Psalms 95 (NET)

Psalm 951

1 Come! Let’s sing for joy to the Lord!

Let’s shout out praises to our protector who delivers us!2

2 Let’s enter his presence3 with thanksgiving!

Let’s shout out to him in celebration!4

3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to5 all gods.

4 The depths of the earth are in his hand,6

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land.

6 Come! Let’s bow down and worship!7

Let’s kneel before the Lord, our creator!

7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns.8

Today, if only you would obey him!9

8 He says,10 “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah,11

like they were that day at Massah12 in the wilderness,13

9 where your ancestors challenged my authority,14

and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.

10 For forty years I was continually disgusted15 with that generation,

and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray;16

they do not obey my commands.’17

11 So I made a vow in my anger,

‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”18

1sn Psalm 95. The psalmist summons Israel to praise God as the creator of the world and the nation’s protector, but he also reminds the people not to rebel against God. 2tn Heb “to the rocky summit of our deliverance.” 3tn Heb “meet his face.” 4tn Heb “with songs of joy.” 5tn Heb “above.” 6tn The phrase “in his hand” means within the sphere of his authority. 7tn Heb “kneel down.” 8tn Heb “of his hand.” 9tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed. 10tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the following words are spoken by the Lord (see vv. 9-11). 11sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, see also Pss 81:7; 106:32). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them. 12sn The name Massah means “testing.” This was another name (along with Meribah) given to the place where Israel complained following the Red Sea Crossing (see Exod 17:1-7, as well as Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8). 13tn Heb “do not harden your heart[s] as [at] Meribah, as [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness.” 14tn Heb “where your fathers tested me.” 15tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite or an imperfect. If the latter, it emphasizes the ongoing nature of the condition in the past. The translation reflects this interpretation of the verbal form. 16tn Heb “a people, wanderers of heart [are] they.” 17tn Heb “and they do not know my ways.” In this context the Lord’s “ways” are his commands, viewed as a pathway from which his people, likened to wayward sheep (see v. 7), wander. 18tn Heb “my resting place.” The promised land of Canaan is here viewed metaphorically as a place of rest for God’s people, who are compared to sheep (see v. 7).