Bible Commentaries
Psalms 95

Verses 1-11

By comparing verse 8 of this psalm with Hebrews 4:7, we find that it should be ascribed to David, either written by him personally or by one of his singers.

v. 1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord, this appeal sounding again and again in Scripture on account of the natural inertia and sluggishness of men; let us make a joyful noise, in the highest exultation, to the Rock of our salvation.

v. 2. Let us come before His presence, literally, "before His face," to His holy Sanctuary, with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms, hymns setting forth His wonderful attributes.

v. 3. For the Lord is a great God, occupying a position of unique grandeur in this respect, and a great King above all gods, the idols falsely called gods by the heathen.

v. 4. In His hand, by virtue of His essential creative power and omnipotence, are the deep places of the earth, the very depths of the ocean; the strength of the hills, the summits of the highest mountains, is His also, under His absolute government.

v. 5. The sea is His, and He made it, the mighty ocean being a creature of His hand; and His hands formed the dry land, Genesis 1:9-10. His alone is the majesty of creative omnipotence and the government of the universe.

v. 6. O come, let us worship and bow down, in humble adoration; let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, to whom we also owe our being, life, and breath.

v. 7. For He is our God, the emphasis being both upon "He" and upon "our"; and we are the people of His pasture, the flock nourished by Him, through His Word, and the sheep of His hand, the flock guided and protected by His almighty hand. Today, if ye will hear His voice, the admonition calling upon all men to decide in favor of the Lord and His Word,

v. 8. harden not your heart, as in the provocation, when the children of Israel contended with the Lord in the wilderness, at Meribah and Massah, Exodus 17:7, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when the conduct of the Israelites tested out the Lord's long-suffering and patience;

v. 9. when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work, this summarizing the Lord's complaint, Numbers 14:22.

v. 10. Forty years long, during the entire wilderness journey, was I grieved with this generation, vexed with the people whom He had chosen, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, deliberately following the way of error and sin, and they have not known My ways, they refused to accept the Lord's precepts governing their conduct;

v. 11. unto whom I sware in My wrath, a section of this solemn oath of Jehovah being quoted here, that they should not enter into My rest. Cf Numbers 14:30. It was an emphatic declaration, supported by His oath, and it resulted in the death of all those who were above the age of forty at the time of the exodus from Egypt. As far as we Christians are concerned, Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:13 is, in effect, an application of this psalm to the condition in the Church of God at all times, a most searching passage, which we shall do well to heed in these last days of general apostasy.