Psalms · psalm 95 of 150
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Psalm 95 first invites us to sing joyfully to the rock of our salvation, because the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods who made the earth and the sea. It then calls us to bow before him as his people and flock, and ends with a warning: today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah and Massah, where the wilderness generation did not enter his rest.
Psalm 95 has no title and belongs to the group of psalms that celebrate the reign of the Lord (Psalms 93 and 95-99), within Book IV. It is well known because the book of Hebrews quotes it at length (Hebrews 3:7-4:13) to urge Christians not to harden their hearts. Many churches have used it as a call to worship.
The psalm begins with an enthusiastic invitation: come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. The reason is given: the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains; the sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands formed.
A second invitation comes in verses 6 and 7: come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. The tone changes in the last part with the words: today, if you hear his voice.
Now the Lord himself speaks. He warns them not to harden their hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when their fathers tested him though they had seen his work. For forty years he loathed that generation, and he swore that they would not enter his rest.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The psalmist calls us to sing joyfully to the Lord, the rock of our salvation, and to come before his presence with thanksgiving and songs. Worship begins by recognizing God as the one who saves us.
The Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, and in his hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains and the sea. If he owns all creation, he deserves all our worship.
We are invited to bow down and kneel before the Lord, our Maker, because he is our God and we are his people and the sheep of his hand. Worship is a response to who he is and to the relationship of care he has with us.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness. The warning is current: listening to God today is a decision that must not be postponed.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The rock of our salvation. — Psalm 95:1
Answer: Because he is a great God and a great King above all gods, and the sea and the dry land are his because he made them. — Psalm 95:3-5
Answer: As the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. — Psalm 95:7
Answer: Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah and Massah. — Psalm 95:7-8
Answer: Forty years. — Psalm 95:10
Answer: That they would not enter his rest. — Psalm 95:11
Psalm 95 shows two faces of worship. The first is joyful, with singing, shouting and thanks. The second is attentive: bowing, listening and obeying. A service that only sings but does not listen resembles the wilderness generation, who had seen God's works and still tested him.
The warning says today. In a class or small group we can ask which word of God we have been postponing and what hardens our hearts: resentment, weariness, routine. Hebrews 3:13 encourages us to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of us is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Psalm 95 ends with the warning about the rest that the wilderness generation did not reach. Psalm 96 returns to praise and extends it to all the nations: sing to the Lord a new song, all the earth.
It refers to the exodus story in which the people, without water in the wilderness, quarreled with Moses and tested the Lord (Exodus 17:1-7). Meribah means quarreling and Massah means testing. Numbers 20:1-13 tells a similar episode.
In the original setting it was the promised land, which the wilderness generation did not enter. Hebrews 3:7-4:13 uses the psalm to say that a promise of rest remains open for God's people, which Christians enter by faith in Christ.