Psalm Chapter 95
The 95th Psalm is a worship psalm as it places particular emphasis on the worship of God. It is also a royal psalm as it acknowledges God as the great King (v3).
The psalm has three movements, each reflecting a mood of the worshippers: v1-v5 of celebration; v6-v7 of contemplation; v8-v11 of obedience.
Celebration
V1-v5 “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry ground.”
The psalmist tells all people to come before the presence of the LORD God with thanksgiving to sing and shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God and great King, in whose hand are the deep places of the earth and to Him belongs the heights of the hills, the sea and dry ground.
Worship is joyous and a blessing, for in singing psalms and coming into His presence with thanksgiving, one glorifies and honours and gives adoration to Him who is the great God and a great King. It is a celebration of God’s omnipotence and of His divine providences (Matt.5:45).
Contemplation
V6-v7 “Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us knee before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Worship of God is in spirit and truth (John 4:24).
It is offered from the heart with devotion, humility, godliness and holiness (Rev. 4:9-11; 5:13-14).
Like sheep of His pasture, one trusts in Him for everything of his life, lives because of His providences and is saved because of His divine mercy. Kneeling down in worship demonstrates awe and reverence for God the Creator and one’s fear of Him.
The psalmist exhorts that kneeling is the manner exclusive to the worship of God the Creator when believers come before Him (v6). Kneeling is not to be done before an angel or any man (Rev.22:8-9; Acts 10:25-26).
Obedience
V7f-11 “Today, if you hear His voice: ‘Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ “
The psalmist refers to the 40-year journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the promise land of Canaan to warn the readers not to harden their hearts as their fathers did and perished as a result.
It is to emphasize on the importance of obedience in the faith toward God the Creator.
This 3rd movement (v7f-v11) is quoted in its entirety in Hebrews 3:7-11 with the introduction, ‘Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:’. That shows that the words therein are God’s oracles.
The author of Hebrews after having quoted the entire 3rd movement wrote,
‘Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called, ‘Today’; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Heb. 3:12-15)
Thus it can be understood that the 3rd movement in the 95th Psalm is the exhortation to accord worship to God the Creator with obedience.
Believers of Jesus Christ believe Him as God the Creator and the only Saviour. But do we all have joy in our hearts when we worship Him?
Do we with faith celebrate His victory over death and the devil? Do we feel the glory of God and rejoice in the promise of the eternal inheritance after being born to the living hope when He was raised from the dead (I Pet. 1:3-5)