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Psalms 95

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Call to Joyful Worship and Adoration 1–6

1
Oh come, let us sing unto Jehovah; Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. ​
2
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; Let us make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3
For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King above all gods. ​
4
In his hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the mountains are his also.
5
The sea is his, and he made it; And his hands formed the dry land. ​
6
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker: ​

A Warning Against Hardening the Heart 7–11

7
For he is our God, And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To-day, oh that ye would hear his voice! ​
8
Harden not your heart, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness; ​
9
When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work. ​
10
Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, And they have not known my ways: ​
11
Wherefore I sware in my wrath, That they should not enter into my rest. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalms 95

Verse 1

the rock of our salvation — Tsur is a cliff or crag, a place of refuge. David uses the title: 'exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation' (2 Sam 22:47). Paul says of the rock in the wilderness that 'that Rock was Christ' (1 Cor 10:4). The 'joyful noise' (rua) is a shout or blast.

Verse 3

a great King above all gods — He is a 'great God' (El) and a 'great King' over every elohim. The LORD claims the title himself, 'I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts' (Mal 1:14), and Ps 47:2 gives it: 'a great King over all the earth'. The next psalm repeats the verse's claim: 'he is to be feared above all gods' (Ps 96:4).

Verse 5

his hands formed the dry land — 'Formed' is yatsar, the potter's verb used of man in Gen 2:7. 'Dry land' recalls Gen 1:9–10, where the waters were gathered and 'the dry land appear'. The sea is his, as Jonah confessed: 'the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land' (Jonah 1:9).

Verse 6

worship and bow down… kneel — There are three verbs of posture: shachah, to bow low; kara, to sink down; barak, to kneel. The reason is given at once: 'the LORD our maker', as Ps 100:3 says, 'it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves'. Paul's 'every knee should bow' (Phil 2:10) takes the same posture to Christ.

Verse 7

the sheep of his hand — 'Pasture' (mirith) is the flock he feeds: 'we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture' (Ps 100:3). Christ takes the shepherd's part: 'My sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27). The call to hear his voice goes on in v.8, and Hebrews quotes 'To day if ye will hear his voice' three times (Heb 3:7, 15; 4:7).

Verse 8

the provocation… the day of temptation — These are the names of a place: 'Massah, and Meribah', where Israel 'tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?' (Ex 17:7). Meribah is named again at Kadesh (Num 20:13). 'Harden' is qashah, to make hard. Heb 3:8 quotes the verse in full.

Verse 9

tempted me, proved me — Nasah and bachan both mean to put to the test. The generation had 'seen my glory, and my miracles', yet 'tempted me now these ten times' (Num 14:22). Paul gives the warning to later readers: 'Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted' (1 Cor 10:9).

Verse 10

Forty years long was I grieved — Qut is to loathe, to be sickened. The forty years are those of Num 14:33. 'Do err' is taah, to go astray, the verb of the lost sheep in Ps 119:176 and Isa 53:6, set against 'the sheep of his hand' (v.7). Heb 3:10, 17 quote the verse and ask, 'with whom was he grieved forty years?'

Verse 11

my rest — Menuchah, the rest of the land: 'ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you' (Deut 12:9). The oath is that of Num 14:23, 30. Hebrews builds on it: 'we which have believed do enter into rest' (Heb 4:3), and 'There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God' (Heb 4:9).