NOTES for Psa 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. |
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. |
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. |
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. |
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. |
6 O 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. To day if ye will hear his voice, |
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: |
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. |
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: |
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. |
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One might say that this psalm too falls into two parts, one of which praises the greatness of the Lord while the second, as a warning to new generations, recalls their sins. Yet the song need not be divided into components, for all its words are interconnected.
The words “we are the people of His pasture” should be recognized as the connecting knot that gives the psalm its integrity. Biblical revelation contains no abstract philosophical notion that He is by Himself and we are by ourselves. No, He does not look upon us coldly; to Him we are neither dust nor a collection of elementary particles. If the Lord prevents us from entering the place to which He Himself wants to lead us, it means that for the moment our sins make us unable to enter it. Yet it is precisely because we are not inanimate bricks that can be used for building anywhere that He is demanding toward us.
In His demands we must see one of the most important manifestations of His love for us.
Other notes
For
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. |
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. |
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. |
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. |
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. |
6 O 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. To day if ye will hear his voice, |
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: |
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. |
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: |
11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. |
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Readings for 20 March 2023
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