Psalm 95
Psalm 95
Fixed on calling the people of God to worship Him, Psalm 95 looks to encourage the proper response of pouring out our praise as an act of obedience. Furthermore, the letter to the Hebrews aids our understanding of what obedience in response to who God is and what He has done for us looks like.
Tonaly, the Psalm begins feeling as though it is just like the other calls to worship for the people of God in the form of song, which is undeniably so. In reflection of God’s greatness as the supreme and sovereign Creator of the earth, everything in it, and our salvation, we are to sing, shout, come before Him with thanksgiving, extol, kneel, and bow down before Him alone. Verse seven presents a transition though, from a call to worship to a statement of identity. Through the imagery of the Shepherd caring for His flock so tenderly and graciously, it is as though the tone of the Psalm takes a dramatic turn when the Psalmist concludes “today, if only you heard His voice” (v.7b).
Even in the times before Jesus, God is seeking to make people who worship Him not only in the reflection of what they witnessed but also with faithful obedience. Yes, He has done all of these incredible things we see in this Psalm. Right now, we can go out to the coast and look upon the oceans with amazement at its magnitude, or drive out to the mountains and behold the greatness of His creation there too. However, some people in Israel had seen these great things, and much more, yet their ears remained deaf to the call of obedience.
Read Hebrews 3:7 - 4:11
The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish Christ followers who would be familiar with the Old Testament. This back half portion of Psalm 95 following the transition in tone is the primary fixation of Hebrews 3:7 - 4:11 which comes as a warning against unbelief. Notice how the calls to action for the collective body have changed slightly: We ought to ensure we do not have an unbelieving heart by means of encouraging each other daily (Hebrews 3:12-13). Then speaking of the same rest mentioned at the end of Psalm 95:11, we ought to make every effort to step away from our work and enter the rest we have in Christ (Hebrews 4:9-11). The connections here between what God was doing in the desert, what the Psalm is calling the people to, and what this looks like as followers of Jesus now are honestly impressive, and very possibly overwhelming.
Zooming out from the deep theology in both these scriptures presents some clarity as to how they feed into each other. In Psalms we have a call to worship, connected to the identity of who we are and who God is, that is resolved with obedience. In Hebrews, we understand this obedience is founded in our belief in the Lord, which finds its reward in the Sabbath Rest God has invited us into.
We shouldn’t be too quick to assume we are removed from the station of those whose hearts had a tendency to stray. Our heart has a tendency to disbelieve which causes us to disobey, something this scripture has identified as issues affecting our worship of God. Furthermore, if we were to simply follow our hearts in worship of the Lord, this wouldn’t be the full picture of what being God’s people look like. Obedience is a good thing, and something our Jesus models as He is said to have learned obedience through His reverent submission to the Father. But choosing not to be led astray by our hearts is no easy battle. This is why both the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews have urgency in their call to obedience to the people of God. We ought to do these things Today. And not only does it ascribe to God the worship He is due, but it also means entering the kind of rest only our Father provides. There is plenty of theology to get lost in reading both these texts side by side, but the desire from both portions of scripture is evident, worship is not only a feeling we get when gazing upon and marveling at the wonders our God has performed, but is obedience to His commands, and trusting they are better than what our hearts stray towards.
Take time to reflect:
The response of obedience in a sense is embodied by the analogy of our ability to hear God. Therefore, What rhymes of devotion do you have that would prompt you to listen and obey?
The quote in verses eight through eleven are referring to a specific moment in Israel’s time in the wilderness where they were struggling with a specific sin. If we were to identify specific places in our lives, in what ways are we most prone to stray in our obedience to God?
One of the examples in Hebrews of what obedient rest in the Lord looks like is to literally set work entirely aside to focus on Him. How can you take time this week to do the same and truly seek rest in the Lord?
