Psalms 95 · The Lantern

O come, let us make songs to the Lord; sending up glad voices to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody with holy songs.

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

The deep places of the earth are in his hand; and the tops of the mountains are his.

The sea is his, and he made it; and the dry land was formed by his hands.

O come, let us give worship, falling down on our knees before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God; and we are the people to whom he gives food, and the sheep of his flock. Today, if you would only give ear to his voice!

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

"For He is the Lord our God" [Psalm 95:7]. But that we may without fear fall down and kneel before Him, what are we? "We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." See how elegantly he has transposed the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to be the sheep, who are also the people.

Indeed, no one should continue longer time in his sins out of hope for the mercy of God, since no one wishes to be ill for a longer time in the body because of the hope for future health.

Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land;

When your fathers put me to the test and saw my power and my work.

For forty years I was angry with this generation, and said, They are a people whose hearts are turned away from me, for they have no knowledge of my ways;

"See, O people, the grace of Christ about you. Even while you are harassed on earth, you have possessions in heaven. There, then, let your heart be, where your possession is." This is the rest that is due the just and is denied the unworthy.

Did not the prophet, speaking in behalf of God, say to you, "Forty years I was offended with that generation, and I said, 'These always err in heart.' " How was it, then, that at that time God did not turn away from you?

"Forty years long was I very near unto this generation, and said, It is a people that do always err in their hearts; for they have not known My ways" [Psalm 95:10]. The forty years have the same meaning as the word "always." For that number forty indicates the fullness of ages, as if the ages were perfected in this number.

And I made an oath in my wrath, that they might not come into my place of rest.

Psalms95