Studies in the Psalms - Psalm 95

Psalm 95 is a psalm about praising God. It begins with a word about how to praise Him.

Psalm 95:1-2
Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Then we see why we praise Him.

Psalm 95:3-5
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

But we are not only to praise God; we are to worship Him. There is a difference. Praise is looking up to Him, while worship is about bowing down to Him. Usually when we sing to God in church, we are praising Him. This is why we call it a praise band. But are we taking time in worship?

Psalm 95:6

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

And the psalmist tells us why we should worship Him.

Psalm 95:7
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

The psalm then turns quickly as we hear directly from God.

Psalm 95:7-11
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,  when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”  Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The instruction found here to not harden our hearts when we hear His voice, is just as pertinent to us as it was to the Jews. Hebrews 3:7-11 quotes this psalm directly, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,  where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.  Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’  As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” That, my friends, is New Testament.

When we go to church and hear God’s Word preached or we read our Bibles at home, we must not harden our hearts as they did, or we too, will wander the desert, instead of entering into the Rest of Christ. Read Hebrews 4 to understand the truth of the Christian’s rest in Christ. This means we obey ALL of the commandments of scripture. We Christians are struggling just like the world today, because we are provoking God as they did. This is why we do not live fully in the rest He has provided us. This why we look just like the world.

I leave you with three admonishments straight from the mouth of Jesus. Let our hearts take them deep into our lives.

Matthew 13:9
He who has ears, let him hear.

Mark 4:24
Pay attention to what you hear.

Luke 8:18
Take care then how you hear.

As Warren Weirsbe says, “Take heed that we hear. Take heed to what we hear. Take heed to how we hear.”

We need to get back to God’s Word. We need to make it like the very air we breathe. It must be what guides our life. When we read the Bible, we are reading the very Word of God. Every Word in the Bible is from God.

When we do that first, we can then properly praise Him and we can properly worship Him.