Psalms 95:2-11

2 Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.

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

4 He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains.

5 The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.

6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,

7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!

8 The LORD says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.

9 For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did.

10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’

11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”

Psalms 95:2-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 95

This psalm, though without a title, was written by David, as appears from Heb 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, Heb 3:7-11, 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.