Monday, May 25 — Come and Sing
Some mornings the alarm goes off and singing is the very last thing on the list. Psalm 95 starts there anyway, and it doesn't apologize for the invitation.
Psalm 95 — KJV 1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Psalm 95 — WEB 1 Oh come, let's sing to Yahweh. Let's shout aloud to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol him with songs! 3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his. 5 The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let's worship and bow down. Let's kneel before Yahweh, our Maker, 7 for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would listen to his voice! 8 Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work. 10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways." 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They won't enter into my rest."
Psalm 95 is one of Israel's "enthronement psalms" — songs the gathered people sang to celebrate God as their true King. Many scholars believe it was used as a call to worship at the beginning of a service, the way an opening hymn pulls a congregation to its feet on Sunday morning. What is striking, though, is that the psalm has two halves that look like they belong to different songs. The first six and a half verses are pure exuberance: come, sing, shout, kneel. Then in verse 7, the music stops mid-measure: "Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart."
The psalmist is saying something we don't always like to hear. Worship is never just music. It is also memory and responsibility. Israel remembers who God is — the One whose hand holds the deep places of the earth and the heights of the mountains, the Shepherd who kept watch over a wandering people. And then they remember what happened when their ancestors stood in the wilderness, heard God speak, and let their hearts go hard anyway. Worship that doesn't change us has missed the point.
This is where our week begins. We are walking toward Sunday's lesson on fellowship through worship, and the first thing the Bible wants us to know is that fellowship starts with response. Before we ever get to the question of how to worship together, we have to deal with whether we are willing to come at all.
Most of us aren't going to shout this morning. We probably won't even sing loud in the car. But the psalm isn't really about volume. It's about what happens inside a person who remembers. God has already done something. He made the world. He has kept watch over years of our lives we can't fully account for. He has held a family together that should have come apart, or kept a body going that probably shouldn't still be walking. Worship is the response to all that. It doesn't require a great voice. It requires a heart that hasn't gone hard. Monday morning is a good place to start.
Thought for the Day: Worship begins when we stop performing and start responding.
Reflection: Where in my week am I most tempted to let my heart go hard instead of stay soft to God?
Prayer: Lord, before this week picks up speed, we stop and remember who You are. You made the seas and the dry land. You have shepherded us through years we don't fully understand. Soften any place in us that has grown hard without us noticing. Help us hear Your voice today, before anything else fills our ears. Amen.
This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: Fellowship Through Worship.