1 Oh come, let's sing to Yahweh. Let's shout aloud to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol him with songs! 3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his. 5 The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let's worship and bow down. Let's kneel before Yahweh, our Maker, 7 for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice! 8 Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work. 10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways." 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They won't enter into my rest."
Of the author of this psalm nothing is certainly known. It is, however, ascribed to David in the Latin Vulgate and in the Septuagint; and in Hebrews 4:7, it is referred to as a psalm of David: "Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, 'Today, if ye will hear his voice,'" etc. This language may refer in general to the Book of Psalm, called from their chief author, the Psalm of David; or it may mean that David was the author of this particular psalm. Either supposition would meet all that is demanded by the quotation in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There is, however, no improbability in the supposition that the psalm was written by David, as he doubtless composed many songs to which his name was not attached.
Nothing is known of the "occasion" on which the psalm was composed. It is a general song of praise, and contains only such language as might be proper in any period of the Jewish history after the people were established in the promised land. It is, indeed, a "Hebrew" song; it has reference to the Hebrew people; and it contains such arguments and appeals as would be particularly adapted to influence them.
The psalm consists of three parts:
I. An exhortation to praise and worship God, Psalm 95:1-2.
II. Reasons for offering such praise, Psalm 95:3-7 :
(a) He is a great God, Psalm 95:3;
(b) He has made all things, and all things are under his control, Psalm 95:4-5;
(c) He is our Maker, Psalm 95:6;
(d) He is our God, and we are his people, Psalm 95:7.
III. An exhortation not to harden the heart; not to be perverse and rebellious, Psalm 95:7-11. This is enforced by the example of the Israelites in the wilderness, and by the results which followed from their tempting God, and provoking his wrath. The appeal is founded on the fact that, in consequence of their rebellion, they were shut out of the promised land. On the same principle, if we are rebellious, we shall be excluded from heaven.
An invitation to praise God, Psalm 95:1, Psalm 95:2. The reason on which this is founded, the majesty and dominion of God, Psalm 95:3-5. An invitation to pray to God, Psalm 95:6. And the reasons on which that is founded, Psalm 95:7. Exhortation not to act as their fathers had done, who rebelled against God, and were cast out of his favor, Psalm 95:8-11.
This Psalm is also without a title, both in the Hebrew and Chaldee: but is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac; and by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 4:3-7. Calmet and other eminent critics believe that it was composed during the time of the captivity, and that the apostle only followed the common opinion in quoting it as the production of David, because in general the Psalter was attributed to him.
The Psalm is a solemn invitation to the people, when assembled for public worship, to praise God from a sense of his great goodness; and to be attentive to the instructions they were about to receive from the reading and expounding of the law; and or these accounts it has been long used in the Christian Church, at the commencement of public service, to prepare the people's minds to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Houbigant, and other learned divines, consider this Psalm as composed of three parts.
1. The part of the people, Psalm 95:1 to the middle of Psalm 95:7.
2. The part of the priest or prophet from the middle of Psalm 95:7 to the end of Psalm 95:8.
3. The part of Jehovah, Psalm 95:9-11. It is written as a part of the preceding Psalm by nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; but certainly it must have been originally an ode by itself, as the subject is widely different from that in the foregoing.
INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 95
This psalm, though without a title, was written by David, as appears from Hebrews 4:7, and to him the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions ascribe it. It belongs to the times of the Messiah, as Kimchi observes; the apostle applies it to the Jews of his time, and bespeaks them in the language of it, Hebrews 3:7, and in which time Israelites, believers in Christ, are called upon to serve and worship him, in consideration of his greatness in himself, and his goodness to them. Theodoret thinks that David spoke prophetically of King Josiah and his times; and wrote it in the person of him, and the priests of God.
(Psalm 95:1-7) Part. An exhortation to praise God.
(Psalm 95:7-11) A warning not to tempt Him.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.