"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 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,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 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.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Psalm 95
This is one of the best known of the Psalms, and its metrical version has for long been one of the great songs of worship in the Scottish Church. A cursory glance at it shows that it divides into two main sections - the first (1-7a) a call to joyful worship, and the second solemn warning (7b-13) in a historical retrospect in which Israel's experience in the wilderness is brought before us. The fact that this Psalm, in its warning aspect, is expounded and applied in the New Testament (Hebrews 3:7-4:13) is sufficient proof that its message is not an Old Testament one relating to Israel only, but a New Testament challenge. It has something to say to us today, in our worship (7b), and the rest of which it speaks is not Canaan, but salvation.
The theme of the Psalm is worship, and it has some important things to teach us in this regard. This is our primary consideration in studying it. The first thing that comes over - and it does so loud and clear, in a literal as well as metaphorical sense - is the note of joy in worship. One commentator says that the Psalm was sung by worshippers on the way to the Temple: they had gathered together for the purpose of celebrating the Sabbath - and this is good enough warrant for us to think of our Sunday worship in church. The commentators are at one in describing the spirit of the words used in the opening verses: Kidner speaks of 'unashamed enthusiasm' and adds 'The full-throated cries urged in 1, 2 suggest an acclamation fit for a King who is the Saviour of His people'. What comes to mind are the shouts of acclamation uttered by the crowd when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. There can be little doubt that what is in view - and advocated - is exuberance in worship. And this tells us something important: it is not so much musical excellence as such, as the spirit of the music that ought to be the primary consideration in worship. The criterion is not cultural appreciation, but spiritual pulse. And, in all conscience, have we not much to rejoice in, and to make us rejoice! In 3-7b, there is a threefold reason given, introduced by the word 'for'; and to this we shall turn in the next Note.