Psalm 95 teaches us celebrative worship of God but also warns us against unbelief and having a stubborn, resistant heart toward God’s word and God’s ways. We will look at three reasons for worship and thanksgiving in the psalm that protect us from ingratitude and unbelief.
The first is God’s salvation: “O come let us sing to the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation” (verse 1). Salvation is entirely of grace, something given by God not for any merit in us, but according to his good pleasure.
The salvation God gives to us is a great salvation. In Psalm 40:3, David says, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” This is the case with any who has salvation; the gospel leads you to Christ and out of the pit of destruction.
The assurance of salvation is often depicted as a rock, an immovable foundation; the words of this hymn are good: “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Christ is the rock of our salvation. There is no other name under heaven whereby men shall be saved. Those who believe in Christ, like David, are walking on a firm foundation. The gospel first offers us Christ and then all the benefits of Christ.
The Lord Jesus said that the man who builds the house of his soul on Christ’s words builds on a rock and has eternal life. God is of eternal duration. The eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of his promise of salvation, the comfort of the Christian.
For this reason, we are encouraged to come into the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving, to make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise (verse 2). Can there be faith where there is no joy or singing in view of so great a salvation? Isaac Watts in one of his hymns writes, “Let those refuse to sing that never knew our God; but children of the heavenly King speak their joys abroad.”
In verses 3-5 we see that the second reason to worship and thank God is the glory of God: “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (verse 3). That God is above all gods is a rebuke to those who worship idols and the futility of it. God is self-existent; he has his being in himself. He has no dependence upon any, and there is no god besides him.
God reigns over all and has absolute power over all things: “In his hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are his also” (verse 4). God renders control over the inmost recesses in the depths of the oceans and the earth, and there is no niche in the highest mountains that God doesn’t know.
The psalmist is encouraging deep meditation about God’s greatness. Who is like the Lord our God? God is a Spirit, not a force or bare spiritual substance, but an understanding, personal being; holy, wise, just, and good. God is the first, highest, and most excellent Being of all, infinite and unchangeable in all perfection; therefore, he has a right to direct all others that are not so. It is matter of great joy and worship when you can say that such a great God is your God.
The third reason for joyous worship is knowing and admiring Christ: “Come let us worship and bow down; let us 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” (verses 6-7). Who is like our Good Shepherd, through whom all things were made, yet who laid down his life for his sheep? Blessed be his name to us, and worthy is the Lamb to receive all glory, honor, and blessing.
The warnings in verses 8-11 are repeated in the New Testament (Hebrews chapter 3). How can you know your faith is genuine? Those with spurious faith are not changed by God’s word and do not know his ways. Learn to listen humbly to God’s word and grow in your admiration of Christ. Turn the admiration into worship. The one who knows Christ is pleased more that Christ is his deliverer than that he was delivered and that Christ is his strength than that he gives him strength.
