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. One might envision this song being sung, and then shouts from the audience at this juncture. At Berachah Church, on some military holidays, portions of the various military hymns are played, and for each one, servicemen from that service will shout out urah! (or whatever their shout is). It is actually quite stirring and I am sure there is a great comradery among the men in the congregation who do this. I envision the public singing of this psalm as being quite similar.

So this is a shout of triumph, of victory. Generally with such a shout, there are winners and losers. In v. 3, the winner with be Jehovah Elohim and the loser will be the gods of the heathen. At the end of this psalm, those who hear and give attention to God’s voice are winners; those who do not are losers (like the Meribah generation in vv. 7b–11).

God was known more in the Old Testament as the Rock of their salvation than in the New. “Y^ehowah lives, and blessed be my Rock and exalted by the God of the Rock of my salvation.” (2Sam. 22:47). The idea of a rock is permanence, stability and strength. Jehovah is my strength, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock; I will trust in Him; He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower (Psalm 18:2). However, there are New Testament passages which refer to Jesus Christ as the Rock: It stands written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a Stumbling-stone and a Rock-of-offense, and everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame." (Rom. 9:33 Isa. 8:14; compare 1Peter 2:8). And all were baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were scattered in the wilderness (1Cor. 10:2–5; see Ex. 17 Num. 20). Paul clearly tells us that the Rock in the desert wilderness was Jesus Christ. Interestingly enough, the references to Christ as the Rock in the gospels requires careful exegesis (see Matt. 7:24–29 16:18 Luke 6:48).

If you have studied Psalm 96 already, then you know there is a line where we have a word which could either be translated salvation or possibly transliterated Joshua (Jesus). The final word of this verse is a similar word, with the same stem, but it would not be an abbreviated form of Joshua. However, the Rock of our Salvation (the final words of v. 1) is clearly Jesus Christ.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Let us go before His faces in thanksgiving;

in a song, we shout to Him.

Septuagint                              Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.

Significant differences:           How we praise God—with a song—can also be rendered psalm. Therefore, there are no significant differences between the Greek and the Hebrew.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Come to worship him with thankful hearts and songs of praise.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise.

The Message                         Let's march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns!

New Century Version             Let's come to him with thanksgiving.

Let's sing songs to him,...

New Life Version                    Let us come before Him giving thanks. Let us make a sound of joy to Him with songs.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody with holy songs.

Easy English (Churchyard)    Come into (God's) house and thank him!

Tell him that he is great!

(Do it) with music and with songs!.

God’s Word™                         Let's come into his presence with a song of thanksgiving. Let's shout happily to him with psalms.

HCSB                                     Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to Him in song.

JPS (Tanakh)                         let us come into His presence with praise;

let us raise a shout for Him in song!

NET Bible®                             Let's enter his presence [Hebrew "meet his face"] with thanksgiving!

Let's shout out to him in celebration [Hebrew "with songs of joy"]!

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

English Standard Version      Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

WEB                                      Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol him with songs!

Young's Literal Translation     We come before His face with thanksgiving, With psalms we shout to Him.

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist calls upon us to come before God with thanksgiving and to sing psalms loudly to Him.

Translation: Let us come before His face in thanksgiving [or, confession or praise];... We begin this verse with the Piel imperfect voluntative of qâdam, one of the more interesting words as it is rendered both to prevent and to come. Contrast 2Sam. 22:6 Job 3:12 30:27 Psalm 18:18 (prevent) with Deut. 23:4 Psalm 89:14 Micah 6:6 (to come before). In all cases, we are dealing with the Piel stem. The connection between the two seemingly disparate meanings is that when you stand before someone or move in front of them, you are preventing them from moving forward. You are right in their face. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as we are enjoined to do so by the psalmist in this verse. We are to get right in front of God, as it were, right before His face (literally). He cannot go to the left or to the right because we are right there in front of Him. This is how the verb and the direct object interact here.

Now, coming before God or into His presence can mean several things. Spurgeon suggests that this means coming before His holy Ark. I reject that simply because 99% of the Israelites never saw the Ark of God ever—not once in their lifetimes. In fact, many who saw the Ark close up died (1Sam. 6:19). Coming into God’s presence can refer to an actual place—e.g., outside of the Tabernacle where sacrifices are offered. It could refer to the celebration surrounding David’s bringing the Ark into Jerusalem. However, anytime that we pray or listen to an accurate MP3 lesson, we are coming into the presence of God. The study that I am involved with is in the presence of God; you reading these words right now, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, are in the presence of God.

We are to approach God with thanksgiving when we are in prayer. This is a recognition in our soul of the provisions which God has given us. This is a part of our walk before angelic observance. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For, Y^ehowah is good; His grace is everlasting and His faithfulness [is] to all generations (Psalm 104:4–5). Although the context of that psalm involves entrance into the gates of the tabernacle, the principle is the same for entering into God’s holy gates of prayer. For we are even enjoined to: Sing to Y^ehowah with thanksgiving; sing praises to our God on the lyre (Psalm 147:7). All spiritual activity should be intermixed with thanksgiving. “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed, I will pay. Deliverance is from Y^ehowah.” (Jonah 2:9). And don’t become drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your thinking to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father (Eph. 2:18–20).

On the human level, there are some spoiled children (many, in fact) and even a number of adults who have no sense of thanksgiving toward anyone. You don’t want to do anything for these people; you don’t want to give them a gift, you don’t want to give them your time, you don’t want to sacrifice even an iota of whatever is yours for them because it means nothing to them. The lack of a verbalized thank you (or a sincere one), means total lack of capacity of the soul. If the person has no capacity for it, why give it to him in the first place? God deals with us in the same way. Except when He is making a point, there are many blessings which we never receive, that God has in the mail room ready to ship to us. Why bless us if the blessing means nothing to us? Why bless us if we have no capacity for it? If God tells us not to cast our pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), then obviously He will follow His own advice.

Let me give you an example of romance: why would God introduce a man to his right woman if this man is going to abuse her, berate her, bully her, and possess not one iota in his soul of thankfulness for this woman? What exactly is the point? If this man has some capacity for love and some capacity for thankfulness, then giving him his right woman has some meaning, and it is a gift that he can appreciate.

Another example: there are some family heirlooms which are passed down from generation to generation. In my family, I suspect it will be the paintings which my father has done. Now, if I am to pass along the paintings in my possession to a son who is 4 or 14, it will have very little meaning to him. If I pass it along to a son who is 34—one with some capacity for life—then such a gift will have real meaning. For women, this could be a string of pearls which has been with the family for several generations or a ring or some kind of jewelry; for men, it may be a watch which was brought from Germany by a great, great grandfather who moved here, and that was his only prized possession.

The key to capacity in the soul for the believer is Bible doctrine in the soul. The more you know God and the more you recognize your place in this world, the greater your capacity for life and the more likely that you have some true measure of thanksgiving in your soul for what you receive.

Of course, this does not mean that we cite our blessings by rote in order to pump God for more materialistic blessings. This is no more beneficial than the vain repetitions of the religious (Matt. 6:7). You don’t get to work God. He can see our motivations; He examines the inner man. Wouldn’t God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart (Psalm 44:21). “I, Y^ehowah, search the heart; I test the emotions, even to give to each man according to his ways and according to the results of his deeds.” (Jer. 17:10). We can’t even use the excuse that we are self-deluded, as God’s Word will help us in that respect: For the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). The key is what is in the soul.

Translation: ...we will shout out to Him with a song. In this verse we have the repetition of the word rûwa׳ (from v. 1b), which is in the Hiphil imperfect, meaning that they have been caused to shout. The invitation of the psalmist is so different from the end of this psalm, as we will see.

The shouting out to God will be organized and melodic—it will be done with a song or a psalm. In these areas, we have to have some soul function beyond emotion. I gave the illustration earlier of Berachah church and the various servicemen who would make various sounds when they hear their anthem being played—this is a soul response and I am sure it involves memory and comradery and an appreciation for the experiences which they have had. This is what we need in our lives is a soul response to God for all that He has given us and for this wonderful life.

——————————

For the first two verses, we are told to come to God and to sing to Him. In v. 3, we are told why we ought to come before Him in thanksgiving and praise.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       For Êl great Y^ehowah

and a King great above all elohim.

Septuagint                              For the Lord is a great God, and a great king over all gods; for the Lord will not cast off his people. The Hebrew and the Alexandrian Septuagint omit the 2^nd sentence.

Significant differences:           The 2^nd phrase is only found in the LXX; it is not found in the Hebrew, Latin, Syriac or even in the Alexandrian Septuagint.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       The LORD is the greatest God, king over all other gods.

Good News Bible (TEV)         For the LORD is a mighty God, a mighty king over all the gods.

The Message                         And why? Because GOD is the best, High King over all the gods.

New Jerusalem Bible             For Yahweh is a great God,

a king greater than all the gods.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Complete Apostles’ Bible      For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all gods; for the Lord will not cast off His people.

Easy English (Churchyard)    (This is) because the *LORD is the great God.

He is the great king that is more important than every other god.

JPS (Tanakh)                         For the Lord is a great God,

the great king of all divine beings.

NET Bible®                             For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to [Hebrew: above] all gods.

NIRV                                      The Lord is the great God.

He is the greatest King.

He rules over all of the gods.

The Scriptures 1998              For יהוה is a great Ěl, And a great Sovereign above all mighty ones.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

A Voice in the Wilderness      For Jehovah is the great and Mighty God, and the great King above all gods.

WEB                                      For Yahweh is a great God, A great King above all gods..

Young's Literal Translation     For a great God is Jehovah, And a great king over all gods.

What is the gist of this verse? In the next few verses, we are told why we should come to God in song and with thanksgiving. In v. 3, God is greater than all other gods.

Translation: For Y^ehowah [is] a great God [Êl]... The Hebrew tends to list the subject after the predicate nominative (or after the direct object), which is why you see the order we have here with Y^ehowah being listed first in the translation. This sentence simply explains why Jehovah Elohim is worthy of our praise, our songs and our adoration.

This may be a good time to examine the Doctrine of the Old Testament Names for God. At some time, I may want to move this doctrine into the book of Genesis. Some of the charts include in this doctrine include: The Names of God and the Meanings of these Names, How These Names Refer to God's Interaction with Man, How These Names Relate to God's Salvation for Man, and How These Names Relate to God's Character and Essence

Translation: ...and [He is] a great King over all gods,... We find similar phrasing and sentiment throughout Scripture: Great is Y^ehowah and highly praised; and His greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3). We find very similar phrasing in Psalm 135:5: For I know that Y^ehowah is great, and that our Y^ehowah is above all gods. Psalm 96:4: For great is Y^ehowah and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. Palm 97:9: For You are Y^ehowah, Most High, over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. This concept of other gods may confuse some people, but there is nothing to it. We know that there is no other God but God: “Thus proclaims Y^ehowah, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, Y^ehowah of the armies, ‘I am the first and I am the last; there is no God besides Me...Is there any God besides Me or is there any other Rock? I know of none’ ” (Isa. 44:6, 8b). “I am Y^ehowah, and there is no other; besides Me, there is no God...There is no one besides Me; I am Y^ehowah, and there is no other...And there is no other God besides Me. A righteous God and a Savior, there is none except Me” (Isa. 45:5a, 6b, 21b). However, nations had their own particular deities to whom they prayed and whom they attempted to appease. These deities were figments of their imagination, with no foundation in reality except that behind each national deity would be a demon or a legion of demons, who would accept this praise and their acts of appeasement. In this way, God is above these other deities; they are created beings who chose to go against God.

Paul explained it to us in 1Cor. 8:5–6: For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords; yet, for us, there is one God, the Father, from Whom are all things, and we [exist] for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and we {exist] through Him.

The NIV Study Bible explains it: Why Israel is to praise the Lord—because he is above all gods, and there is no corner of the universe that is not in his hand. The ancient pagan world had different gods for different peoples, different geographical areas, different cosmic regions (heaven, earth, netherworld) and different aspects of life (e.g., war, fertility, crafts).

We find this same theme in Ex. 18:11 Psalm 86:8–10 96:4 97:9 135:5 145:3 Isa. 44:8 Jer. 10:6–7, 10–16.

Barnes writes: This does not mean that he is a great ruler of all other gods, as if they had a real existence, but that he is king or ruler far above all that were worshipped as gods, or to whom homage was paid. Whoever, or whatever was worshipped as God, Jehovah was supreme over all things. He occupied th e throne; and all others must be beneath him, and under his dominion. If the sun, the moon, or the stars were worshipped,—if the mountains or the rivers,—if angels good or bad,—yet Jehovah was above all these. If imaginary beings were worshipped, yet Jehovah in his perfections was exalted far above all that was ascribed to them; for He was the true God, and the Ruler of the universe, while they were beings of the imagination only. God is exalted above all other gods here as the King over all in this verse, as the Creator of all things in vv. 4–6 and as the Shepherd of His people in v. 7.

Spurgeon writes: No doubt the surrounding nations imagined Jehovah to be a merely local deity, the god of a small nation, and therefore one of the inferior deities; the Psalmist utterly repudiates such an idea. Idolaters tolerated gods many and lords many, giving to each a certain measure of respect; the monotheism of the Jews was not content with this concession, it rightly claimed for Jehovah the chief place, and the supreme power. He is great, for he is all in all; he is a great King above all other powers and dignitaries, whether angels or princes, for they owe their existence to him; as for the idol gods, they are not worthy to be mentioned. This verse and the following supply some of the reasons for worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the Lord.

I hope that you realize that we are blessed far beyond angels as we have chosen to go our own way, we have rebeled against God, and He redeemed us. We are saved through the cross. The Bible indicates no such reprieve for angelic beings. Those angelic beings who chose against God once will spend eternity apart from Him and apart from His gracious provision (just as those of us of humankind who spend our entire lives pushing God away, will spend our eternity apart from Him as a matter of free will).

There is no verb in this verse, emphasizing its importance. We have two different words for God, apart from Y^ehowah, in this verse. The first is the singular êl and the second is the very common ělôhîym. As has been already referenced, I have covered the Old Testament Names for God as a doctrine. However, just in case you do not check that out, let me include a couple of basic charts from that doctrine:

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.

Masoretic Text                       That in His hand depths of earth

and summits of mountains to Him.

Peshitta                                  In His hand are the foundations of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also.

Septuagint                              For the ends of the earth are in his hands; and the heights of the mountains are his.

Significant differences:           Although both the Greek and Latin speak of the ends [boundaries] of the earth, the Hebrew word is only found here, and therefore, may have been difficult for them to translate. See the Hebrew exegesis.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       He holds the deepest part of the earth in his hands, and the mountain peaks belong to him.

Good News Bible (TEV)         He rules over the whole earth, from the deepest caves to the highest hills.

New Century Version             The deepest places on earth are his,

and the highest mountains belong to him.

New Living Translation           He holds in his hands the depths of the earth

and the mightiest mountains.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

HCSB                                     The depths of the earth are in His hand, and the mountain peaks are His.

NIRV                                      He owns the deepest parts of the earth.

The mountain peaks belong to him.

The Scriptures 1998              In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The mountain peaks are His also.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights and strength of the hills are His also.

Updated Emphasized Bible    In Whose hand are the hidden recesses [or, distant parts] of the earth,

and the peaks of the mountains are His.

King James 2000 Version      In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

LTHB                                     The deep places of the earth are in His hand; the summits of the mountains also are His.

WEB                                      In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.

Young's Literal Translation     In whose hand are the deep places of earth, And the strong places of hills are His.

What is the gist of this verse? God possesses, controls and oversees everything from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the mountains.

We continue with reasons why we ought sing with joy to God and to come to Him with thanksgiving.

Translation: In Whose hand [are] the depths of the earth;... The word depths is mech^eqâr and it is found only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is rendered variously as hidden resources (Rotherham), range (as a place to be explored) (BDB), depths (NASB, NIV, NRSV and Owens), deep places (The Amplified Bible and Young). There is the very similar word châqar (חָקַר) [pronounced khaw-KAHR], which means to search (Strong’s #2713 BDB #350) and its noun cognate chêqer (חֵקֶר) [pronounced KHAY-ker], which is the thing searched out or searched for. Strong’s #2714 BDB #350. Barnes points out that the searching implied is done by digging or boring into the earth; the portion of the earth which lies outside of man’s ordinary observation. Since mech^eqâr is related to the meaning, to search out; it is reasonable that the Greek or Latin would render this the ends of the earth.

We may contrast this phrase with the one which follows, which helps to explain where we get the meaning depths.

The NET Bible tells us that the phrase "in his hand" means within the sphere of his authority. The idea which the psalmist is putting forth is, all of the earth is under the authority of Jehovah Elohim, from the greatest depths to the highest mountains.

Translation: ...even mountain peaks [belong] to Him. By including the depths and the heights of the mountain, the psalmist takes in all of that which is the earth. Whatever Y^ehowah pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the depths (Psalm 135:6). By virtue of being the Creator of these things, God has dominion over them.

Forgive me here, but I want to go on a tangent with respect to this. If all the earth is God’s, then what right do we have to claiming ownership over this or that plot of ground? Aren’t we but sojourners on this earth, and should we not treat the land more like the Indians? Should we not revere it and let it be free of our fences and our mortgages? God told Adam that he would make his way in this world by the sweat of his brow; and, although there are different interpretations given to that, it is clear that both Cain and Abel, Adam’s sons, learned about hunting animals and growing crops. Now, when we come to Israel, God will specifically assign plots of land to this or that tribe, which land will ber further broken up between this or that family—what is important is, they owned this land. The Mosaic Law was very specific on property rights and God’s design for these rights (which, let me make this clear, were made for Israel specifically). If there is private ownership of the land under God’s Law which He gave to Moses, then the idea of the state owning all of the land is wrong. Communism is not any different than the serf system of old, when either the state or certain large landowners owned all of the land, and serfs were allowed to farm this land, but not to own it. Another corruption of this concept is high taxes on property. The government should not be taxing excessively those who own property (or for anything else).

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       That to Him the sea and He made him

and dry land His hands form.

Septuagint                              For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       The ocean is the Lord's because he made it, and with his own hands he formed the dry land.

Good News Bible (TEV)         He rules over the sea, which he made; the land also, which he himself formed.

The Message                         He made Ocean--he owns it! His hands sculpted Earth!.

New American Bible              The sea and dry land belong to God,

who made them, formed them by hand.

New Century Version             The sea is his because he made it,

and he created the land with his own hands.

New Living Translation           The sea belongs to him, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land, too.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

JPS (Tanakh)                         His is the sea, He made it;

and the land, which His hands fashioned.

NET Bible®                             The sea is his, because he made it.

Also, his hands made the dry land.

NIRV                                      The ocean is his, because he made it.

He formed the dry land with his hands.

The Scriptures 1998              His is the sea, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

MKJV                                     The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.

Young's Literal Translation     Whose is the sea, and He made it, And His hands formed the dry land.

What is the gist of this verse? The sea is also God’s, along with the dry land, which He formed with His own hands.

Translation: The sea [is] His,... As is the theme throughout Scripture, the God of Israel is the God of the Earth. At no time does the Bible ever back off from that.

Our earth is filled with a number of things which insure our continued life on this planet. One of those things is the ocean and the percentage of the earth which is covered by the ocean. This maintains moderate temperatures and allows for the water cycle, which we depend upon. All of this was put into place by God.

Translation: ...He made it;... The sea and all is in it is God’s because He made the sea. God had in His mind what environment would be ideal for life, and part of that was the ocean.

Translation: ...and His hands formed dry land. The psalmist points out that everything belongs to God; He has complete rights of ownership, as He made it and formed it. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob and whose hope is in Y^ehowah his God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever (Psalm 146:5–6; also see Jonah 1:9).

Spurgeon comments: “And his hands formed the dry land.” Whether fertile field or sandy waste, he made all that men call terra firma, lifting it from the floods and fencing it from the overflowing waters. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” He bade the isles upraise their heads, he leveled the vast plains, unprepared the table-lands, cast up the undulating hills, and piled the massive Alps. As the potter molds his clay, so did Jehovah with his hands fashion the habitable parts of the earth.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Come, let us bow down and let us bend the knee;

let us kneel down to faces of Y^ehowah our Maker.

Septuagint                              Come, let us worship and fall down before him; and weep before the Lord our Maker.

Significant differences:           Three very similar verbs are found in the Hebrew; the 3^rd verb in the Greek is not really a synonym. Perhaps there just were not enough Greek verbs to match what we find in the Hebrew? The Latin and Syriac are in agreement with the Hebrew.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Bow down and worship the LORD our Creator!

Good News Bible (TEV)         Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

The Message                         So come, let us worship: bow before him, on your knees before GOD, who made us!

New Jerusalem Bible             Come, let us bow low and do reverence;

kneel before Yahweh who made us!

New Life Version                    Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us get down on our knees before the Lord Who made us.

Revised English Bible            Enter in! Let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord who made us,...

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

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

Complete Apostles’ Bible      Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and weep before the Lord that made us.

Easy English (Churchyard)    Come, we will fall down on our knees in front of him.

We will stay on our knees in front of the *LORD that made us.

NIRV                                      Come, let us bow down and worship him.

Let us fall on our knees in front of the Lord our Maker.

The Scriptures 1998              Come, let us bow down and bend low, Let us kneel before יהוה our Maker.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication].

A Voice in the Wilderness      Oh come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker.

WEB                                      Oh come, let's worship and bow down. Let's kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,...

Young's Updated LT              Come in, we bow ourselves, and we bend, We kneel before Jehovah our Maker;...

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist calls upon the hearer to worship and to bow down before Jehovah God.

Translation: Come, let us prostrate ourselves and let us bow down;... The first verb calls for the listener to come, to come in, to enter in. As an imperative, it simple means come.

Barnes: This is an earnest exhortation to come and worship. It is not a particle merely calling attention to a subject, but it is an exhortation to approach—to enter—to engage in a thing. This is not the same verb as is found in v. 1.

This parallels the first two verses of our Psalm, which read: O come, let us sing to Jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His face with praise; let us shout for joy to Him with songs. The prophet Hosea asks the same thing of us: Come and let us return to Jehovah. For He has torn, and He will heal us. He has stricken, and He will bind us up. After two days He will bring us to life. In the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him (Hosea 6:1–2). And in the end times, our witness is: And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And the one hearing, let him say, Come! And the one thirsting, let him come; and the one desiring, let him take of the water of life freely (Rev. 22:17).

We have three verbs in this verse describing physical positions, all of which refer to the worship of God. The first is shâchach, which means to bow, to bow down. We find the same verb in Gen. 18:2, which reads: And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed toward the ground.

This verb is found in the Hithpael (which is the reflexive intensive) imperfect, and I have interpreted the reflexive intensive stem to involve personal motivation. It just means that they are make themselves bow low; but that involve motivation, grace-orientation, authority-orientation and doctrine. In this context, this means likely to prostrates oneself completely on the ground, as was the commons mode of worship.

The next verb of worship is the Qal imperfect voluntative of kâra׳ and it means to bow down, to bend low. We find this same verb used 3 times in Judges 5:27: Between her feet he bowed; he fell; he lay down. Between her feet he bowed; he fell! Where he bowed, there he fell down ruined. This describes Sisera who hides in the tent of Jael, and when he falls asleep, she drives a tent peg through his head, causing him to apparently rise up at first, but then to fall at her feet.

Gill relates this to our Lord in the New Testament: Oh, come, let us bow down and worship before Him; Before him who is the Rock of our salvation, the great God and great King, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the proper object of all religious worship and adoration: Christ is to be worshipped with every part of external worship under the New Testament dispensation; psalms and songs of praise are to be sung unto him; prayer is to be made unto him; the Gospel is to be preached, and ordinances to be administered, in his name; and likewise with all internal worship, in the exercise of every grace on him, as faith, hope, and love. Worshiping Jesus Christ, by the way, is one of the many great evidences of His Deity.

Translation: ...let us kneel down before Y^ehowah our Maker. The third verb is the Qal imperfect voluntative of bârak^e, which means to knee down, to kneel before; and also to bless, to prosper. I have had problems with the idea of us blessing God for a long time. It just does not make a lot of sense to me. I am thinking that in this context, and in similar contexts, when we bless God or are to offer blessing before God, that perhaps this is a metonymy for offering thankfulness or gratitude for the blessings given us; or to do that which causes God to be happy. The former connotation would be in phrasings such as this (before the face of God) and the latter when God is simply the direct object of the verb. As we have seen, face, in the Hebrew, is always in the plural. There is nothing theologically significant to it being in the plural.

To have a better understanding of the verb bârak^e, you may want to examine the Doctrine of Bârak^e, the abbreviated version of which is found below:

Therefore, when addressed to God, bârak^e means to celebrate, to praise, to adore; to bend the knee to (Gen. 9:26). In our context, to celebrate before God or to bend the knee before God are reasonable understandings of this verb.

The psalms are filled with calls to worship. Worship Y^ehowah in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth (Psalm 96:8). Exalt Y^ehowah our God and worship at His footstool. He is holy...exalt Y^ehowah our God and worship at His holy hill, for holy is Y^ehowah our God (Psalm 99:6). I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; Truth has gone from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance (Isa. 45:22b–23 Rom. 14:11).. Since Jesus Christ is God, we are called to sorship Him in the New Testament: Therefore, God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philip. 2:9–11).

Barnes comments were quite interesting at this point. All the expressions here employed denote a posture of profound reverence in worship, and the passage is a standing rebuke to all irreverent postures in prayer; of such habits as often prevail in public worship where no change of posture is made in prayer, and where a congregation irreverently sit in the act of professedly worshiping god. Men show to their fellow men the respect indicated by rising up before them:—much more should they show respect to God—respect in a posture which will indicate profound reverence, and a deep sense of his presence and majesty. Reverently kneeling or standing will indicate this; sitting does not. I include that, not because I subscribe to this idea, but so that you see what others have interpreted this passage as saying. Worship originates with authority orientation in our souls and we kneel, as it were, in our souls. The posture our body takes depends a great deal upon upbringing and personal conviction. I pray often while driving. For me, it is an ideal time to pray, as I have ten to sixty minutes of time otherwise wasted, other than going from point A to point B. My own view, is that the reverence in the heart may or may not result in a change of physical position. The Hebrews were much more physically demonstrative then I am and their worship and their calls to worship reveal that.

Maker is the Qal active participle of ׳âsâh, which means to do, to make, to construct, to fashion, to form. Thieme renders this our continuing manufacturer. The action is not necessarily continuous. The Qal active participle is often used as a noun, describing a person by what he does or has done. In that day, man will have regard for his Maker and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 17:7). In speaking to Zion, God said, “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is Y^ehowah of armies; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.” (Isa. 54:5). But Israel will loose sight of Who her Maker is: For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities. However, I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings (Hosea 8:14).

——————————

I have decided to split v. 7 into two parts. It would have been more correct to place v. 7a at the end of v. 6 and v. 7b with v. 8. After several goes at this section, I can see no other way to play it.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       For He [is] our Elohim, and we [are] people of His pasture and sheep of His hand.

Septuagint                              For He is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

Significant differences:           None, apart from the slight difference in verse division. Both the Latin and Greek Bibles place v. 7b with v. 8 (as do many English Bibles).

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       The LORD is our God, and we are his people, the sheep he takes care of in his own pasture.

Good News Bible (TEV)         He is our God; we are the people he cares for, the flock for which he provides.

The Message                         Oh yes, he's our God, and we're the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.

New American Bible              For this is our God,

whose people we are,

God’s well-tended flock.

New Century Version             ...because he is our God

and we are the people he takes care of,

the sheep that he tends.

New Jerusalem Bible             For he is our God,

and we the people of his sheepfold,

the flock of his hand.

New Life Version                    For He is our God. And we are the people of His field, and the sheep of His hand.

New Living Translation           ...for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over,

the flock under his care.

Revised English Bible            for he is our God,

we the people he shepherds, the flock in his care.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             For he is our God; and we are the people to whom he gives food, and the sheep of his flock.

Easy English (Churchyard)    (We will do this) because he is our God.

Also, we are the people that he feeds and keeps safe.

We are as animals and he is as the farmer (that feeds us)!

God’s Word™                         ...because he is our God and we are the people in his care, the flock that he leads. If only you would listen to him today!

HCSB                                     For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care.

NET Bible®                             For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. [Hebrew: "of his hand."]

NIRV                                      He is our God.

We are the sheep belonging to his flock.

We are the people he takes good care of.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

Updated Emphasized Bible    For He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture and the flock of His hand [Ginsberg thinks, the people of His hand, the flock of His pasture; compare Psalm 79:13 100:3].

WEB                                      For he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, And the sheep in his care.

Young's Updated LT              ...for He is our God, and we the people of His pasture, And the flock of His hand.

What is the gist of this verse? The first part of this verse tells why we ought to kneel down before God: He is our God and we are the people of His pasture as well as the sheep in His hand.

Translation: ...for He [is] our Elohim and we [are] the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. In v. 6, we were enjoined to worship God, and the first portion of this verse indicates why—He is our God and we are His people (in context, this was an Israelite speaking to other Israelites). Israel is called the sheep of God’s pasture in Psalm 100:3: Know that Y^ehowah Himself is God; it is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture (see also Psalm 74:1 Jer. 23:1).

The responsibility and grace given to these people is almost beyond imagination. The God of the universe chose them above all other peoples as His own. Those who subscribe to covenant theology—the concept that true Israel is composed of believers and that we, the church, are true Israel, negates most of the Old Testament. True Israel is composed of the believers who were descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and those who became Hebrew by a profession of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we are, in the Church Age, a spiritual Israel, so to speak, as we believe in the very same God, Jesus Christ, Y^ehowah of the Hebrews. However, we are an entirely different entity with a somewhat different relationship to one another and to God. Our responsibilities are somewhat different and God never confuses us with Israel. We are saved in exactly the same way as true Israel was saved—by believing in Jesus Christ—but we are a separate entity altogether. Otherwise, we should have had tabernacles pop up all over the civilized world at that time and the restriction of worship to one place would have seemed artificially restrictive. After all, we have churches all over the world, and churches which are essentially accurate in their basic doctrine and evangelism. If we have this sort of thing now, why was it not in existence then? The answer is explained quite simply by dispensations: God was operating through a different household at that time; He operated through the Israelites, who were mostly confined to one particular geographical area. Now, that the Israelites are scattered throughout the world, God no longer is working through them but He now works through us, the Church, which is found throughout the world. This is why those who desire God’s truth do not go to a synagogue but they go to a church, as, ideally speaking, the church is now the custodian of God’s Truth.

There are two related problems with covenant theology: (1) No matter what God says, not matter how clearly He states it, if you screw up things bad enough, God can take back what he has said. (2) If you expect for God to come through on His promises, you had damn well better keep up your half of the bargain, or you are going to find yourself up defecation creek without any means of steering or locomotion. When you run into someone who believes in covenant theology (and let’s assume that they gave this some thought and study), you are looking at a legalist. Legalism believes that God’s grace is not quite sufficient, that we need, in some way, kick in our 10%; and if Israel can lose all of the promises made ot her, then do not think there is any such thing as eternal security. Furthermore, this calls into question God’s omniscience. Did God not realize what a spectacular failure Israel would be, and therefore, have to suddenly spiritualize all of Israel’s promises?

Option 2: the Rebellion of Gen X

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       The day if in His voice you hear,...

Septuagint                              Today, if ye will hear his voice,... The LXX rightly places v. 7b with the next verse.

Significant differences:           None, apart from the slight difference in verse division. The Latin Bible also divides the verse up in the same way.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Listen to God's voice today!

Good News Bible (TEV)         Listen today to what he says:...

The Message                         Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:...

New Century Version             Today listen to what he says:...

New Life Version                    If you hear His voice today,...

New Living Translation           If only you would listen to his voice today!

Revised English Bible            If only you would listen to him now!

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Today, if you would only give ear to his voice!

Easy English (Churchyard)    Today, if you hear his voice,...

God’s Word™                         If only you would listen to him today!

HCSB                                     Today, if you hear His voice:...

JPS (Tanakh)                         O, if you would but heed His charge this day:...

NET Bible®                             Today, if only you would obey him [Hebrew: "if only you would listen to his voice."]! The Hebrew particle אִם ('im, "if") and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Psalm 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the "then" clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed. See my notes in the Hebrew exegesis.

NIRV                                      Listen to his voice today.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NRSV                                     O that today you would listen to his voice!

WEB                                      Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

Young's Updated LT              Today, if you hear His voice,...

What is the gist of this verse? The last portion of this verse begins a protasis: If today you hear His voice,..

Translation: Today, if you hear His voice,... After working with this for some time, I could see no other way than to separate v. 7 into two parts, the latter half properly beginning the latter portion of this psalm. Keil and Delitzsch concur, explaining that the second decastich begins in the midst of the Masoretic v. 7. It is at this point where the psalmist takes a turn in the tenor of this psalm. Had you read the first portion of this psalm and later read the second, it is doubtful that you would have thought it to be a complete whole. Similarly, so few people have even a clue as to Who and What God is, that they only have a very limited grasp as to His character. Therefore, they might see His love and his mercy, but they do not realize that He is a holy God, a God of wrath. Now the psalmist presents to us another side of Him Who saved us.

Now, how do we tie these two disparate halves of Psalm 95 together? We have two approaches to Jesus Christ, our Lord: positive volition or negative volition. We can respond to His grace and all that He has provided for us with positive volition, which reasonably includes worship and respect; or we can respond with negative volition, and have our bodies strewn throughout the desert wilderness.

When the writer of this psalm asks us to listen to the voice of God, he then speaks for God in the first person. Recall, all Scripture is God-breathed, so this is more than just a literary device—this is God speaking directly to you. The writer of Hebrews was so moved as to quote this three times.

The first thing to note is the word today, which is literally the day in the Hebrew, but it means today. There are periods of time when God appeals to us; when God speaks to us, and at those times, we ought to listen. For the unbeliever, these are the times when the gospel is given. God does not make the gospel known to the unbeliever every minute of the day. I can recall two times when I heard it, and several times after that when I went back to the book of John and reread certain passages, and believed again, just in case. Once a woman more or less gave me the gospel. I had not even a clue as to what she was saying, but I knew there was a decision to be made. I have no idea even, at this point, what she said, and it was not enough information upon which I could base a decision; but I knew that a decision needed to be made. Soon thereafter, I had reason to be unhappy with my life, and, with circumstances which I still cannot recall, I found myself reading the book of John, where I came upon “Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved” and I believed. That is when I was saved. But, there were many things which occurred in my life prior to that when I should have heard the gospel, but I did not. My point being, God does not follow us around everywhere that we go with a flashing neon sign with the gospel on it. There are points in time for the unbeliever when the gospel is revealed; but God is a gentleman and God allows us to believe or not to believe.

As believers, the illustration here, we hear God’s voice sometimes by choice (going to church); and sometimes not by choice (other believers, flipping through the radio or tv channels). The point at which we hear God’s voice—today that is when we need to listen. God gives us a lot of break time. We can spend less time with God in a given day than we spend having meals, and still grow spiritually. But, the key is the word today; that is the day that we ought to hear and pay attention to God’s voice. For the believer, that should be every day; for the unbeliever, that should be whatever day God speaks to you.

V. 7b is more than just the protasis to a conditional clause. The verb to listen or to hear includes the notion of obedience. In the KJV, we have the excellent rendering hearken; however, this word no longer communicates, so as we update the English, we also lose some of the meaning. Keil and Delitzsch maintain that this has a certain optative significance, as in if only you would, today, listen and obey His voice! However, we cannot discount the direct ties of this verse to the next, as was seen when we translated this above: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       ...you [all] will not harden your heart as Meribah [strife] as a day of Massah [testing, despair] in the wilderness...

Septuagint                              ...harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness...

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Don't be stubborn and rebel as your ancestors did at Meribah and Massah out in the desert.

Good News Bible (TEV)         "Don't be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah, as they were that day in the desert at Massah.

The Message                         "Don't turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, As on the day of the Wilderness Test,...

New Living Translation           The Lord says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,

as they did at Massah in the wilderness.

Revised English Bible            Do not be stubborn, as you were at Meribah,

as on that day at Massah in the wilderness.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Complete Apostles’ Bible      Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, according to the day of trial in the wilderness;...

Easy English (Churchyard)    ...do not refuse to listen (to him).

You did this at *Meribah

and you did it one day at *Massah, in the *desert.

God’s Word™                         "Do not be stubborn like my people were at Meribah, like the time at Massah in the desert.

HCSB                                     "Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness...

NET Bible®                             He says [The words "he says" are supplied in the translation to clarify that the following words are spoken by the Lord (see vv. 9-11)], "Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah [The name Meribah means "strife." Two separate but similar incidents at Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, see also Pss 81:7; 106:32). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them],

like they were that day at Massah [The name Massah means "testing." This was another name (along with Meribah) given to the place where Israel complained following the Red Sea Crossing (see Exod 17:1-7, as well as Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8)] in the wilderness [Hebrew "do not harden your heart[s] as [at] Meribah, as [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness."]....

NIRV                                      If you hear it, don't be stubborn as you were at Meribah.

Don't be stubborn as you were that day at Massah in the desert.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                Harden not your hearts as at Meribah and as at Massah in the day of temptation in the wilderness,...

A Conservative Version         Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, as the day of trial in the wilderness,...

MKJV                                     ...harden not your heart, as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness;...

Young's Literal Translation     ...harden not your heart as in Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,...

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist is called upon the Israelite who hears this psalm, who hears the voice of God, not to harden their hearts, as was done as Meribah and at Massah.

Translation: ...do not harden your hearts... The verb here is in the Hiphil, which means causative stem. Those to whom the psalmist is speaking cause their own hearts to be hardened. This particular verb has a lot of great renderings, including: to be obstinate [stubborn, obstinate, stubborn, pig-headed, self-willed]; to make [a yoke] heavy; to make [something] difficult [severe, burdensome].