e); and some Christian writers have thought that Christ the chief Shepherd is meant; since, when the Heathen oracles ceased, after the coming and death of Christ, a voice is (f) said to be heard at a certain place, "the great Pan is dead: today, if ye will hear his voice"; the voice of the Shepherd, the voice of God, says Aben Ezra, his Word, as the Targum; the voice of the Messiah, both his perceptive voice, his commands and ordinances, which ought to be hearkened to and obeyed; and the voice of his Gospel, and the doctrines of it; which is to be heard not only externally, but internally: when it is heard as to be understood, to be approved of and believed, and to be distinguished; so as to have a spiritual and experimental knowledge of it; to feel the power and efficacy of it, and practically attend to it; it is an evidence of being the sheep of Christ; see Joh 10:4, where the sheep are said to know the voice of the shepherd, and not that of a stranger; of which Polybius (g) gives a remarkable instance in the goats of the island of Cyrnon, who will flee from strangers, but, as soon as the keeper sounds his trumpet, they will run to him: though the words may be connected with what follows, as they are in Heb 3:7, where they are said to be the words of the Holy Ghost, and are applied to times, and are interpreted of the voice of the Son of God in his house; for though it may refer to some certain day in David's time, as the seventh day sabbath, in which the voice of God might be heard, the word of God read and explained; and in Gospel times, as the Lord's day, in which Christ speaks by his ministers; and to the whole time of a man's life, which is called "while it is today", Heb 3:13, yet it chiefly respects the whole day of the Gospel, the whole Gospel dispensation, Co2 6:2.
(e) "Pan ovium custos----" Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. v. 17. "Pana deum pecoris veteres coluisse feruntur", Ovid. Fasti, l. 2. (f) Plutarch. de orac. defect. p. 419. (g) Hist. l. 12. in principio.
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 On vv7–11 Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his…
Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself. The sheep - Which are under his special care. Today - Forthwith or presently.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10 Verse 7. For he is our God] Here is…
Verse 7. For he is our God] Here is the reason for this service. He has condescended to enter into a covenant with us, and he has taken us for his own; therefore -
We are the people of his pasture] Or, rather, as the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and AEthiopic read, "We are his people, and the sheep of the pasture of his hand." We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us.
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To-day if ye will hear his voice] To-day-you have no time to lose; to-morrow may be too late. God calls to-day; to-morrow he may be silent. This should commence the eighth verse, as it begins what is supposed to be the part of the priest or prophet who now exhorts the people; as if he had said: Seeing you are in so good a spirit, do not forget your own resolutions, and harden not your hearts, "as your fathers did in Meribah and Massah, in the wilderness;" the same fact and the same names as are mentioned Ex 17:7; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 11 Psa 95:7. For he is our God — He…
Psa 95:7. For he is our God — He not only has dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in a special relation to us. He is our God in a peculiar sense, and therefore it would be most unreasonable and wicked if we should forsake him, when even the Gentiles shall submit to his law. And we are the people of his pasture — Whom he feeds in his church, with his word and by his ordinances, and defends by his watchful providence. And the sheep of his hand — Under his special care and government. To-day — That is, forthwith, or presently, as this word is often used. Or the expression may mean this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets; if ye will hear his voice — If ye will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands, which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that God’s presence and favour were not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but were suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which, if they violated, they should be rejected, and the Gentiles, performing it, should be received for his people. And this clause may be connected with the preceding, and considered as expressing the condition of their interest in God as their God, thus: “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, &c., if ye will hear his voice;” that is, if ye will be his obedient people he will continue to be your God. Or else the word אם, im, translated if, may be rendered in the optative form, O that you would hear his voice to-day, saying unto you, Harden not your hearts. “However this be,” says Dr. Horne, “what follows, to the end of the Psalm, is undoubtedly spoken in the person of God himself, who may be considered as addressing us, in these latter days, by the gospel of his Son; for so the apostle teaches us to apply the whole passage, Heb 3:4. The Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, had a day of probation, and a promised rest to succeed it; but by unbelief and disobedience, they to whom it was promised, that is, the generation of those who came out of Egypt, fell short of it, and died in the wilderness. The gospel, in like manner, offers, both to Jew and Gentile, another day of probation in this world, and another promised rest to succeed it, which remaineth for the people of God in heaven. All whom it concerns are, therefore, exhorted to beware, lest they forfeit the second rest, as murmuring and rebellious Israel came short of the first.”
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 On vv7–11 For he is our God - Not only the…
For he is our God - Not only the God whom we worship as the true God, but One who has revealed himself to us as our God. We worship him as God - as entitled to praise and adoration because he is the true God; we worship him also as sustaining the relation of God to us, or because we recognize him as our God, and because he has manifested himself as ours.
And we are the people of his pasture - whom he has recognized as his flock; to whom he sustains the relation of shepherd; who feeds and protects us as the shepherd does his flock. See the notes at Psa 79:13; compare Psa 23:1-3.
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And the sheep of his hand - The flock that is guided and fed by his hand.
To day if ye will hear his voice - His voice calling you; commanding you; inviting you; encouraging you. See this passage explained in the notes at Heb 3:7-11. The word “today” here means “the present time;” now. The idea is, that the purpose to obey should not be deferred until tomorrow; should not be put off to the future. The commands of God should be obeyed at once; the purpose should be executed immediately. All God’s commands relate to the present. He gives us none for the future; and a true purpose to obey God exists only where there is a willingness to obey “now,” “today;” and can exist only then. A purpose to repent at some future time, to give up the world at some future time, to embrace the Gospel at some future time, is “no obedience,” for there is no such command addressed to us. A resolution to put off repentance and faith, to defer attention to religion until some future time, is real disobedience - and often the worst form of disobedience - for it is directly in the face of the command of God. “If ye will hear.” That is, If there is a disposition or willingness to obey his voice at all; or, to listen to his commands. See the notes at Heb 3:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–11 7. For he is our God—The reasons for this…
7. For he is our God—The reasons for this lively, willing, and unreserved devotion were, in Psa_95:3-5, drawn from the greatness of God as creator and governor of the world. In Psa_95:6-7 the motives appeal more directly to the heart and the moral feelings. He is “our God,” “our Maker,” and we are his “people,” his “sheep.”
Sheep of his hand—That is, we are guided, cared for, and protected by “his hand,” his personal attention. Psalm 77:21; Psa_100:3; Psa_23:3-4.
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Today—The “to-day,” or this day, indicates that a decisive moment, a crisis, had come. So the apostle applies it (Heb_3:7-11) to the Jews of his day, who stood, with reference to the gospel, as the Hebrews at Kadesh did in reference to Canaan. Thus it applies to every sinner each moment of his probation. “Hereby is meant the whole time by which Christ speaketh by his gospel.”—Ainsworth.
If ye will hear his voice—Taking the conjunction here in its conditional sense, the apodosis, or concluding clause, seems obscure. Hengstenberg supplies it by reading: “‘If ye will hear his voice,’ he will bless you, his people.” This accords with the passage (Exo_23:22,) “If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” But it equally answers the grammatical and doctrinal demand to supply, as the sense implies, אן, (then, on this account,) after “voice,” and read: “To day, if ye will hear his voice, [then] harden not your hearts.” The hearing implies heeding—hearing with a view to obeying—which is impossible while unbelief hardens the heart and perverts the will. The conditioning protasis does not anticipate a promissory apodosis, but a caution; not the blessings which flow upon hearing, but the moral preparation implied in obedient hearing.
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 On vv7–11 7. our God] P. B.V. the Lord our God,…
7. our God] P. B.V. the Lord our God, from the Vulg.
the people &c.] The people whom He shepherds, the flock which is His own especial charge. Cp. Psa_74:1, note.
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To day if ye will hear &c.] The A.V. follows the LXX in taking this clause as the protasis to Psa_95:8. But here the Psalmist is still speaking (‘his voice’), while in Psa_95:8 God speaks; and it is better to take it as a wish, Oh that to-day ye would hearken to his voice! Cp. Deu_5:29. As the Psalmist recalls God’s care for His people in the wilderness, He cannot forget their thankless disobedience, and the earnest wish springs to his lips that this generation may not repeat the sin of their forefathers. This wish leads up naturally to the solemn warning of Psa_95:8-11. To day is emphatic, and has a special significance if the Psalm was sung at the Dedication of the Second Temple: now, in contrast to that former time; now, when Jehovah has visibly manifested His goodness; now, while the door of opportunity lies open before you. His voice is not merely the words which follow, but all His message. Cp. Deu_4:30.
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 On vv7–11 (7) To-day if . . .—In joining this clause…
(7) To-day if . . .—In joining this clause with Psa_95:8-9 the Authorised Version follows the LXX. The Masoretic text connects it with the preceding part of the verse, and there seems no good reason for departing from that arrangement. Indeed, the change from the third person, “his voice,” to the first, “tempted me,” in the same sentence is intolerable even in Hebrew poetry. Nor is there any necessity to suppose the loss of a line. Render: “For He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. Today would that ye would hearken to his voice.” The Oriental custom of leading flocks by the voice is doubtless alluded to, as in Joh_10:4. Notice the resemblance in Psa_95:6-7 to Psa_100:3-4.
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 On vv7–11 For he is our God. A second, and a…
For he is our God. A second, and a more urgent, reason for worshipping God. Not only is he a "great God" (ver. 3), but he is also our God our own God brought into the closest personal relationship with us. And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (comp. Psa_74:1 Psa_79:13 Psa_80:1, etc.) We are led by him, tended by him, fed by him, folded by him. We owe everything to his shepherding.
Vers. 7b-11. The warning against waywardness. This is delivered in four, or rather four and a half, verses, and commences with the words, "Today if ye will hear his voice.
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Today. This word, standing prominently forward as it does, is a startling call, intimating that the time is come for a momentous decision. If ye will hear his voice. God is crying to his people will they hear, or will they forbear? If the former, all will go well; if the latter, than assuredly they shall not enter into his rest. The "voice" intended proceeds to give the warning of vers. 8-11.
Our moral relations with God.
"People of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." Some writers try to amend this sentence, because the poetical figure seems complicated. It is much better to leave it in its poetical suggestiveness. It indicates familiarity with Eastern shepherding. The shepherd lives with his flock day and night; feels for them a personal affection; tends them in all their times of need with his own hands. So the Eastern sheep and shepherd figures, for God and his people, are stronger and more suggestive than we can realize if we keep ourselves to Western shepherd associations. In so carefully putting people into one sentence, and sheep into the other, the psalmist reminds us that God"s sheep are moral beings, and the mere physical relations of shepherds to their sheep do but represent and illustrate the moral relations in which God stands to his people as moral beings. So we rise into a sphere in which we need the help of another figure that of the father and his family. The "Lord our Maker" here brings God before us as the Universal Creator; and as the Founder of the Israelite nation.
I OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR CHARACTERS. Illustrate from the shepherd"s estimate of each sheep. But the end at which the shepherd aims is health, fatness. The end at which God aims is cultured, developed, perfected character. And this is the Divine aim for every man, and the Divine work in every man. If we can see the issue more plainly reached in some men than in others, this need not dim our confidence that the work is going on in all.
II OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR MOODS. For no man can study human nature without observing that men are constantly acting, on occasion, out of harmony with their characters. The difficulty of dealing wisely with children lies in their occasional strange lapses and oddities. God bears shepherd-like relation to the odd moods of his moral beings.
III OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR SINS. This brings us into a very familiar field, and opens to view the redeeming and sanctifying work of God. These moral relations of God to us are the real reason why we should "worship and bow down. R.T.
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 On vv7–11 Ver. 7. For he is our God. Here is…
Ver. 7. For he is our God. Here is the master reason for worship. Jehovah has entered into covenant with us, and from all the world beside has chosen us to be his own elect. If others refuse him homage, we at least will render it cheerfully. He is ours, and our God; ours, therefore will we love him; our God, therefore will we worship him. Happy is that man who can sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to himself.
And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. As he belongs to us, so do we belong to him. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." And we are his as the people whom he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not ours, but his; we draw all our supplies from his stores. We are his, even as sheep belong to the shepherd, and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our government, our succour, our source of supply. Israel was led through the desert, and we are led through this life by "that great Shepherd of the sheep." The hand which cleft the sea and brought water from the rock is still with us, working equal wonders. Can we refuse to "worship and bow down" when we clearly see that "this God is our God for ever and ever, and will be our guide, even unto death"?
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But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one whir the less required by ourselves. The favoured nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice": will this turn out to be our character also? God forbid.
To day if ye will hear his voice. Dreadful "if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God." Today, "in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limiteth a certain day, "he presses for immediate attention, for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Ghost saith "Today, "will we grieve him by delay?
Ver. 7. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. See how elegantly he hath transposed the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to be "the sheep", who are also "the people." He said not, the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his hand; which might be thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the pasture; but he said, "the people of his pasture": the people themselves are sheep. But again, since we have sheep which we buy, not which we create; and he had said above, "Let us fall down before our Maker"; it is rightly said, "the sheep of his hand." No man maketh for himself sheep, he may buy them, they may be given, he may find them, he may collect them, lastly he may steal them; make them he cannot. But our Lord made us; therefore "the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand", are the very sheep which he hath deigned by his grace to create unto himself. Augustine.
Ver. 7. The sheep of his hand, is a fit though figurative expression, the shepherd that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it by his hand, which manages the rod and staff (Ps 23:4), by which they are administered. The Jewish Arabs read, the people of his feeding or, flock, and the sheep of his guidance. H. Hammond.
Ver. 7. For we are his people whom he feeds in his pastures, and his sheep whom he leads as by his hand. (French Version.) Here is a reason to constrain us to praise God; it is this, that not only has he created us, but that he also directs us by special providence, as a shepherd governs his flock. Jesus Christ, Divine Shepherd of our souls, who not only feeds us in his pastures, but himself leads us with his hand, as intelligent sheep. Loving Shepherd, who feeds us not only from the pastures of Holy Wilt, but even with his own flesh. What subjects of ceaseless adoration for a soul penetrated by these great verities! What a fountain of tears of joy at the sight of such prodigious mercy! Quesnel.
Ver. 7. Today if ye will hear his voice. If we put of repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. W. Mason.
Ver. 7. He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hath not promised to preserve our lives till we repent. Francis Quarles.
Ver. 7. You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late. Thomas Fuller.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. Oh! what an if is here! what a reproach is here to those that hear him not! "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"; "but ye will not come to me that ye might have life." And yet there is mercy, there is still salvation, if ye will hear that voice. Israel heard it among the thunders of Sinai, "which voice they that heard it entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more"; so terrible was the sight and sound that even Moses said, "I exceedingly quake and fear": and yet they heard too the Lord's still voice of love in the noiseless manna that fell around their tents, and in the gushing waters of the rock that followed them through every march for forty years. Yet the record of Israel's ingratitude runs side by side with the record of God's mercies"My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me." Barton Bouchier.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. And yet, as S. Bernard tells us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing it; on the contrary, the difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is it in enunciation, so constant in appeal. Yet there are many who do not hear, from divers causes; because they are far off; because they are deaf; because they sleep; because they turn their heads aside; because they stop their ears; because they hurry away to avoid hearing; because they are dead; all of them topics of various forms and degrees of unbelief. Bernard and Hugo Cardinalis, in Neale and Littledale.
Ver. 7. If ye will hear his voice. These words seem to allude to the preceding words, in which we are represented as the sheep of God's pasture, and are to be considered as an affectionate call of our heavenly Shepherd to follow and obey him. From "Lectures on the Liturgy, from the Commentary of Peter Waldo", 1821.
Ver. 7-8. It will be as difficult, nay, more difficult, to come to Christ tomorrow, than it is today: therefore today hear his voice, and harden not your heart. Break the ice now, and by faith venture upon your present duty, wherever it lies; do what you are now called to. You will never know how easy the yoke of Christ is, till it is bound about your necks, nor how light his burden is, till you have taken it up. While you judge of holiness at a distance, as a thing without you and contrary to you, you will never like it. Come a little nearer to it; do but take it in, actually engage in it, and you will find religion carries meat in its mouth; it is of a reviving, nourishing, strengthening nature. It brings that along with it, that enables the soul cheerfully to go through with it. Thomas Cole (1627-1697) in the "Morning Exercises."
Ver. 7. The entreaty of the Holy Ghost.
1. The special voice"the Holy Ghost saith"
(a) In Scripture.
(b) In the hearts of his people.
(c) In the awakened.
(d) By his deeds of grace.
2. A special duty, "hear his voice", instructing, commanding, inviting, promising, threatening.
3. A special time"today." While God speaks, after so long a time, in the day of grace, now, in your present state.
4. The special danger"harden not your hearts", by indifference, unbelief, asking for signs, presumption, worldly pleasures, etc.
Ver. 7. Sinners entreated to hear God's voice. "Hear his voice", because
1. Life is short aud uncertain;
2. You cannot properly or lawfully promise to give what is not your own;
3. If you defer, though but till tomorrow, you must harden your hearts;
4. There is great reason to fear that, if you defer it today, you will never commence;
5. After a time God ceases to strive with sinners;
6. There is nothing irksome or disagreeable in a religious life, that you should wish to defer its commencement.
Edward Payson.
Ver. 7. The Difference of Times with respect to Religion. Upon a spiritual account there is great difference of time. To make this out, I will shew you,
1. That sooner and later are not alike, in respect of eternity.
2. That times of ignorance and of knowledge are not alike.
3. That before and after voluntary commission of known iniquity, are not alike.
4. That before and after contracted naughty habits, are not alike.
5. That the time of God's gracious and particular visitation and the time when God withdraws his gracious presence and assistance, are not alike.
6. The flourishing time of our health and strength, and the hour of sickness, weakness, and approach of death, are not alike.
7. Now and hereafter, present and future, this world and the world to come, are not alike.
Benjamin Whichcot.
Ver. 7. This supposition, If ye will hear, and the consequence inferred thereupon, harden not your hearts, doth evidently demonstrate that a right hearing will prevent hardness of heart; especially hearing of Christ's voice, that is, the gospel. It is the gospel that maketh and keepeth a soft heart. William Gouge.
Psalms 95:8*
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 On vv7, 10, 11 To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not…
Psa_95:7-8
To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
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To-day
I. The time specified--To-day if ye will hear His voice. This is the uniform time and tense of the Holy Ghosts exhortations. Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord. I command thee this thing today. Son, go work to-day in My vineyard. Therefore, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.
1. To-day is a time of obligation Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord today, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day.
2. Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favoured day, for it is the Lords day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. Today our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that He might declare the justification of His people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore I pray you to seize the golden moments.
3. Remember that it is a time limited (Heb_4:7). To-day will not last for ever; a day is but a day. When days are longest, shadows fall at last and night comes on. The longest life soon wanes into the evening of old age, and old age hastens to the sunset of the tomb.
4. A word of encouragement: it is a time of promise, for when God says to a man, Come to Me at such a time, He by that very word makes an engagement to meet him. He has made no appointment with thee to meet with thee to-morrow, but He has engaged to speak with thee to-day, if thou wilt hear His voice. Never shall one wait and say, like young Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth, without Gods speaking in words of love ere long.
II. The voice to be regarded. His.
1. Remember that the voice of God is the voice of authority. God has a right to speak to you; shall the creature refuse to hear the Creator? Shall those who are nourished and fed by Him turn a deaf ear to the Preserver of men? When He saith to-day, who among us shall dare to say that he will not hearken to-day, but by and by?
2. It is the voice of love. How wooing are its tones!
3. It is the voice of power. Old man, the Holy Ghost saith still, To-day, to-day; and He that saith to-day can make to-day for thee a day of tenderness and melting, till you will be no longer like a stone.
4. It is a pledging voice. When He saith, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, He doth, as it were, covenant that He will be found of you. Listen, then, to His promising voice, His cheering voice; it will cast all unbelieving fear out of you, and drive away Satan better than Davids harp drove the evil spirit out of Saul. God help you so to do.
5. The voice of God should be easy to hear; for the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
III. the evil to be dreaded. Harden not your heart.
1. It will be a serious evil if you do. Under the sound of loves entreaties, within ear-shot of mercys imploring tones, the sinner is hardening his heart. Sad work to harden ones heart against ones own welfare! Shall any man do this and go unpunished? What think you?
2. It is a greater sin in some than in others, for the Scripture quotes the instance of Israel (Heb_3:8). Some of you are the highly privileged as compared with others.
3. This dreadful sin can be committed in a great many ways. Some harden their hearts by a resolution not to feel, some by wishing to wait, some by getting into evil company.
4. This sin will bring with it the most fearful consequences. He sware in His wrath, they shall not enter into My rest! You wish to rest at last, you long to rest even now. But it cannot be till you yield to God. You are not at peace now, and you never will be if you harden your hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sinners entreated to hear Gods voice
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. 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. 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. Every days 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 (6:9,10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviours 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 Gods 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 Gods 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? (E. Payson, D.D.)
Hardening process
In the winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is far past the meridian glory, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a two-fold reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable. In the first place, the frost, with increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods; on the other hand, the genial rays of the sun, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. As long as the sinner remains unconverted, he is under a double process of hardening. The frosts of eternal night are settling down upon his soul, and the Sun of Righteousness is withdrawing His powerful beams for evermore. If grace do not penetrate the heart to-day, there will be less chance of it to-morrow. (R. Venting.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v9 Temptation. Psa 106:14; Gen 3:1; Jas 1:2.
tempted
Temptation. Psa 106:14; Gen 3:1; Jas 1:2.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 10 General Information:
General Information:
Now the writer writes the words that Yahweh spoke.
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harden your heart
"become stubborn"
Meribah, ... Massah
These are places in the desert that Moses named because the Israelites rebelled against God. (See: How to Translate Names and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
tested me ... tried me
These two phrases are both metaphors for the people seeing how much evil they could do before Yahweh would punish them. The phrases say basically the same thing and can be combined. AT: "tested me" or "wanted to see if they could do evil things without my punishing them ... tested whether I would continue to be patient with them" (See: Metaphor and Doublet)
my deeds
"the amazing things I had done"
translationWords
hard
heart
desert
ancestor
patient
works
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 On vv8, 9, 11 95:8-11 If people want to enter into the Lord’s…
95:8-11 If people want to enter into the Lord’s rest, they need to respond immediately (see Heb 3:7–4:11).
95:8 To harden your hearts means to be stubborn and resist the Lord’s grace (see Num 20:2-13; see also Matt 13:3-23; John 12:37-43; Eph 4:17-32; Heb 3:6-19; 4:6-11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.