Psalm 95 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 95 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Verse 2Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Verse 3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Verse 4In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
Verse 5The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
Verse 6O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
Verse 7For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
Verse 8Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
Verse 9when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
Verse 10For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways."
Verse 11Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."
Devotion
Someone once said the true philosophers of our times are those who write poems and songs. Songs allow us to hold a simple melody in our imagination. And the words become our way of speaking our world. It seems the songs we sing from the ages of 16 to 25 remain our favorites—which explains my father’s favorite singer, Nat King Cole.” Today’s reading is traditionally pulled straight from the playlist of Israel’s favorite king, David. It seems God likes noise! In response to God’s presence, greatness, creative handiwork, and loving care, the psalmist calls for singing. Remembering how quickly his ancestors forgot God’s goodness, David poetically rehearses the rock of their salvation, who called forth the sea from dry land and sweet water from a bitter stream. When we recognize God’s loving presence like that, we remember whose image we are created to bear in the world. God spoke and stuff happened. That’s something to sing about.
Prayer
Water-walking God, move us from the shadows of singing in the shower to the hills that are alive with the sound of music. Fill us so with your spirit that we sing when the Spirit says sing. Amen.