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Wisdom & Poetry · Old Testament

Psalms 95

Psalm 95: a call to sing and kneel that ends with the oath sworn in the wilderness

General context

The psalm calls, O come, let us sing unto the Lord and make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, coming before his presence with thanksgiving and psalms. The reason is that the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods; the deep places of the earth and the strength of the hills are in his hand, the sea is his and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. A second call follows: O come, let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Verse 7 ends with To day if ye will hear his voice, and the address turns: harden not your heart, as in the provocation and the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me and saw my work. The voice says that forty years long he was grieved with this generation, called them a people that do err in their heart and have not known his ways, and swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest.

Cited passages: Psalms 95:1, Psalms 95:2, Psalms 95:3, Psalms 95:4, Psalms 95:5, Psalms 95:6, Psalms 95:7, Psalms 95:8, Psalms 95:9, Psalms 95:10, Psalms 95:11

Psalms 95 (KJV)

1O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

4In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

5The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

6O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

7For 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,

8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

10Forty 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:

11Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

This source prints no superscription; the psalm begins with O come, let us sing unto the Lord. The first seven verses are spoken in the plural, let us, our, we. From the end of verse 7 the address is ye and your, and from verse 9 the speaker is the one whom your fathers tempted, who was grieved forty years and who sware in my wrath, so the voice is God's own. The wilderness events are named only as the provocation, the day of temptation and forty years; the psalm does not narrate what the fathers did beyond tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. The rest that the generation was barred from is not defined in the text. Above all gods in verse 3 is a comparison the psalm does not explain. There is no Selah.

Cited passages: Psalms 95:1, Psalms 95:7, Psalms 95:9, Psalms 95:11, Psalms 95:8, Psalms 95:10, Psalms 95:3

Literary context

The psalm has two calls and a warning. O come is said twice, first to sing and then to bow down and kneel, and each call is followed by a reason beginning For. The reasons move from the size of creation, deep places, hills, sea and dry land, to the closeness of a shepherd, the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. The break comes in the middle of verse 7, where the sheep of his hand are told to day if ye will hear his voice, and the warning that follows is spoken by God rather than about him. Rest is the last word, and it is a rest withheld; the psalm ends in the past, on an oath against the fathers, so that the call to sing today is left standing against that memory.

Cited passages: Psalms 95:1, Psalms 95:6, Psalms 95:3, Psalms 95:7, Psalms 95:4, Psalms 95:11

Key moments

  1. O come, let us sing (Psalms 95:1). The psalm opens with a call to sing and make a joyful noise to the rock of salvation.
  2. The sea is his (Psalms 95:5). The Lord is credited with making the sea and forming the dry land.
  3. Kneel before our maker (Psalms 95:6). A second call asks the hearers to worship, bow down and kneel.
  4. To day if ye will hear (Psalms 95:7). The sheep of his hand are told to hear his voice today, and the address changes.
  5. Harden not your heart (Psalms 95:8). The warning recalls the provocation and temptation in the wilderness.
  6. Not enter into my rest (Psalms 95:11). God's oath against the generation that erred closes the psalm.

For reflection

A song that begins with O come, let us sing ends on the words they should not enter into my rest. What changes about the call to sing when the last thing heard is the oath against the fathers?