Joyful Singing in Psalm 95 Is Better Than Hard Hearts

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” Psalm 95:1-2

When a layer of life is scraped off by the circumstances of life, it is good to employ the discipline of praise! We are invited to enter his presence with grateful song. He is the tested rock of salvation and in confidence we are compelled to sing our praise-filled songs.

“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” Psalm 95:3

The Lord, our rock, has been tested and found faithful. Our great King has the depths of the earth and the mountain heights in his hand. The sea and the dry land are among his created wonder. After all, he formed it all.

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Psalm 95:6-7

There is an appropriate response to a great God and King. There is an appropriate response to the promise of our Rock of Salvation. Especially when you cannot earn it. You don’t deserve it. It is a free gift. As Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Our appropriate response is worship. We are his sheep, and we bow down before him. We kneel in adoration. He is our Lord, our Maker. He stakes a claim on our lives. We needed a Rock of Salvation. Paul explains in Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” Psalm 95:7-9

All fall short of God’s glory and the required payment is death. Unless we receive his free gift. He paid the debt and assigned the benefit to us. But we have to open our ears to him. We must refuse to harden our hearts. Like Meribah and Massah. How terrible to be an example of those who hardened their hearts. Previous generations put God to the test even though they had seen the works of his hands. He loathed this generation’s forty years of going astray. They refused to know his ways.

Protect us, Lord, from hardening our hearts.

By the way, loss has a way of softening your heart. Embrace the lessons of your losses. There are lessons of hope for you.

Don’t miss the singing, the joy, the thanksgiving, and the songs of praise. Kneel in humble adoration as one of the sheep of his pasture. Worship and bow down. Humility befits the saved.

Arrogance leads to closed ears, hard hearts, and distrust. It also leads to expulsion from the rest God has promised us. He swears that the hard-hearted will not enter into his rest.

“Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Psalm 95:11