Psalm 95
95:1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our
salvation!
95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him
with songs of praise!
95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
95:5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
95:7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O
that today you would listen to his voice!
95:8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
95:9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
95:10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose
hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways."
95:11 Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."
I wish there were some more verses here - isn't it unusual for a Psalm to leave us in a
pit? In a monastery I know, this Psalm is sung early in the morning for a whole week,
every other week. Does it keep us vigilant, lest we be locked out of God's rest? Anybody
ever preach the Psalms? kbc in sc
KBC: I've occasionally preached a Psalm, but usually use them in conjunction with other
readings. I'll be using this one only as a reading, and plan to end the reading with verse
7, a plea for us to listen to God's voice. I'm not sure yet how that will link to the
gospel reading in my sermon, which will somehow be placing value on asking questions of
our Lord. I suppose if we ask questions, we'd better be ready to listen for an answer!
Pam in San Bernardino
This week in our "When in our music God is Glorified, the message from 95 will be
a homily, as part of the extra music, and the singing of hymns, and living out our faith
in communiion. This is an enthronement hymn for the people, with the call to worship, and
then some reflection and warning from God not to act as the ancestors did as recorded in
our Exodus 17 Scripture. Must of what I will say ties in to our choice of worshipping the
one who gives us living water. The Christ, who is the rock of our salvation. This series
is turning out to be one that encourages my congregation, to act corageously, with pride
of who they are, and with joy of worshipping together. Then there is the exitement of
going forth to do the will of the One who has sent us. God's name be praise!
Shalom
Pasthersyl
Greetings All:
Someone asked if the Psalms were ever preached. I often mix the lessons about so that
one month will be all first testament, another epistle, another month Psalm and another
month Gospel. I find a month of Psalms to be helpful not only in illumination the poet in
Christ, but also find it to be a great assistance in developing my personal devotion time.
There are a number of good commentaries and books on the Psalms to whet the appetite of
preacher and preachee alike. Dave Somewhere in Canada
We've been looking at the lectionary psalms in a Lenten Bible Study, and what struck me about Psalm 95 is the split between verses 7 and 8. If we are simply using the Venite as an invitatory, it is proper to follow Benedictine practice and stop at verse 7. On the other hand, if we want the psalm to speak to us properly as the Word of God, we need to struggle with it's entirety.
Verse 7 tells us to listen to God's voice. In the remaining verses we get a warning: "Don't harden your hearts!" It is probably easier for us to make joyful noises to the Lord than it is to pay heed to this warning. Indeed, our praises are probably empty if our hearts are hard. So how do we repent from our callousness, as individuals, communities, and societies?
Bruce on Pender Island, BC, Canada
