Outline of Chapter 95

         Introduction         An Introduction to Psalm 95

         Inscription            Psalm 95 Inscription

         vv.     1–7a         Option 1: the psalmist enjoins us to worship God

Come to God with Singing and Thanksgiving (vv. 1–2)

Why We Come to God with Singing and Thanksgiving (vv. 3–5)

Come to God to Worship Him (v. 6)

Why We Come to God to Worship Him (v. 7a)

         vv.    7b–11         Option 2: the rebellion of Gen X

         Addendum          Psalm 95 Addendum

Charts, Short Doctrines and Maps

         Introduction         Barnes Outlines Psalm 95

         Inscription            Psalm 95 Inscription Text from the Greek Septuagint (Psalm 94 in LXX)

         v.       3              A Chart of the Names of God

         v.       3              The Names of God and the Meanings of these Names

         v.       4              God and the Seas

         v.       6              The Short Doctrine of Bârak^e

         v.       6              Clarke Summarizes the Acts of Worship in Psalm 95:6

         v.       7a            God is our Shepherd; We are His Sheep

         v.       7a            Matthew Henry: How and Why God is Praised

         v.       7a            Psalm 95:6–9 Properly Divided Up

         v.       8              Hardness of Heart Resources

         v.       9              Do Not Test God

         v.      10              Gen X was Made up of Believers

         v.      10              Repositioning 40 Years

         v.      10              All of Israel’s Failures in the Desert-Wilderness; God’s Grace and/or Discipline

         v.      10              What the Exodus Symbolized

         v.      11              “They Will Not Enter into My Rest” An Object Lesson

         v.      11              God’s Promises

         Addendum          Bullinger’s Organizational Chart for Psalms 95–100

         Addendum          A Complete Translation of Psalm 95

I ntroduction: When it comes to the interpretation of Scripture, I believe strongly in immediate context, original language and using Scripture to interpret Scripture. I have probably quoted from Psalm 95 more than any other passage of Scripture since I began writing. However, I am not the first person to do this; the unnamed writer of Hebrews quoted this psalm no less than three times in his epistle. The psalmist begs his readers or listeners: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts! (Psalm 95:7b–8a).

When I first began exegeting this psalm, I felt that it was properly placed with the Pentateuch, as it covers Gen X in the book of Exodus. However, this seems to be a companion psalm to Psalm 96, which is clearly a part of the celebration of the moving of the Ark to Jerusalem under David. However, like many psalms, there is more of a universal feel to this psalm; it deals with positive volition and negative volition; it deals with believers observing God’s power and still being negative toward Him. It deals with the celebration and glorification of Jesus Christ, and the reasons why. Therefore, there are a number of appropriate times to teach this psalm.

This psalm begins one way and ends completely differently. At first, it sounds as though this will be a psalm of little happy thoughts; and then, suddenly, midway through the psalm, the author speaks of the hardening of one’s heart, and there is this sudden turn to warning and speaking of gen X, the generation which God struck down in the desert. I am only speculating, but my feeling is that the author of this psalm sat down to write a psalm of happy thoughts and suddenly found himself gripped by the Spirit of Life and led in a different direction, changing the entire tenor of this poem.

I think the key to this psalm is the two basic choices which we have in this life: positive volition toward God or negative volition toward God. We face this at salvation: do we believe in Jesus Christ or not; and we face this in the life that we lead afterwards: do we stay in fellowship or do we rebel against God? In this psalm, we are first enjoined to sing to God and to come before Him with thanksgiving (vv. 1–7a). In this first portion of Psalm 95, there are two keys: how God ought to be praised and why God ought to be praised (this will be summed up after v. 7a with an extended quote by Matthew Henry).

The alternate approach is that of the Meribah Generation, those who moaned and complained continually before God in the desert wilderness (vv. 7b–11), despite the fact that He saw to their every need and was ready to bring them into the Land of Promise. God abhorred this generation (Psalm 95:10) and left their dead bodies strewn throughout the desert (Num. 14:23, 28–30: They will by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor will any of those who spurned Me see it. "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. Surely you will not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.).

We begin this psalm with several exhortations to sing for joy to Jehovah, to shout joyfully to Him in the first two verses. In vv. 3–7a, we are given ample reasons why we ought to praise Him: the earth and all that is in it was made by Him and belongs to Him (vv. 4–5). Then the psalmist enjoins us to come before God in worship, (v. 6); and tells us that we should come before Him because we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand (v. 7a).

Beginning with v. 7b, this psalm takes a dark turn. It focuses in on the generation of failure, Gen X, those who were adults when leaving the land of Egypt. This generation tried and tested God (vv. 8–9) and God loathed this generation (v. 10a). The key is, this generation went astray in their thinking and did not know Bible doctrine (v. 10b); and the end result is, God would not allow them entrance into the Land of Promise (v. 11).

We have a limited view of God; God is so multifaceted that we do not see but a small portion of His character manifested in any situation. We have Christians and pseudo-Christians whose concept of God as their best buddy who hangs with them and to Whom they speak informally as they would to one of their droogs. However, this psalm begins that way, albeit not near as informally, and then suddenly it reveals God’s response to those in rebellion to Him, which is anything but sweet little happy thoughts.

The tenor of this psalm is very similar to Asaph’s work. It begins very similarly to Psalm 81:1: Sing aloud to God, our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. This psalm will also drift into the history of Israel; particularly the time of Moses, a favorite theme of Asaph. For these reasons, it would not be a shock to me if Asaph turned out to be the human author of this psalm; however, this is speculation. The Latin Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac all ascribe this psalm to David. The Hebrew and Chaldee do not.

A portion of this psalm, quoted by the author of Hebrews, is preceded by the phrase He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying in David... (Heb. 4:7a). However, since David is the human author of so many of these psalms, the language allows for this to simply reference the psalms in general, rather than to specify him as the author of this particular song. So the quotation from Hebrews does not indicate that David is, without a doubt, the author of this psalm, although it certainly seems more likely. The NIV Study Bible speculates that a Levite or a priest read this to the assembled Israelites at the temple. Calmet and other eminent critics believe that it was composed during the time of the captivity, and that the apostle only followed the common opinion in quoting it as the production of David, because in general the Psalter was attributed to him. Certainly, there are many speculative ideas with regards to the authorship of this psalm, but I don’t know that there is any sort of real support for these ideas.

Having grown up spiritually under R. B. Thieme Jr., I am used to things being presented dogmatically. When it comes to the essentials of the faith, dogmatism is called for. So, it is dogmatically true that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone; it is absolutely true that believers get out of fellowship by sinning and that we get back into fellowship by naming our sins to God; and it is a solid fact that the military is an honorable profession and that the military is essential to a nation’s freedom. However, when it comes to such things as, who wrote this psalm, there is no reason to be dogmatic. Because David is mentioned in Hebrews as the author and because his name is affixed to this psalm in the Greek and Latin, I certainly lean toward David being the author. In fact, I give this a 90% certainty. However, this is a non-essential of the faith, a matter of speculation, and we are allowed to be less than dogmatic when dealing with these non-essentials.

Furthermore, we do not know when this psalm was written. It was certainly after the entrance of Israel into the Land of Promise and it certainly speaks of the Hebrew people specifically. The time of David and Asaph is a reasonable time period in which to assume this song was written. The occasion, or the reason, for this psalm, is equally nonspecific. As I have said, it is just as though the author had sat down to write one psalm and suddenly found himself borne by the Spirit to write something entirely different. In any case, the number of times this psalm is quoted authoritatively in the New Testament indicates that there is no doubt as to its divine authority and authorship.

Psalm 95 Inscription

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          A canticle for David himself. laus cantici David

Masoretic Text                       Not found.

Septuagint                              The praise of a Song by David.

Significant differences:           This inscription is not found in the Hebrew at all. The Greek and Latin appear to be identical; I do not have this phrase in my English Peshitta. However, according to two commentators, this inscription is found in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions.

Apart from the Complete Apostles’ Bible, I am not aware of any translation which includes this inscription. In fact, I am not even aware of a translation which even footnotes this discrepancy.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

None have this inscription.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Complete Apostles’ Bible      The praise of a Song by David.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

None have this inscription.

What is the gist of this verse? David is clearly named as the author of this psalm.

Translation: Praise of a song by David. This is a very odd inscription indeed. David is reasonably the author, and in Psalm 96, which appears to be a companion psalm, there are many more evidences of this. However, the second half of this psalm will warn the listener not to be like the Gen X (or, if you would rather, the Meribah Generation). The final 4 verses will excoriate this generation, ending with, “I swore in My anger, “Truly they will not enter into My rest!’ ” This is fascinating material for a song of praise.

Let me hasten to add, this inscription is not found in the Hebrew, but only in the Greek and Latin, as well as the Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac. I do not have an English translation of the Ethiopic or the Arabic, and my Syriac version does not have any of the inscriptions.

In Psalm 96, I provided some theories about why the Greek/Latin inscription is probably valid. Here, we have less to work with here (however, the existence of this inscription in so many languages and the fact that it is quoted in Hebrews along with David’s name suggest that David did write this psalm). My guess, at this point, is, Jewish tradition added many of these inscriptions long after the fact—before 300 b.c. but considerably after 1000 b.c. These inscriptions revealed a long-standing viewpoint, but were not found with the original text. Therefore, the Masorites and the copyists before them, recognizing that this is the Word of God, left these insertions out; and the Greek and Hebrew translators of the LXX included them for their historical importance. Let me emphasize, this is speculation and nothing more. The fact that Jerome included these same inscriptions in the Latin Vulgate supports my theory. All I am doing is proposing a theory as to why we find these inscriptions in the Greek and the Latin, but not in the Hebrew.

In Psalm 96, we also move from praising God to God’s final judgment. Psalm 95 we end with a judgement in time; in Psalm 96, we end with eternal judgment. In fact, there are a great many parallels in Psalms 95–101, some of which will be explored by Bullinger later on in this exegetical study.

Option 1: The Psalmist Enjoins Us to Worship God

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Come, let us sing to Y^ehowah

let us shout to a rock of our deliverance [or, Jesus].

Septuagint                              Come, let us exult to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to God our Saviour.

Significant differences:           The first verb which enjoins us to sing loudly and exuberantly is not strongly different from the Greek verb, which means to exult, to show joy. The second pair of verbs are closer in meaning. However, the big difference is God in the Greek as compared to rock in the Hebrew. In fact, the Greek, Latin and Syriac all have God instead of rock. Now, although that is a big difference, but it is clear that God is our Savior and the Rock (Jesus Christ) is our Savior. So, even though there is some disparity in the ancient manuscripts, there is no serious problem with doctrinal differences.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Sing joyful songs to the LORD! Praise the mighty rock where we are safe.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Come, let us praise the LORD! Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us!

The Message                         Come, let's shout praises to GOD, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us

New Century Version             Come, let's sing for joy to the Lord.

Let's shout praises to the Rock who saves us.

New Jerusalem Bible             Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh,

acclaim the rock of our salvation.

New Life Version                    Come, let us sing with joy to the Lord. Let us sing loud with joy to the rock Who saves us.

Revised English Bible            Come! Let us raise a joyful song to the Lord,

A shout of triumph to the rock of our salvation.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

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

Easy English (Churchyard)    Come, we will sing together to the *LORD!

We will shout aloud to the *Rock that makes us safe!

HCSB                                     Come, let us shout joyfully to the LORD, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

JPS (Tanakh)                         Come, let us sing joyously to the Lord,

raise a shout for our rock and deliverer;...

NET Bible®                             Come! Let's sing for joy to the LORD!

Let's shout out praises to our protector who delivers us [Hebrew: "to the rocky summit of our deliverance."]!

The Scriptures 1998              Come, let us sing to יהוה! Let us raise a shout to the Rock of our deliverance.

Today’s NIV                          Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

A Conservative Version         O come, let us sing to LORD. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

LTHB                                     O come, let us sing to Jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.

NASB                                     O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation

Young's Literal Translation     Come, we sing to Jehovah, We shout to the rock of our salvation.

What is the gist of this verse? We are called upon to sing to Jehovah and to shout out with joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Translation: Come, let us sing to Y^ehowah... This is a call to celebrate what God has done on their behalf. Both Psalm 95 and 96 begin with a call for us to sing to Jehovah. The idea is, these are psalms, and they were meant to be sung aloud and in a group (because of the 1^st person plurals). Psalms 98 and 100 begin with imperatives to also sing out to Jehovah (although the verb is different in Psalm 100).

By application, I believe that it is reasonable for us to sing doctrinal songs in church.

Translation:...[and] let us shout out to the Rock of our salvation. These same verbs were both found in Psalm 81:1, indicating a similarity of style. The verb found here is reasonably translated to shout, to shout out. It is used for warlike shouts (Joshua 6:16 1Sam. 17:20); for the shout of triumph, (Judges 15:14); and for the sound or blast of a trumpet (Num. 10:9 Joel 2:1). Such praise in public worship would no doubt be dynamic and animated.