Psalm 95

This is another very popular psalm, the basis for several contemporary songs and quotations in the New Testament. It’s also the first of a half-dozen poems celebrating divine sovereignty. They fit into the general type of processional hymns.

We can almost picture a ranking member of some household calling his family and guests to join him in celebration. How can we remain silent when such a noteworthy Sheikh rules over us? He’s so powerful no one can threaten His domain. It won’t matter what you have to bring in your hands, because the most appropriate tribute to bring into His courts is your grateful praise and singing. No king or deity is in His class.

Consider: He made the hidden corners of the earth with His hands. The hills and mountains are described using the word for a wealth gained from toil, and as a standing monument to accomplishment. He owns the seas by right of having made them, too. He formed the dry land like a sculptor. The full impact of just Who this is will drive you to your knees.

We have no other God; this is the One who owns us. But He is tender toward us like a shepherd to His sheep. His compassion knows no bounds. How could anyone resist His sweet care? What kind of total fool does it take to quarrel with Him?

The voice changes to that of God. Yet this very same folly is in your blood, God warns Israel. Don’t forget that your own ancestors provoked Me endlessly. With such mighty miracles they had the gall to demand petty comforts and refused to walk in faith. If their every wish wasn’t waiting for them in plain sight well before they arrived, every stop in the Wilderness was another excuse for carping. Forty long years God endured this constant insult in His face.

Finally He could take no more. He judged them as terminally unfit to receive His promised blessings. It’s not that they failed to understand what God required, but refused to consider Him as worthy of their devotion. So He promised them they would never see the full measure of His wrath on the sins of others because they kept provoking it on themselves. He let them die in his wrath.

We are left hanging with the implied warning that there is a limit and you should be fearful of testing the boundaries, lest you lose all that God has granted by His mighty power.