September 26, 2018 (Wednesday)
This is the first of a group of Psalms (95-100) strongly marked by common characteristics and obviously intended for liturgical use. The key-note of them has already been struck in Psalms 93, which forms a prelude to them, and should be studied in connexion with them. It seems highly probable that they were composed for the Dedication of the Second Temple in b.c. 516, and that the Septuagint titles of Psalms 96, When the house was being built after the Captivity, and Psalms 97, When his land was being settled, preserve a true tradition as to their date.(Cambridge Bible Commentary).
Psalm 95
New International Version (NIV)
I. A call to Unite in Worshiping the LORD (1-2)
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
II. Worship Him Because He Is the Supreme King, the Lord of the World (3-5)
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
III. Worship The LORD, on the Ground of His Relation to Israel (6 -7)
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
IV. Israel Must Not Repeat the Sins of Obstinacy and Unbelief (8-11)
(7)Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,[a]
as you did that day at Massah[b] in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.'”
Footnotes:
Psalm 95:8 Meribah means quarreling.
Psalm 95:8 Massah means testing.
Compare three translations side by side. Click here.
Oh, Worship the King
William Kethe, pub.1561
recast by Robert Grant, pub.1833
Joseph M. Kraus, ca.1785
arr. by William Gardiner, pub.1815
Oh, worship the King, all-glorious above,
Oh, gratefully sing His pow’r and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
Oh, tell of His might, oh, sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
New International Version (NIV)
I. A call to Unite in Worshiping the LORD (1-2)
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
II. Worship Him Because He Is the Supreme King, the Lord of the World (3-5)
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
III. Worship The LORD, on the Ground of His Relation to Israel (6 -7)
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
IV. Israel Must Not Repeat the Sins of Obstinacy and Unbelief (8-11)
(7)Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,[a]
as you did that day at Massah[b] in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.'”
Footnotes:
Psalm 95:8 Meribah means quarreling.
Psalm 95:8 Massah means testing.
Compare three translations side by side. Click here.
Oh, Worship the King
William Kethe, pub.1561
recast by Robert Grant, pub.1833
Joseph M. Kraus, ca.1785
arr. by William Gardiner, pub.1815
Oh, worship the King, all-glorious above,
Oh, gratefully sing His pow’r and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
Oh, tell of His might, oh, sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!