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
Worship and memory go hand and hand in this psalm. We can imagine the praises and exaltations that flow from the people as water flowed from the rock struck by Moses. The Lord is great! The Lord provides! Let us sing to the Lord! But the psalmist turns to a new tone in verse eight with a stark reminder of that community in Exodus, those who stood at Meribah and Massah and grumbled together, convinced they were about to die of thirst. There they stood, only willing to see the provision of God in the immediacy of the moment. God’s people forgot what God had done. Today still, we enter into worship as a reminder to one another. We remind each other that even in absence and sorrow, in deprivation and in pain, we wait with expectation for Easter. And as we wait, God’s presence and provision meet us.
Prayer
In the midst of this season of absence, may we prepare ourselves to enter into your rest, God. Though we walk through the wilderness, we know you are with us. Remind us of what you have done as you provide us with what we need. Amen.
Interested in digging deeper into today’s text?
Read more here.