Psalms 95 commentary

Whenever we come into God's presence, we must come with thanksgiving. The Lord is to be praised; we do not want matter, it were well if we did not want a heart. How great is that God, whose the whole earth is, and the fulness thereof; who directs and disposes of all!, The Lord Jesus, whom we are here taught to praise, is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and God over all, blessed for evermore. To him all power is given, both in heaven and earth. He is our God, and we should praise him. He is our Saviour, and the Author of our blessedness. The gospel church is his flock, Christ is the great and good Shepherd of believers; he sought them when lost, and brought them to his fold.

Christ calls upon his people to hear his voice. You call him Master, or Lord; then be his willing, obedient people. Hear the voice of his doctrine, of his law, and in both, of his Spirit: hear and heed; hear and yield. Christ's voice must be heard to-day. This day of opportunity will not last always; improve it while it is called to-day. Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all distrust of the Lord. The sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition. God is not subject to such passions as we are; but he is very angry at sin and sinners. That certainly is evil, which deserves such a recompence; and his threatenings are as sure as his promises. Let us be aware of the evils of our hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest.

PSALM 95

The inspired penman of this psalm, whoever he was, This psalm has no inscription, but the Septuagint, Vulgate, Æthiopic, Arabic, and Syriac versions, and the apostle Paul in Hebrews 4:7, ascribe it to David; so that there can be no doubt that it is one of the compositions of the sweet singer of Israel. in exhorting the Jews to praise God in solemn assembly, states two grounds why God should be praised; the one, that he sustains by his power the world which he created, the other, that he had of his free grace adopted the Church into a gracious relationship with himself. As many take God’s praises into their lips in a hypocritical manner, he exhorts the people at the same time to be sincere, serious, and devoted in the service, and to show by the tenor of their life that they had not been chosen in vain. The more effectually to guard them against hypocrisy, he mentions that their fathers from the beginning had been of a stubborn spirit, and chargeable with ingratitude to God; and he takes notice of the dreadful punishment which fell upon them, and which might well deter their children from following in the footsteps of their rebelliousness.

Psalm 95:1-5

1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Horsley reads the second clause, “Let us raise the loud peal of melody to the Rock of our salvation;” on which he has the following note: “The verb הריע signifies to make a loud sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the Psalms it generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the temple-service. This wide sense of the word cannot be expressed otherwise in the English language than by a peripharasis.” Bishop Mant, acting on this notion, has ventured, conformably to it, to specify in his version some of the instruments commonly used in the temple-worship: —

“Come, let us sing Jehovah’s praise! To him the pealing chorus raise, With trump, and harp, and cymbals ring; The rock on which our hopes are placed!” 2. Let us come before his face with praise, In psalms let us shout for joy unto him. 3. For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King, above all gods. 4. For in his hand are the deep places of the earth, “The deep places of the earth,” which are opposed to the “heights of the mountains,” plainly mean the deepest and most retired parts of the terraqueous globe, which are explored by the eye of God, and by his only. Horsely reads the verse thus, —

“The God in whose hand are the nethermost recesses of the earth, Whose also are the inaccessible summits of the mountains.”

“This, and the following verse,” says he, “are expositive of the greatness of the Godship of Jehovah, generally mentioned in the lst verse. ‘The God, in whose hand.’ Thus, I have endeavoured to preserve the full force of the Hebrew phrase אשר בידו.” Bythner’s version of the last member is, “And the strength of the mountains is his.” He derives the noun ותועפות, vethoaphoth, which he renders strength, from the verb יעף, yaaph, was wearied; and observes, that this is “a noun plural feminine, weariness, — by antiphrasis, strength: is read four times in Scripture, and is said of mountains, silver, and the unicorn, the weariness and difficulty in overcoming which, denote their great strength.” Pagninus gives a similar rendering. Montanus has cacumina, the tops, which the Septuagint seems to agree, reading τὰ ὕ ψη τῶν ὀρέων. And the heights of the mountains are his. 5. For his is the sea, and he made it; And the dry land his hands formed.

1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah. This psalm is suited for the Sabbath, when we know that the religious assemblies were more particularly convened for the worship of God. It is not individuals among the godly whom he exhorts to celebrate the divine praises in private; he enjoins these to be offered up in the public meeting. By this he showed that the outward worship of God principally consisted in the sacrifice of praise, and not in dead ceremonies. He enjoins haste upon them; by which they might testify their alacrity in this service. For the Hebrew word קדם, kadam, in the second verse, which I have rendered, let us come before, etc., means to make haste. He calls upon them to speed into the presence of God; and such an admonition was needed, considering how naturally backward we are when called by God to the exercise of thanksgiving. This indirect charge of indolence in the exercise, the Psalmist saw it necessary to prefer against God’s ancient people; and we should be made aware that there is just as much need of a stimulus in our own case, filled as our hearts are with similar ingratitude. In calling them to come before God’s face, he uses language which was also well fitted to increase the ardor of the worshippers; nothing being more agreeable than to offer in God’s own presence such a sacrifice as he declares that he will accept. He virtually thus says, in order to prevent their supposing the service vain, that God was present to witness it. I have shown elsewhere in what sense God was present in the sanctuary.

PSALM 95

Psa 95:1-11. David (He 4:7) exhorts men to praise God for His greatness, and warns them, in God's words, against neglecting His service.

1. The terms used to express the highest kind of joy.

rock--a firm basis, giving certainty of salvation (Psa 62:7).

2. come ... presence--literally, "approach," or, meet Him (Psa 17:13).

3. above ... gods--esteemed such by men, though really nothing (Jr 5:7; 10:10-15).

4-5. The terms used describe the world in its whole extent, subject to God.

6. come--or, "enter," with solemn forms, as well as hearts.

7. This relation illustrates our entire dependence (compare Psa 23:3; 74:1). The last clause is united by Paul (He 3:7) to the following (compare Psa 81:8),

8-11. warning against neglect; and this is sustained by citing the melancholy fate of their rebellious ancestors, whose provoking insolence is described by quoting the language of God's complaint (Nu 14:11) of their conduct at Meribah and Massah, names given (Ex 17:7) to commemorate their strife and contention with Him (Psa 78:18, 41).

O come, let us sing - Let us praise God, not only with the most joyful accents which can be uttered by the voice; but let us also praise him with hearts tuned to gratitude, from a full sense of the manifold benefits we have already received.

The rock of our salvation - The strong Fortress in which we have always found safety, and the Source whence we have always derived help for our souls. In both these senses the word rock, as applied to God, is used in the Scriptures.

Let us come before his presence - פניו panaiv, his faces, with thanksgiving, בתודה bethodah, with confession, or with the confession-offering. Praise him for what he has all ready done, and confess your unworthiness of any of his blessings. The confession-offering, the great atoning sacrifice, can alone render your acknowledgment of sin and thanksgiving acceptable to a holy and just God.

For the Lord is a great God - Or, "A great God is Jehovah, and a great King above all gods;" or, "God is a great King over all." The Supreme Being has three names here: אל El, יהוה Jehovah, אלהים Elohim, and we should apply none of them to false gods. The first implies his strength; the second his being and essence; the third, his covenant relation to mankind. In public worship these are the views we should entertain of the Divine Being.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth - The greatest deeps are fathomed by him.

The strength of the hills is his also - And to him the greatest heights are accessible,

The sea is his - The sea and the dry land are equally his, for he has formed them both, and they are his property. He governs and disposes of them as he sees good. He is the absolute Master of universal nature. Therefore there is no other object of worship nor of confidence.

O come, let us worship - Three distinct words are used here to express three different acts of adoration:

1. Let us worship, נשתחוה nishtachaveh, let us prostrate ourselves; the highest act of adoration by which the supremacy of God is acknowledged.

2. Let us bow down, נכרעה nichraah, let us crouch or cower down, bending the legs under, as a dog in the presence of his master, which solicitously waits to receive his commands.

3. Let us kneel, נברכה nibrachah, let us put our knees to the ground, and thus put ourselves in the posture of those who supplicate.

And let us consider that all this should be done in the presence of Him who is Jehovah our Creator.

For he is our God - Here is the reason for this service. He has condescended to enter into a covenant with us, and he has taken us for his own; therefore: -

We are the people of his pasture - Or, rather, as the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and Ethiopic read, "We are his people, and the sheep of the pasture of his hand." We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us.

To-day if ye will hear his voice - To-day-you have no time to lose; to-morrow may be too late. God calls to-day; to-morrow he may be silent. This should commence the eighth verse, as it begins what is supposed to be the part of the priest or prophet who now exhorts the people; as if he had said: Seeing you are in so good a spirit, do not forget your own resolutions, and harden not your hearts, "as your fathers did in Meribah and Massah, in the wilderness;" the same fact and the same names as are mentioned Exo 17:7; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.

When your fathers tempted me - Tried me, by their insolence, unbelief, and blasphemy. They proved me - they had full proof of my power to save and to destroy. There they saw my works - they saw that nothing was too hard for God.

Forty years long - They did nothing but murmur, disbelieve, and rebel, from the time they began their journey at the Red Sea till they passed over Jordan, a period of forty years. During all this time God was grieved by that generation; yet he seldom showed forth that judgment which they most righteously had deserved.

It is a people that do err in their heart - Or, according to the Chaldee, These are a people whose idols are in their hearts. At any rate they had not God there.

They have not known my ways - The verb ידע yada, to know, is used here, as in many other parts of Scripture, to express approbation. They knew God's ways well enough; but they did not like them; and would not walk in them. "These wretched men," says the old Psalter, "were gifnen to the lufe of this lyfe: knewe noght my ways of mekenes, and charlte: for thi in my wreth I sware to thaim; that es, I sett stabely that if that sall entre in till my rest;" that is, they shall not enter into my rest.

This ungrateful people did not approve of God's ways - they did not enter into his designs - they did not conform to his commands - they paid no attention to his miracles - and did not acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands; therefore God determined that they should not enter into the rest which he had promised to them on condition that, if they were obedient, they should inherit the promised land. So none of those who came out of Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, entered into Canaan; all the rest died in the wilderness, wherein, because of their disobedience, God caused them to wander forty years.

It is well known that the land of Canaan was a type of heaven, where, after all his toils, the good and faithful servant is to enter into the joy of his Lord. And as those Israelites in the wilderness were not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan because of their unbelief, their distrust of God's providence, and consequent disobedience, St. Paul hence takes occasion to exhort the Jews, Heb 4:2-11, to accept readily the terms offered to them by the Gospel. He shows that the words of the present Psalm are applicable to the state of Christianity; and intimates to them that, if they persisted in obstinate refusal of those gracious offers, they likewise would fall according to the same example of unbelief - Dodd.

God's - Above all that are called God's angels, earthly potentates, and especially the false gods of the Heathen.

Hand - Under his government. Strength - The strongest or highest mountains.

Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself. The sheep - Which are under his special care. Today - Forthwith or presently.

Harden not - By obstinate unbelief. Provocation - In that bold and wicked contest with God in the wilderness. Temptation - In the day in which you tempted me.

Works - Both of mercy, and of justice.

Do err - Their hearts are insincere and bent to backsliding. Not known - After all my teaching and discoveries of myself to them; they did not know, nor consider, those great things which I had wrought for them.

My rest - Into the promised land, which is called the rest, Deut 12:9.

1 O Come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

He speaks to the Israelites, whose backwardness to this work in the times of the Gospel was foreseen by the spirit of God which dictated this Psalm.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Which he will then afford us in a singular manner in his Son the Messiah, in and by whom he will be visibly present with the Sons of men.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] his face. Isai. 3[illegible: 1+ letters]. 33.

3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods .

Above all that are accounted and called Gods, Angels, and Earthly Potentates, and especially the false gods of the Heathens, which upon Christs coming into the World were struck dumb, and could no more deliver their Oracles, as Platarch and other Heathens observed with admiration, nor deceive the World, but were forced to give place to the true God, and to the knowledge and worship of him alone, which was propagated among all Nations by the Gospel.

Marginal references: Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters]6. 4. 135. 5.; Psal. 86. 8.

4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

Under his Government.

Those parts which are far out of mens sight and reach, and much more those that are at mens disposal.

The strongest or highest Mountains are under his feet and at his disposal. The fence of the Verse is, All the parts of the Earth, whether high or low, are subject to his power and providence, and therefore it is not strange if all the Nations of the Earth be brought to the acknowledgment of him, and if the Gentiles receive his Gospel.

Marginal references: Heb. in [illegible: 1 word]; Or, the [illegible: 1 word] of the hills [illegible: 1 word] his.

6 O come, let us worship, and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

By which expressions he teacheth that even in Gospel times God is to be glorified and worshipped as well with the members of our bodies as with the faculties of our Souls.

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 ,

In a peculiar manner; and therefore it will be most unreasonable and abominable for us to forsake him when the Gentiles submit to his law.

Whom he feedeth and keepeth in his own proper Pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself.

Which are under his special care and conduct or government, which is oft expressed by the hand, as Numb. 4. 28. and 31. 49. Judg. 9. 29.

i. e. Forthwith or presently, as this word is used Deut. 4. 4, 8. and 27. 9. Ios. 22. 16, 18, &c. Or this day, in this solemn day of grace or of the Gospel, which the Psalmist speaks of as present according to the manner of the Prophets. And this word though belonging to the following clause, as appears from Heb. 3. 7. may seem to be thus placed to shew that it had some respect to the foregoing words also. For the sence of the place may be this. We (Jews) are or shall be the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand, God will still own us for his people this day, i. e. in the days of the Messiah, if this day or in that time we shall hear his voice. Otherwise God will reject us and receive the Gentiles in our stead.

If you will hearken to his call and obey his further commands. Which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that Gods presence and favour was not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but was suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which if they violated they should be rejected, and the Gentiles performing it should be received to his mercy. And this clause may be connected either 1. with the former words, as the condition of their interest in God as their God, as was now said. Or 2. with the following Verse, If you are willing to hearken to Gods call delivered by his Son, take the following counsel.

Marginal references: Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters]9. 1[illegible: 1+ letters] & 80. 1. & 10[illegible: 1+ letters] 3.; Heb. 3. 7. 4. 7.

8 Harden not your hearts , as in the provocation , and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

By wilful disobedience and obstinate unbelief rebelling against the light, and resisting the Holy Ghost and his clear discoveries of the truth of the Gospel.

As you did in that hold and wicked contest with God in the Wilderness. Or, As in Meribah, which was the proper name of the place where that happened, and which also was called Massah, as is evident from Exod. 17. 7. and Deut. 33. 8.

In the day in which you tempted me. Or, as in the day of Massah, i. e. when you were at Massah.

Marginal references: Exod. 17. 2▪ 7. Numb. 14. 2[illegible: 1+ letters] & 20. 13. Deut. 6. 16.; Heb. con[illegible: 1+ letters] tion.

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works .

Or, In which place. Which may belong either to Meribah and Massah; or to the Wilderness last mentioned. Or, Surely, as this word is oft used in Scripture, as hath been observed once and again.

Or, Although or After that they saw or had seen. Which is added as a just and great aggravation of their unbelief after such a sensible and evident experience of Gods power and goodness to them.

Both my works of mercy which gave them abundant cause to trust me; and my works of justice, for which they had reason to fear and please me. Heb. my work, to wit, that great and stupendous work of bringing my people out of Egypt with a strong hand, and of conducting them safely through the Red Sea into the Wilderness, and of destroying the Egyptians. For not many more of Gods great works were done before they came to Meribah.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation , and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts : and they have not known my ways .

Or rather, with that generation which then lived, who were your Ancestors.

They do not onely sin through infirmity and the violence and surprizal of temptations, but their hearts are unsincere and inconstant, and given to backsliding, and therefore there is no hopes of their amendment. Compare Psal. 78. 8.

Or, they do not know, to wit, with a practical and useful knowledge, as that word commonly notes in Scripture. They did not rightly understand nor duly consider, nor seriously lay to heart. They remain ignorant after all my teachings and discoveries of my self to them.

Either 1. my laws or statutes, which are frequently called Gods ways. Or rather 2. my works, as it is expressed, v. 9. which also are commonly so called. They did not know, nor consider and remember, those great things which I had wrought for them and among them.

11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath , that they should not enter into my rest .

Being full of just wrath against them I passed an irreversible sentence and confirmed it by an Oath; of which we read Numb. 14.

Into the promised land, which is called the rest, Deut. 12. 9. See also 1 Chron. 23, 25. Psal. 132. 14. And this History the Psalmist propounds to the men of his Age, not as a matter of meer speculation, but as an instruction for all after Ages, and particularly for those Israelites who should live in the times of the Messias, that they should take heed of falling after the same example of unbelief, as the Apostle insers from this place, Heb. 4. 11.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ if they [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] my [illegible: 1 word]

Psa 95:1-2

Jahve is called the Rock of our salvation (as in Psa 89:27, cf. Psa 94:22) as being its firm and sure ground. Visiting the house of God, one comes before God’s face; קדּם פּני, praeoccupare faciem, is equivalent to visere (visitare). תּודה is not confessio peccati, but laudis. The Beth before תודה is the Beth of accompaniment, as in Mic 6:6; that before זמרות (according to 2Sa 23:1 a name for psalms, whilst מזמר can only be used as a technical expression) is the Beth of the medium.

Psa 95:3-7

The adorableness of God receives a threefold confirmation: He is exalted above all gods as King, above all things as Creator, and above His people as Shepherd and Leader. אלהים (gods) here, as in Psa 96:4., Psa 97:7, Psa 97:9, and frequently, are the powers of the natural world and of the world of men, which the Gentiles deify and call kings (as Moloch Molech, the deified fire), which, however, all stand under the lordship of Jahve, who is infinitely exalted above everything that is otherwise called god (Psa 96:4; Psa 97:9). The supposition that תּועפות הרים denotes the pit-works (μέταλλα) of the mountains (Böttcher), is at once improbable, because to all appearance it is intended to be the antithesis to מחקרי־ארץ, the shafts of the earth. The derivation from ועף (יעף), κάμνειν, κοπιᾶν, also does not suit תועפות in Num 23:22; Num 24:8, for “fatigues” and “indefatigableness” are notions that lie very wide apart. The כּסף תּועפות of Job 22:25 might more readily be explained according to this “silver of fatigues,” i.e., silver that the fatiguing labour of mining brings to light, and תועפות הרים in the passage before us, with Gussetius, Geier, and Hengstenberg: cacumina montium quia defatigantur qui eo ascendunt, prop. ascendings = summits of the mountains, after which כסף תועפות, Job 22:25, might also signify “silver of the mountain-heights.” But the lxx, which renders δόξα in the passages in Numbers and τὰ ὕψη τῶν ὀρέων in the passage before us, leads one to a more correct track. The verb יעף (ועף), transposed from יפע (ופע), goes back to the root יף, וף, to stand forth, tower above, to be high, according to which תועפות = תופעות signifies eminentiae, i.e., towerings = summits, or prominences = high (the highest) perfection (vid., on Job 22:25). In the passage before us it is a synonym of the Arabic mı̂fan , mı̂fâtun , pars terrae eminens (from Arab. wfâ = יפע, prop. instrumentally: a means of rising above, viz., by climbing), and of the names of eminences derived from Arab. yf' (after which Hitzig renders: the teeth of the mountains). By reason of the fact that Jahve is the Owner (cf. 1Sa 2:8), because the Creator of all things, the call to worship, which concerns no one so nearly as it does Israel, the people, which before other peoples is Jahve’s creation, viz., the creation of His miraculously mighty grace, is repeated. In the call or invitation, השׁתּחוה signifies to stretch one’s self out full length upon the ground, the proper attitude of adoration; כּרע, to curtsey, to totter; and בּרך, Arabic baraka, starting from the radical signification flectere, to kneel down, in genua (πρόχνυ, pronum = procnum) procumbere, 2Ch 6:13 (cf. Hölemann, Bibelstudien, i. 135f.). Beside עם מרעיתו, people of His pasture, צאן ידו is not the flock formed by His creating hand (Augustine: ipse gratiâ suâ nos oves fecit), but, after Gen 30:35, the flock under His protection, the flock led and defended by His skilful, powerful hand. Böttcher renders: flock of His charge; but יד in this sense (Jer 6:3) signifies only a place, and “flock of His place” would be poetry and prose in one figure.

Invitation to Praise God; Motives to Praise.

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.

The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively affections, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often backward to it and cold in it. Observe,

I. How God is to be praised. 1. With holy joy and delight in him. The praising song must be a joyful noise, v. 1 and again v. 2. Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise. It is the will of God (such is the condescension of his grace) that when we give glory to him as a being infinitely perfect and blessed we should, at the same time, rejoice in him as our Father and King, and a God in covenant with us. 2. With humble reverence, and a holy awe of him (v. 6): "Let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before him, as becomes those who know what an infinite distance there is between us and God, how much we are in danger of his wrath and in need of his mercy." Though bodily exercise, alone, profits little, yet certainly it is our duty to glorify God with our bodies by the outward expressions of reverence, seriousness, and humility, in the duties of religious worship. 3. We must praise God with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out of the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy, and thankfulness—Sing to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to him, with psalms—as those who are ourselves much affected with his greatness and goodness, are forward to own ourselves so, are desirous to be more and more affected therewith, and would willingly be instrumental to kindle and inflame the same pious and devout affection in others also. 4. We must praise God in concert, in the solemn assemblies: "Come, let us sing; let us join in singing to the Lord; not others without me, nor I alone, but others with me. Let us come together before his presence, in the courts of his house, where his people are wont to attend him and to expect his manifestations of himself." Whenever we come into God's presence we must come with thanksgiving that we are admitted to such a favour; and, whenever we have thanks to give, we must come before God's presence, set ourselves before him, and present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he has appointed.

II. Why God is to be praised and what must be the matter of our praise. We do not want matter; it were well if we did not want a heart. We must praise God,

1. Because he is a great God, and sovereign Lord of all, v. 3. He is great, and therefore greatly to be praised. He is infinite and immense, and has all perfection in himself. (1.) He has great power: He is a great King above all gods, above all deputed deities, all magistrates, to whom he said, You are gods (he manages them all, and serves his own purposes by them, and to him they are all accountable), above all counterfeit deities, all pretenders, all usurpers; he can do that which none of them can do; he can, and will, famish and vanquish them all. (2.) He has great possessions. This lower world is here particularly specified. We reckon those great men who have large territories, which they call their own against all the world, which yet are a very inconsiderable part of the universe: how great then is that God whose the whole earth is, and the fulness thereof, not only under whose feet it is, as he has an incontestable dominion over all the creatures and a propriety in them, but in whose hand it is, as he has the actual directing and disposing of all (v. 4); even the deep places of the earth, which are out of our sight, subterraneous springs and mines, are in his hand; and the height of the hills which are out of our reach, whatever grows or feeds upon them, is his also. This may be taken figuratively: the meanest of the children of men, who are as the low places of the earth, are not beneath his cognizance; and the greatest, who are as the strength of the hills, are not above his control. Whatever strength is in any creature it is derived from God and employed for him (v. 5): The sea is his, and all that is in it (the waves fulfil his word); it is his, for he made it, gathered its waters and fixed its shores; the dry land, though given to the children of men, is his too, for he still reserved the property to himself; it is his, for his hands formed it, when his word made the dry land appear. His being the Creator of all makes him, without dispute, the owner of all. This being a gospel psalm, we may very well suppose that it is the Lord Jesus whom we are here taught to praise. He is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and God over all, blessed for evermore. As Mediator, he is a great King above all gods; by him kings reign; and angels, principalities, and powers, are subject to him; by him, as the eternal Word, all things were made (John i. 3), and it was fit he should be the restorer and reconciler of all who was the Creator of all, Col. i. 16, 20. To him all power is given both in heaven and in earth, and into his hand all things are delivered. It is he that sets one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, as sovereign Lord of both (Rev. x. 2), and therefore to him we must sing our songs of praise, and before him we must worship and bow down.

2. Because he is our God, not only has a dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in special relation to us (v. 7): He is our God, and therefore it is expected we should praise him; who will, if we do not? What else did he make us for but that we should be to him for a name and a praise? (1.) He is our Creator, and the author of our being; we must kneel before the Lord our Maker, v. 6. Idolaters kneel before gods which they themselves made; we kneel before a God who made us and all the world and who is therefore our rightful proprietor; for his we are, and not our own. (2.) He is our Saviour, and the author of our blessedness. He is here called the rock of our salvation (v. 1), not only the founder, but the very foundation, of that work of wonder, on whom it is built. That rock is Christ; to him therefore we must sing our songs of praises, to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. (3.) We are therefore his, under all possible obligations: We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. All the children of men are so; they are fed and led by his Providence, which cares for them, and conducts them, as the shepherd the sheep. We must praise him, not only because he made us, but because he preserves and maintains us, and our breath and ways are in his hand. All the church's children are in a special manner so; Israel are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand; and therefore he demands their homage in a special manner. The gospel church is his flock. Christ is the great and good Shepherd of it. We, as Christians, are led by his hand into the green pastures, by him we are protected and well provided for, to his honour and service we are entirely devoted as a peculiar people, and therefore to him must be glory in the churches (whether it be in the world or no) throughout all ages, Eph. iii. 21.

PSAL. XCV.

COme, let us shout joyfully to Iehovah, let us shout triumphantly to the Rocke of our salvation. Let us prevent his face with confession, with Psalmes let us shout triumphantly to him. For Iehovah is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In whose hand are the deepe places of the earth, and the strong heights of the mountaines are his. Whose the sea is, for he made it, and the dry land his hands have formed. Come, let us bow downe our selves, & bend downe: let us kneele before Iehovah our maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and sheepe of his hand; to day if ye shall heare his voice: Harden not your heart, as in Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wildernesse. Where your fathers tempted me, proved me, also saw my worke.

Fortie yeeres I was irked with' that generation, and said, they are a people erring in hart, and they know not my waies. So that I sware in mine anger, if they shall enter into my rest.

Annotations. COme] or Goe to. The holy Ghost by David thus exhorteth Israel to laud the Lord, and obey his voice. For he penned this Psalme, Heb. 3. 7. and 4. 7. the Rocke] meaning Christ, as the Apostle sheweth, Heb. 3. 6, 7. the Greeke translateth it, God our Saviour. Vers. 2. prevent] come first, and speedily. Vers. 3. great God] or great Potentate, Ael. So Christ is also intituled, Tit. 2. 13. All Gods] Angels, Princes, or false gods, Psa. 8. 6. and 82. 6. and 96. 4, 5. Vers. 4. deepe places] or, deepe closets; Hebr. searchings, that is, deepe secret places for which search is made, Iob 28. 1, 2, &c. and which cannot by mans search be found, Iob 38. 4, 5, 6, 18. strong heights] or, wearisome heights, high mounts which weary men to climbe them: but the word hath also a signification of strong, and not being wearied, Numb. 23. 22. Vers. 7. of his hand] that is, of his guidance, Psal. 77. 21. See also Psal. 100. 3. to day] hereby is meant the whole time wherin Christ speaketh by his Gospell, Heb. 3. 7, 13, 15. and 4. 7, 8. Vers. 8. in Meribah] that is, in the Contention (or Provocation, as the Greeke turneth it.) The name of a place in the wildernesse, where Israel contended with Moses, and tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or no? because there was no water for the people to drinke. Therefore he called the place Massah (Tentation) and Meribah (Contention) Exod. 17. 1, 2,—7. Also another place, where againe they contended with Moses, & with the Lord, Num. 20. 1, 3, 13. day of Massah] that is, of Tentation: by day againe we may understand the whole space wherein they tempted God ten times, as is said, Num. 14. 22. (so the day of salvation, 2 Cor. 6. 2. is the time thereof.) Yet there was a speciall day and place of Tentation named Massah, Ex. 17. 2, 7. whereupon Moses warned the people, Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah, Deut. 6. 16. Vers. 9. tempted me] hereupon the Apostle saith, they tempted Christ, 1 Cor. 10. 9. my worke] that is, workes, Heb. 3. 9. both in miraculous mercies giving them bread from heaven, and waters out of the rockes, &c. Psal. 78. 15,—23, &c. and in punishments for their rebellions, Psal. 78. 31, 33, &c. Heb. 3. 17. For worke sometime signifieth reward, Psal. 109. 20. Iob 7. 2. Lev. 19. 13. Vers. 11. if they shall enter] that is, they shall not enter, Heb. 3. 11. 18. a part of the oath is not uttered; see Psal. 89. 36. This oath was made at Cadesh, where the people through unbeleese refused to enter the promised land, Num. 14. 21, 22, 23, 30, 32. Heb. 3. 17. 19. my rest] the land of Canaan, Deut. 12. 9. 1 Chron. 23. 25. a figure of a better rest which we that have beleeved the word doe enter into, Heb. 4. 3. for if that land (wherein now they were) had beene their rest, David would not have spoken of another; there remaineth therfore a Rest for the people of God; let us studie to enter into it, Heb. 4. 8, 9, 11.

PSAL. XCV.

VErſ. 1. O come, let us ſing unto the Lord] It is thought by this beginning, that this Pſalm was not penned by David for private uſe, but for publick Aſſemblies, to be ſung by the Congregation on the Sabbath, and ſuch like times, It may very well be that they began their morning Sacrifice with this Pſalm, as the Latine Church alſo afterwards did their Mattens, or Morning Service.

Let us make a joyful noyſe] With a clear and loud voyce, as of a Trumpet; ſinging with grace in our hearts unto the Lord.

Verſ. 2. Let us come before his preſence] Heb. Prevent his face, be there with the firſt. Let us go ſpeedily — I will go alſo, Zech. 8.21. Let praiſe wait for God in Sion, Pſal. 65.1. Rabbi Gaon, Praveniamus & ante diem judicii, Let us make haſte, ſaith he, to do it before the Day of Judgement; and leſt we be taken with our task undone. Others, let us anticipate his face, that is, prepare our hearts at home, before we come into the publick; or, let us give thanks for mercies already received, that we may make way for more.

With Pſalmes] Oratione prorſà & vorſâ.

Verſ. 3. For the Lord is a great God] Underſtand it of Chriſt, as the Apoſtle alſo doth, Heb. 3. & 4. 1 Cor. 10.

Above all Gods] Whether reputed ſo, or deputed, as Kings.

Verſ. 4. In his hand are the deep places] Heb Searching, that is, much ſearched aſter, but ſound to be unſearchable.A [non-Latin text not transcribed] vo'ucris volan, in altum. R. Solom.

The ſtrength of the hills] Heb. The heights, ſuch as will ſport a bird to get to the top of them. Depths and heights are his.

Verſ. 5. The Sea is his, &c.] Canutus confuted his Flatterers (who told him that all things in his Dominions were at his beck and check) by laying his command on the Sea,Hen. Hunting[illegible: 1 letter]on. to come up no higher into his Land, but it obeyed him not.

And his hands formed the dry land] Worſhip him therefore, Rev. 4.

Verſ. 6. O come, let us worſhip, and fall down] With our whole bodies proſtrate on the ground,Kimchi. our hands and feet ſtretcht out. The Jews geſture of adoration at this day is the bowing forward of their bodies, for kneeling they uſe none (no more do the Graecians) neither ſtir they their Bonnets in their Synagogues to any man,Spec. Eur. but remain ſtill covered.

The Lord our Maeker] Who hath not only created us, but advanced us, as hee did Moſes and Aaron, 1 Sam. 12.6.

Verſ. 7. The people of his paſture] Whom he turns not out into Commons and Fallows, but feeds among Lillies, Cant. 2.16.

And the ſheep of his hand] His Cades brought up at hand, eating of his meat, and drinking of his cup, and lying in his boſome, as Uriahs Ewe-Lamb did, 2 Sam. 12.3.

To day if ye will hear his voyce] i.e. Whiles the day of grace laſteth, which is not long, 2 Cor. 6.2. Qui paenitenti veniam ſpofpondit, peccanti craſtinum non promiſit, ſaith Gregory.

Verſ. 8. Harden not your hearts] by unbeleef, and the deceitfulneſs of ſin, Heb. 3.12, 13. which gradually obfirmeth the heart againſt God.

As in the provocation As your fathers did at Maſſah and Meribah: be not you as good at reſiſting the Holy Ghoſt us they were, Act. 7.51.

Verſ. 9. When your Fathers tempted mee] The times, all along the wilderneſſe,Num. 14.2[illegible: 1 letter] though

They ſaw my works] Both mercies and judgements, Pſal. 98.8. yet they were refractory and unmalleable.

Verſ. 10. Was I grieved] Litigavi, vel cum taedio pertuli.

That do erre in their hearts] Wandering, though not ſo wide, as to miſſe of Hell.

They have not known] viz. practically and ſavingly.

Verſ. 11. Ʋnto whom I ſware] When put paſt all patience. Patientia laſa fit furor.

If they enter, &c.] This God ſweareth cum reticentia, to ſhew how greatly hee was incenſed.

O come, let us sing unto the LORD. Other nations sing unto their gods, let us sing unto Jehovah. We love him, we admire him, we reverence him, let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our noblest faculty for its noblest end. It is well thus to urge others to magnify the Lord, but we must be careful to set a worthy example ourselves, so that we may be able not only to cry "Come", but also to add "let us sing", because we are singing ourselves. It is to be feared that very much even of religious singing is not unto the Lord but unto the car of the congregation: above all things we must in our service of song take care that all we offer is with the heart's sincerest and most fervent intent directed toward the Lord himself. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. With holy enthusiasm let us sing, making a sound which shall indicate our earnestness; with abounding joy let us lift up our voices, actuated by that happy and peaceful spirit which trustful love is sure to foster. As the children of Israel sang for joy when the smitten rock poured forth its cooling streams, so let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. The author of this song had in his mind's eye the rock, the tabernacle, the Red Sea, and the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all in this first part of his hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock, and in him we find deliverance and safety, therefore it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.

"Come let us to the Lord sing out

With trumpet voice and choral shout." it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.

"Come let us to the Lord sing out

With trumpet voice and choral shout." it becomes us to praise him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.

"Come let us to the Lord sing out

With trumpet voice and choral shout."

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Here is probably a reference to the peculiar presence of God in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat, and also to the glory which shone forth out of the cloud which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is present, but there is a peculiar presence of grace and glory into which men should never come without the profoundest reverence. We may make bold to come before the immediate presence of the Lord —for the voice of the Holy Ghost in this psalm invites us, and when we do draw near to him we should remember his great goodness to us and cheerfully confess it. Our worship should have reference to the past as well as to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for what we have already received, how can we reasonably look for more. We are permitted to bring our petitions, and therefore we are in honour bound to bring our thanksgivings. And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. We should shout as exultingly as those do who triumph in war, and as solemnly as those whose utterance is a psalm. It is not always easy to unite enthusiasm with reverence, and it is a frequent fault to destroy one of these qualities while straining after the other. The perfection of singing is that which unites joy with gravity, exultation with humility, fervency with sobriety. The invitation given in the first verse (Ps 95:1) is thus repeated in the second (Ps 95:2) with the addition of directions, which indicate more fully the intent of the writer. One can imagine David in earnest tones persuading his people to go up with him to the worship of Jehovah with sound of harp and hymn, and holy delight. The happiness of his exhortation is noteworthy, the noise is to be joyful; this quality he insists upon twice. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in ordinary services, people are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be serious that they put on the aspect of misery, and quite forget that joy is as much a characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself.

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. No doubt the surrounding nations imagined Jehovah to be a merely local deity, the god of a small nation, and therefore one of the inferior deities; the psalmist utterly repudiates such an idea. Idolaters tolerated gods many and lords many, giving to each a certain measure of respect; the monotheism of the Jews was not content with this concession, it rightly claimed for Jehovah the chief place, and the supreme power. He is great, for he is all in all; he is a great King above all other powers and dignitaries, whether angels or princes, for they owe their existence to him; as for the idol gods, they are not worthy to be mentioned. This verse and the following supply some of the reasons for worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the Lord.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth. He is the God of the valleys and the hills, the caverns, and the peaks. Far down where the miners sink their shafts, deeper yet where lie the secret oceans by which springs are fed, and deepest of all in the unknown abyss where rage and flame the huge central fires of earth, there Jehovah's power is felt, and all things are under the dominion of his hand. As princes hold the mimic globe in their hands, so does the Lord in very deed hold the earth. When Israel drank of the crystal fount which welled up from the great deep, below the smitten rock, the people knew that in the Lord's hands were the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is his also. When Sinai was altogether on a smoke the tribes learned that Jehovah was God of the hills as well as of the valleys. Everywhere and at all times is this true; the Lord rules upon the high places of the earth in lonely majesty. The vast foundations, the gigantic spurs, the incalculable masses, the untrodden heights of the mountains are all the Lord's. These are his fastnesses and treasure houses, where he stores the tempest and the rain; whence also he pours the ice torrents and looses the avalanches. The granite peaks and adamantine aiguilles are his, and his the precipices and the beetling crags. Strength is the main thought which strikes the mind when gazing on those vast ramparts of cliff which front the raging sea, or peer into the azure sky, piercing the clouds, but it is to the devout mind the strength of God; hints of Omnipotence are given by those stern rocks which brave the fury of the elements, and like walls of brass defy the assaults of nature in her wildest rage.

The sea is his. This was seen to be true at the Red Sea when the waters saw their God, and obediently stood aside to open a pathway for his people. It was not Edom's sea though it was red, nor Egypt's sea though it washed her shores. The Lord on high reigned supreme over the flood, as King far ever and ever. So is it with the broad ocean, whether known as Atlantic or Pacific, Mediterranean or Arctic; no man can map it out and say "It is mine"; the illimitable acreage of waters knows no other lord but God alone. Jehovah rules the waves. Far down in vast abysses, where no eye of man has gazed, or foot of diver has descended, he is sole proprietor; every rolling billow and foaming wave owns him for monarch; Neptune is but a phantom, the Lord is God of ocean. And he made it. Hence his right and sovereignty. He scooped the unfathomed channel and poured forth the overflowing flood; seas were not fashioned by chance, nor their shores marked out by the imaginary finger of fate; God made the main, and every creek, and bay, and current, and far sounding tide owns the great Maker's hand. All hail, Creator and Controller of the sea, let those who fly in the swift ships across the wonder realm of waters worship thee alone! And his hands formed the dry land. Whether fertile field or sandy waste, he made all that men called terra firma, lifting it from the floods and fencing it from the overflowing waters. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." He bade the isles upraise their heads, he levelled the vast plains, upreared the table lands, cast up the undulating hills, and piled the massive Alps. As the potter moulds his clay, so did Jehovah with his hands fashion the habitable parts of the earth. Come ye, then, who dwell on this fair world, and worship him who is conspicuous wherever ye tread! Count it all as the floor of a temple where the footprints of the present Deity are visible before your eyes if ye do but care to see. The argument is overpowering if the heart be right; the command to adore is alike the inference of reason and the impulse of faith.

Here the exhortation to worship is renewed and backed with a motive which, to Israel of old and to Christians now, is especially powerful; for both the Israel after the flesh and the Israel of faith may be described as the people of his pasture, and by both he is called "our God." O come, let us worship and bow down. The adoration is to be humble. The "joyful noise" is to be accompanied with lowliest reverence. We are to worship in such style that the bowing down shall indicate that we count ourselves to be as nothing in the presence of the all glorious Lord. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous; familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as creatures before their maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something; prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating the body, and bending the knee.

For he is our God. Here is the master reason for worship. Jehovah has entered into covenant with us, and from all the world beside has chosen us to be his own elect. If others refuse him homage, we at least will render it cheerfully. He is ours, and our God; ours, therefore will we love him; our God, therefore will we worship him. Happy is that man who can sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to himself. And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. As he belongs to us, so do we belong to him. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." And we are his as the people whom he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not ours, but his; we draw all our supplies from his stores. We are his, even as sheep belong to the shepherd, and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our government, our succour, our source of supply. Israel was led through the desert, and we are led through this life by "that great Shepherd of the sheep." The hand which cleft the sea and brought water from the rock is still with us, working equal wonders. Can we refuse to "worship and bow down" when we clearly see that "this God is our God for ever and ever, and will be our guide, even unto death"? But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one whir the less required by ourselves. The favoured nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice": will this turn out to be our character also? God forbid. To day if ye will hear his voice. Dreadful "if." Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God." Today, "in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow, "he limiteth a certain day, "he presses for immediate attention, for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Ghost saith "Today, "will we grieve him by delay?

Harden not your heart. If ye will hear, learn to fear also. The sea and the land obey him, do not prove more obstinate than they!

"Yield to his love who round you now

The bands of a man would east."

We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns let not obduracy rebel. "As in the provocations, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (or, "like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the wilderness"). Be not wilfully, wantonly, repeatedly, obstinately rebellious. Let the example of that unhappy generation serve as a beacon to you; do not repeat the offences which have already more than enough provoked the Lord. God remembers men's sins, and the more memorably so when they are committed by a favoured people, against frequent warnings, in defiance of terrible judgments, and in the midst of superlative mercies; such sins write their record in marble. Reader, this verse is for you, for you even if you can say, "He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture." Do not seek to turn aside the edge of the warning; thou hast good need of it, give good heed to it.

When your fathers tempted me. As far as they could do so they tempted God to change his usual way, and to do their sinful bidding, and though he cannot be tempted of evil, and will never yield to wicked requests, yet their intent was the same, and their guilt was none the less. God's way is perfect, and when we would have him alter it to please us, we are guilty of tempting him; and the fact that we do so in vain, while it magnifies the Lord's holiness, by no means excuses our guilt. We are in most danger of tills sin in times of need, for then it is that we are apt to fall into unbelief, and to demand a change in those arrangements of providence which are the transcript of perfect holiness and infinite wisdom. Not to acquiesce in the will of God is virtually to tempt him to alter his plans to suit our imperfect views of how the universe should be governed. Proved me. They put the Lord to needless tests, demanding new miracles, fresh interpositions, and renewed tokens of his presence. Do not we also peevishly require frequent signs of the Lord's love other than those which every hour supplies? Are we not prone to demand specialities, with the alternative secretly offered in our hearts, that if they do not come at our bidding we will disbelieve? True, the Lord is very condescending, and frequently grants us marvellous evidences of his power, but we ought not to require them. Steady faith is due to one who is so constantly kind. After so many proofs of his love, we are ungrateful to wish to prove him again, unless it be in those ways of his own appointing, in which he has said, "Prove me now." If we were for ever testing the love of our wife or husband, and remained unconvinced after years of faithfulness, we should wear out the utmost human patience. Friendship only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence, suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God, true and immutable, be day after day suspected by his own people? Will not this provoke him to anger? And saw my work. They tested him again and again, through out forty years, though each time his work was conclusive evidence of his faithfulness. Nothing could convince them for long.

"They saw his wonders wrought,

And then his praise they sung;

But soon his works of power forgot,

And murmured with their tongue."

"Now they believe his word,

While rocks with rivers flow;

Now with their lusts provoke the Lord,

And he reduced them low."

Fickleness is bound up in the heart of man, unbelief is our besetting sin; we must for ever be seeing, or we waver in our believing. This is no mean offence, and will bring with it no small punishment.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. The impression upon the divine mind is most vivid; he sees them before him now, and calls them "this generation." He does not leave his prophets to upbraid the sin, but himself utters the complaint and declares that he was grieved, nauseated, and disgusted. It is no small thing which can grieve our long suffering God to the extent which the Hebrew word here indicates, and if we reflect a moment we shall see the abundant provocation given; for no one who values his veracity can endure to be suspected, mistrusted, and belied, when there is no ground for it, but on the contrary the most overwhelming reason for confidence. To such base treatment was the tender Shepherd of Israel exposed, not for a day or a month, but for forty years at a stretch, and that not by here and there an unbeliever, but by a whole nation, in which only two men were found so thoroughly believing as to be exempted from the doom which at last was pronounced upon all the rest. Which shall we most wonder at, the cruel insolence of man, or the tender patience of the Lord? Which shall leave the deepest impression on our minds, the sin or the punishment? unbelief, or the barring of the gates of Jehovah's rest against the unbelievers? And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Their heart was obstinately and constantly at fault; it was not their head which erred, but their very heart was perverse: love, which appealed to their affections, could not convert them. The heart is the main spring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. If sin were only skin deep, it might be a slight matter; but since it has defiled the soul, the case is bad indeed. Taught as they were by Jehovah himself in lessons illustrated by miracles, which came to them daily in the manual from heaven, and the water from the flinty rock, they ought to have learned something, and it was a foul shame that they remained obstinately ignorant, and would not know the ways of God. Wanderers in body, they were also wanderers in heart, and the plain providential goodness of their God remained to their blinded minds as great a maze as those twisting paths by which he led them through the wilderness. Are we better than they? Are we not quite as apt to misinterpret the dealings of the Lord? Have we suffered and enjoyed so many things in vain? With many it is even so. Forty years of providential wisdom, yea, and even a longer period of experience, have failed to teach them serenity of assurance, and firmness of reliance. There is ground for much searching of heart concerning this. Many treat unbelief as a minor fault, they even regard it rather as an infirmity than a crime, but the Lord thinketh not so. Faith is Jehovah's due, especially from those who claim to be the people of his pasture, and yet more emphatically from those whose long life has been crowded with evidences of his goodness: unbelief insults one of the dearest attributes of Deity, it does so needlessly and without the slightest ground and in defiance of all sufficient arguments, weighty with the eloquence of love. Let us in reading this psalm examine ourselves, and lay these things to heart.

Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey. Canaan was to be the typical resting place of God, where his ark should abide, and the ordinances of religion should be established; the Lord had for forty years borne with the ill manners of the generation which came out of Egypt, and it was but right that he should resolve to have no more of them. Was it not enough that they had revolted all along that marvellous wilderness march? Should they be allowed to make new Messahs and Meribahs in the Promised Land itself? Jehovah would not have it so. He not only said but swore that into his rest they should not come, and that oath excluded every one of them; their carcases fell in the wilderness. Solemn warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in because of unbelief, "let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it." One blessed inference from this psalm must not be forgotten. It is clear that there is a rest of God, and that some must enter into it: but "they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." The unbelievers could not enter, but "we which have believed do enter into rest." Let us enjoy it, and praise the Lord for it for ever. Ours is the true Sabbatic rest, it is ours to rest from out own works as God did from his. While we do so, let us "come into his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms."

Whole Psalm. These six psalms, 95 to 100, form, if I mistake not, one entire prophetic poem, cited by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, under the title of the Introduction of the First Born into the world. Each Psalm has its proper subject, which is some particular branch of the general argument, the establishment of the Messiah's Kingdom. The 95th Psalm asserts Jehovah's Godhead, and his power over all nature, and exhorts his people to serve him. In Psalm 96th all nations are exhorted to join in his service, because he cometh to judge all mankind, Jew and Gentile. In the 97th Psalm, Jehovah reigns over all the world, the idols are deserted, the Just One is glorified. In the 98th Psalm, Jehovah hath done wonders, and wrought deliverance for himself: he hath remembered his mercy towards the house of Israel; he comes to judge the whole world. In the 99th, Jehovah, seated between the cherubim in Zion, the visible Church, reigns over all the world, to be praised for the justice of his government. In the 100th Psalm, all the world is called upon to praise Jehovah the Creator, whose mercy and truth are everlasting. —Samuel Horsley.

Whole Psalm. This Psalm is twice quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as a warning to the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, in the writer's day, that they should not falter in the faith, and despise God's promises, as their forefathers had done in the wilderness, lest they should fail of entering into his rest; see He 3:7, where verse 7 of this Psalm is introduced with the words, "As the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, "and see He 4:7, where it is said, "Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today." It has by some been inferred from these words that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews ascribes this Psalm to David. It may be so. But it seems not improbable that the words "in David" mean simply "the Book of Psalms, "the whole being named from the greater part; and that if he had meant that David wrote the Psalm, he would have written, "David spake, "or, "the Holy Ghost spake by David, "and not as it is written, "as it is said in David." —Christopher Wordsworth.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord, etc. The first verse of the Psalm begins the invitation unto praise and exultation. It is a song of three parts, and every part (like Jacob's part of the sheep) brings forth twins; each a double string, as it were, in the music of this praise, finely twisted of two parts into a kind of discordant concord, falling into a musical close through a differing yet reconciled diapason. The first couple in this song of praise are multitude and unity, concourse and concord: "O come", there's multitude and concourse; "let us, "there's unity and concord. The second twisted pair, are tongue and heart, "let us sing, "there's the voice and sound; and "heartily rejoice, "there's the heart and soul. The third and last intertwisted string, or part in the musick, is might and mercy, (rock or) strength and salvation; God's strength and our salvation: "to the strength (or rock) of our salvation." —Charles Herle (1598-1659) in a "Sermon before the House of Lords", entitled, "David's Song of Three Parts".

Come. The word "come" contains an exhortation, exciting them to join heart and lips in praising God; just as the word is used in Genesis, where the people, exciting and encouraging each other, say, "Come, let us make bricks; "and "Come, let us make a city and a town; "and, in the same chapter, the Lord says, "Come, let us go down, and there confound their tongue." —Bellarmine.

If it be so that one "come, let us" goes further than twenty times go and do, how careful should such be whom God hath raised to eminence of place that their examples be Jacob's ladders to help men to heaven, not Jeroboam's stumbling blocks to lie in their way, and make Israel to sin. —Charles Herle.

There is a silent hint here at that human listlessness and distraction of cares whereby we are more prompt to run after other things than to devote ourselves seriously to the becoming praises and service of God. Our foot has a greater proclivity to depart to the field, the oxen, and the new wife, than to come to the sacred courts, Lu 14:18, seq. See Isa 2:3, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." —Martin Geier.

Joyful noise. The verb eyrh, signifies to make a loud sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the psalms, it generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the Temple service. This wide sense of the word cannot be expressed otherwise in the English language than by a periphrasis. —Samuel Horsley.

The rock of our salvation. Jesus is the Rock of ages, in which is opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness; the Rock which attends the church in the wilderness, pouring forth the water of life, for her use and comfort; the Rock which is our fortress against every enemy, shadowing and refreshing a weary land. —George Horne.

Let us come before his presence. Hebrew, prevent his face, be there with the first. "Let us go speedily ...I will go also", Zec 8:21. Let praise wait for God in Sion, Ps 65:1. —John Trapp.

(second clause). Let us chant aloud to him the measured lay. twrmz, I take to be songs, in measured verse, adjusted to the bars of a chaunt. —S. Horsley.

He that hath a mind to praise God, shall not want matter of praise, as they who come before princes do, who for want of true grounds of praise in them, do give them flattering words; for the Lord is a great God, for power and preeminence, for strength and continuance. —David Dickson.

The Supreme Being has three names here: la El, hwhy Jehovah, Myhla Elohim, and we should apply none of them to false gods. The first implies his strength; the second, his being and essence; the third, his covenant relation to mankind. In public worship these are the views we should entertain of the Divine Being. —Adam Clarke.

Above all gods. When He is called a great God and King above all gods, we may justly imagine that the reference is to the angels who are wont to be introduced absolutely under this name, and to the supreme Judges in the land, who also wear this title, as we have it in Ps 82:1-8. —Venema.

In his hand. The dominion of God is founded upon his preservation of things. "The Lord is a great King above all gods." Why?

In his hand are the deep places of the earth. While his hand holds, his hand hath a dominion over them. He that holds a stone in the air exerciseth a dominion over its natural inclination in hindering it from falling. The creature depends wholly upon God in its preservation; as soon as that divine hand which sustains everything were withdrawn, a languishment and swooning would be the next turn in the creature. He is called Lord, Adonai, in regard of his sustentation of all things by his continual influx, the word coming of Nwa, which signifies a basis or pillar that supports a building. God is the Lord of all, as he is the sustainer of all by his power, as well as the Creator of all by his word. —Stephen Charnock.

"In whose hand are the recesses of the earth

And the treasures of the mountains are his." —Thomas J. Conant's Translation.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth. This affords consolation to those; who for the glory of the divine name are cast into prisons and subterraneous caves; because they know, that even there it is not possible to be the least separated from the presence of Christ. Wherefore He preserved Joseph when hurled by his brethren into the old pit, and when thrust by his shameless mistress into prison; Jeremiah also when sent down into the dungeon; Daniel among the lions, and his companions in the furnace. So all who cleave to Him with a firm faith, he wonderfully keeps and delivers to this day. —Solomon Gesner, 1559-1605.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth. As an illustration of the working and presence of the Lord in the mines amid the bowels of the earth we have selected the following: "The natural disposition of coal in detached portions", says the author of an excellent article in the Edinburgh Review, "is not simply a phenomenon of geology, but it also bears upon natural considerations. It is remarkable that this natural disposition is that which renders the fuel most accessible and most easily mined. Were the coal situated at its normal geological depth, that is, supposing the strata to be all horizontal and undisturbed or upheaved, it would be far below human reach. Were it deposited continuously in one even superficial layer, it would have been too readily, and therefore too quickly, mined, and therefore all the superior qualities would be wrought out, and only the inferior left; but as it now lies it is broken up by geological disturbances into separate portions, each defined and limited in area, each sufficiently accessible to bring it within man's reach and labour, each manageable by mechanical arrangements, and each capable of gradual excavation without being subject to sudden exhaustion. Selfish plundering is partly prevented by natural barriers, and we are warned against reckless waste by the comparative thinness of coal seams, as well as by the ever augmenting difficulty of working them at increased depths. By the separation of seams one from another, and by varied intervals of waste sandstones and shales, such a measured rate of winning is necessitated as precludes us from entirely robbing posterity of the most valuable mineral fuel, while the fuel itself is preserved from those extended fractures and crumblings and falls, which would certainly be the consequence of largely mining the best bituminous coal, were it aggregated into one vast mass. In fact, by an evident exercise of forethought and benevolence in the Great Author of all our blessings, our invaluable fuel has been stored up for us in deposits the most compendious, the most accessible, yet the least exhaustible, and has been locally distributed into the most convenient situations. Our coal fields are so many Bituminous Banks, in which there is abundance for an adequate currency, but against any sudden run upon them nature has interposed numerous checks; whole reserves of the precious fuel are always locked up in the bank cellar under the invincible protection of ponderous stone beds. It is a striking fact, that in this nineteenth century, after so long an inhabitation of the earth by man, if we take the quantities in the broad view of the whole known coal fields, so little coal has been excavated, and that there remains an abundance for a very remote posterity, even though our own best coal fields may be then worked out."

But it is not only in these inexhaustible supplies of mineral fuel that we find proofs of divine foresight, all the other treasures of the earth rind equally convince us of the intimate harmony between its structure and the wants of man. Composed of a wonderful variety of earths and ores, it contains an inexhaustible abundance of all the substances he requires for the attainment of a higher grade of civilisation. It is for his use that iron, copper, lead, silver, tin, marble, gypsum, sulphur, rock salt, and a variety of other minerals and metals, have been deposited in the veins and crevices, or in the mines and quarries, of the subterranean world. It is for his benefit that, from the decomposition of the solid rocks results that mixture of earths and alkalies, of marl, lime, sand, or chalk, which is most favourable to agriculture. It is for him, finally, that, filtering through the entrails of the earth, and dissolving salutary substances on their way, the thermal springs gush forth laden with treasures more inestimable than those the miner toils for. Supposing man had never been destined to live, we well may ask wily all those gifts of nature useless to all living beings but to him why those vast coal fields, those beds of iron ore, those deposits of sulphur, those hygeian fountains, should ever have been created? Without him there is no design, no purpose, in their existence; with him they are wonderful sources of health or necessary instruments of civilisation and improvement. Thus the geological revolutions of the earth rind harmoniously point to man as to its future lord; thus, in the life of our planet and that of its inhabitants, we everywhere find proofs of a gigantic unity of plan, embracing unnumbered ages in its development and progress. —G. Hartwig, in "The Harmonies of Nature", 1866.

The deep places of the earth, penetralia terrae, which are opposed to the heights of the hills, and plainly mean the deepest and most letired parts of the terraqueous globe, which are explorable by the eye of God, and by his only. —Richard Mant.

The strength of the hills. The word translated "strength" is plural in Hebrew, and seems properly to mean fatiguing exertions, from which some derive the idea of strength, others that of extreme height, which can only be reached by exhausting effort. —J.A. Alexander.

The strength of the hills is his also. The reference may be to the wealth of the hills, obtained only by labour Gesenius, corresponding to the former —"the deep places of the earth", explained as referring to the mines Mendelssohn. Go where man may, with all his toil and searching in the heights or in the depths of the earth, he cannot find a place beyond the range of God's dominion. —A.R. Faussett.

Hills, The Sea, the dry land. The relation of areas of land to areas of water exercises a great and essential influence on the distribution of heat, variations of atmospheric pressure, directions of the winds, and that condition of the air with respect to moisture, which is so necessary for the health of vegetation. Nearly three fourths of the earth's surface is covered with water, but neither the exact height of the atmosphere nor the depth of the ocean are fully determined. Still we know that with every addition to or subtraction from the present bulk of the waters of the ocean, the consequent variation in the form and magnitude of the land would be such, that if the change was considerable, many of the existing harmonies of things would cease. Hence, the inference is, that the magnitude of the sea is one of the conditions to which the structure of all organised creatures is adapted, and on which indeed they depend for wellbeing. The proportions between land and water are exactly what the world as constituted requires; and the whole mass of earth, sea, and air, must have been balanced with the greatest nicety before even a crocus could stand erect. Or a snowdrop or a daffodil bend their heads to the ground. The proportions of land and sea are adjusted to their reciprocal functions. Nothing deduced from modern science is more certain than this. —Edwin Sidney, in "Conversations on the Bible and Science."

The sea is his. When God himself makes an oration in defence of his sovereignty, Job 38:1 his chief arguments are drawn from creation: "The Lord is a great King above all gods. The sea is his, and he made it." And so the apostle in his sermon to the Athenians. As he "made the world, and all things therein, "he is styled "Lord of heaven and earth, "Ac 17:24. His dominion also of property stands upon this basis: Ps 84:11, "The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them." Upon this title of forming Israel as a creature, or rather as a church, he demands their services to him as their Sovereign. "O jacob and Israel, thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant, O Israel, "Is 44:21. The sovereignty of God naturally ariseth from the relation of all things to himself as their entire creator, and their natural and inseparable dependence upon him in regard of their being and wellbeing. —Stephen Charrwick.

He made it.

The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet

Of waters, embryon immature involved,

Appeared not: over all the face of Earth in ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm

Prolific humour softening all her globe,

Fermented the great mother to conceive,

Satiate with genial moisture; when God said,

Be gathered now, ye waters under Heaven unto one place and let dry land appear.

Immediately the mountains huge appear

Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave unto the clouds; their tops ascend the sky:

So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low own sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

Capacious bed of waters. —John Milton.

You hold it a good rule in worldly business, not to say to your servants, "O come", arise ye, go ye; but, Let us come, let us go, let us arise. Now shall the children of this world be wiser in their generation than the children of light? Do we commend this course in mundane affairs, and neglect it in religious offices? Assuredly, if our zeal were as great to religion, as our love is towards the world, masters would not come to church (as many do) without their servants, and servants without their masters; parents without their children, and children without their parents: husbands without their wives, and wives without their husbands; but all of us would call one to another, as Esau prophesied (chap. 2:3): "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, "and as David here practised. —John Boys.

Let us worship and bow down. To fall upon the ground is a gesture of worship, not only when the worshipper mourns, but when the worshipper rejoiceth. It is said (Mt 2:10,11) that the wise men when they found Christ, "rejoiced with exceeding great joy", and presently, "they fell down, and worshipped him". Neither is this posture peculiar to worship in times or upon occasions of extraordinary joy and sorrow; for the ordinary invitation was, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker". —Joseph Caryl.

"Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Not before a crucifix, not before a rotten image, not before a fair picture of a foul saint: these are not our makers; we made them, they made not us. Our God, unto whom we must sing, in whom we must rejoice, before whom we must worship, is a great "King above all gods": he is no god of lead, no god of bread, no brazen god, no wooden god; we must not fall down and worship our Lady, but our Lord; not any martyr, but our Maker not any saint, but our Saviour: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." Wherewith: with voice, "Let us sing; "with soul, "Let us heartily rejoice"; with hands and knees, "Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel"; with all that is within us, with all that is without us; he that made all, must be worshipped with all, especially when we "come before his presence". —John Boys.

Bow down. That is, so as to touch the floor with the forehead, while the worshipper is prostrate on his hands and knees. See 2Ch 7:3. —John Fry, 1842.

Worship, bow down, kneel. Kimchi distinguishes the several gestures expressed by the different words here used. The first we render, worship, signifies, according to him, the prostration of the whole body on the ground, with the hands and legs stretched out. The second a bowing of the head, with part of the body; and the third a be drag of the knees on the ground. —Samuel Burder.

We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. See how elegantly he hath transposed the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each word; that we may understand these very same to be "the sheep", who are also "the people." He said not, the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his hand; which might be thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the pasture; but he said, "the people of his pasture": the people themselves are sheep. But again, since we have sheep which we buy, not which we create; and he had said above, "Let us fall down before our Maker"; it is rightly said, "the sheep of his hand." No man maketh for himself sheep, he may buy them, they may be given, he may find them, he may collect them, lastly he may steal them; make them he cannot. But our Lord made us; therefore "the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand", are the very sheep which he hath deigned by his grace to create unto himself. —Augustine.

The sheep of his hand, is a fit though figurative expression, the shepherd that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it by his hand, which manages the rod and staff (Ps 23:4), by which they are administered. The Jewish Arabs read, the people of his feeding or, flock, and the sheep of his guidance. —H. Hammond.

For we are his people whom he feeds in his pastures, and his sheep whom he leads as by his hand. (French Version.) Here is a reason to constrain us to praise God; it is this, —that not only has he created us, but that he also directs us by special providence, as a shepherd governs his flock. Jesus Christ, Divine Shepherd of our souls, who not only feeds us in his pastures, but himself leads us with his hand, as intelligent sheep. Loving Shepherd, who feeds us not only from the pastures of Holy Wilt, but even with his own flesh. What subjects of ceaseless adoration for a soul penetrated by these great verities! What a fountain of tears of joy at the sight of such prodigious mercy! —Quesnel.

Today if ye will hear his voice. If we put of repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. —W. Mason.

He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hath not promised to preserve our lives till we repent. —Francis Quarles.

You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late. —Thomas Fuller.

If ye will hear his voice. Oh! what an if is here! what a reproach is here to those that hear him not! "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"; "but ye will not come to me that ye might have life." And yet there is mercy, there is still salvation, if ye will hear that voice. Israel heard it among the thunders of Sinai, "which voice they that heard it entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more"; so terrible was the sight and sound that even Moses said, "I exceedingly quake and fear": and yet they heard too the Lord's still voice of love in the noiseless manna that fell around their tents, and in the gushing waters of the rock that followed them through every march for forty years. Yet the record of Israel's ingratitude runs side by side with the record of God's mercies —"My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me." —Barton Bouchier.

If ye will hear his voice. And yet, as S. Bernard tells us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing it; on the contrary, the difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is it in enunciation, so constant in appeal. Yet there are many who do not hear, from divers causes; because they are far off; because they are deaf; because they sleep; because they turn their heads aside; because they stop their ears; because they hurry away to avoid hearing; because they are dead; all of them topics of various forms and degrees of unbelief. —Bernard and Hugo Cardinalis, in Neale and Littledale.

If ye will hear his voice. These words seem to allude to the preceding words, in which we are represented as the sheep of God's pasture, and are to be considered as an affectionate call of our heavenly Shepherd to follow and obey him. —From "Lectures on the Liturgy, from the Commentary of Peter Waldo", 1821.

Verses 7-8. It will be as difficult, nay, more difficult, to come to Christ tomorrow, than it is today: therefore today hear his voice, and harden not your heart. Break the ice now, and by faith venture upon your present duty, wherever it lies; do what you are now called to. You will never know how easy the yoke of Christ is, till it is bound about your necks, nor how light his burden is, till you have taken it up. While you judge of holiness at a distance, as a thing without you and contrary to you, you will never like it. Come a little nearer to it; do but take it in, actually engage in it, and you will find religion carries meat in its mouth; it is of a reviving, nourishing, strengthening nature. It brings that along with it, that enables the soul cheerfully to go through with it. —Thomas Cole (1627-1697) in the "Morning Exercises."

Harden not your hearts. An old man, one day taking a child on his knee, entreated him to seek God now —to pray to him, and to love him; when the child, looking up at him, asked, "But why do not you seek God?" The old man, deeply affected, answered, "I would, child; but my heart is hard —my heart is hard." —Arvine's Anecdotes.

Harden not your heart. —Heart is ascribed to reasonable creatures, to signify sometimes the whole soul, and sometimes the several faculties appertaining to the soul.

1. It is frequently put for the whole soul, and that for the most part when it is set alone; as where it is said, "Serve the Lord with all your heart", 1Sa 7:20.

2. For that principal part of the soul which is called the mind or understanding. "I gave my heart to know wisdom", Ec 1:17. In this respect darkness and blindness are attributed to the heart, Eph 6:18, Ro 1:21.

3. For the will: as when heart and soul are joined together, the two essential faculties of the soul are meant, namely, the mind and will: soul put for the mind, heart for the will "Serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul", De 6:13.

4. For the memory. "I have hid thy word in my heart", saith the prophet, Ps 119:11. The memory is that faculty wherein matters are laid up and hid.

5. For the conscience. It is said that "David's heart smote him", that is, his conscience, 1Sa 24:5 2Sa 24:10. Thus is heart taken, 1Jo 3:20-21.

6. For the affections: as where it is said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", Mt 22:37. By the mind is meant the understanding faculty; by the soul, the will; by the heart, the affections.

Here in this text the heart is put for the whole soul, even for mind, will, and affections. For blindness of mind, stubbornness of will, and stupidity of affections go together. —William Gouge.

In Massah —in Meribah. Our translators say, in the provocation, in the day of temptation. But the places were denominated by names taken from the transactions that occurred in them; and the introduction of those names gives more liveliness to the allusion. See to the same effect Ps 81:7; where the Bible translation retains the proper name. —Richard Mant.

Let us not fail to notice, that while it is the flock who speak in Ps 95:1-7, it is the Shepherd who takes up their expostulating words, and urges them home himself at Ps 95:8, to the end, using the argument which by the Holy Ghost is addressed to us also in Heb 3:7-19. There is something very powerful in this expostulation, when connected with the circumstances that give rise to it. In themselves, the burst of adoring love, and the full out pouring of affection in Ps 95:1-7 are irresistibly persuasive; but when (Ps 95:8) the voice of the Lord himself is heard (such a voice, using terms of vehement entreaty!) we cannot imagine expostulation carried further. Unbelief alone could resist this voice; blind, malignant unbelief alone could repel The flock, and then the Shepherd, inviting men now to enter the fold. —Andrew A. Bonar.

Your fathers tempted me. Though God cannot be tempted with evil he may justly be said to be tempted whenever men, by being dissatisfied with his dealings, virtually ask that he will alter those dealings, and proceed in a way more congenial to their feelings. If you reflect a little, you will hardly fail to perceive, that in a very strict sense, this and the like may be called tempting God. Suppose a man to be discontented with the appointments of providence, suppose him to murmur and to repine at what the Almighty allots him to do or to bear; is he not to be charged with the asking God to change his purposes? And what is this if it is not tempting God, and striving to induce him to swerve from his plans, though every one of those plans has been settled by Infinite Wisdom?

Or again, if any one of us, notwithstanding the multiplied proofs of Divine lovingkindness, doubt or question whether or not God do indeed love him, of what is he guilty, if not of tempting the Lord, seeing that he solicits God to the giving additional evidence, as though there was a deficiency, and challenges him to a fresh demonstration of what he has already abundantly displayed? This would be called tempting amongst men. If a child were to show by his actions that he doubted or disbelieved the affection of his parents, he would be considered as striving to extract from them new proofs, by asking them to evince their love more, though they may already have done as much as in wisdom and in justice they ought to do. And this is clearly tempting them, and that too in the ordinary sense of the term. In short, unbelief of every kind and every degree may be said to tempt God. For not to believe upon the evidence which he has seen fit to give, is to provoke him to give more, offering our possible assent if proof were increased as an inducement to him to go beyond what his wisdom has prescribed. And if in this, and the like sense, God may be tempted, what can be more truly said of the Israelites, than that they tempted God in Massah? ...We are perhaps not accustomed to think of unbelief or murmuring as nothing less than a tempting God, and therefore, we do not attach to what is so common, its just degree of heinousness. It is so natural to us to be discontented whenever God's dealings are not just what we like, to forget what has been done for us as soon as our wishes seem thwarted, to be impatient and fretful under every new cross, that we are scarcely conscious of committing a sin, and much less one more than usually aggravated. Yet we cannot be dissatisfied with God's dealings, and not be virtually guilty of tempting God. It may seem a harsh definition of a slight and scarcely avoidable fault, but nevertheless it is a true definition. You cannot mistrust God, and not accuse him of want either of power or of goodness. You cannot repine, no, not even in thought, without virtually telling him that his plans are not the best, nor his dispensations the wisest which he might have appointed in respect of yourselves. So that your fear, or your despondency, or your anxiety, in circumstances of perplexity, or peril, are nothing less than the calling upon God to depart from his fixed course —a suspicion, or rather an assertion that he might proceed in a manner more worthy of himself, and therefore, a challenge to him to alter his dealings if he would prove that he possesses the attributes which he claims. You may not intend thus to accuse or to provoke God whenever you murmur, but your murmuring does all this, and cannot fail to do it. You cannot be dissatisfied without virtually saying that God might order things better; you cannot say that he might order things better without virtually demanding that he change his course of acting, and give other proofs of his Infinite perfections. —Henry Melvill.

Your fathers tempted me. There are two ways of interpreting the words which follow. As tempting God is nothing else than yielding to a diseased and unwarrantable craving after proof of his power, we may consider the verse as connected throughout, and read, They tempted me and proved me, although they had already seen my work. God very justly complains, that they should insist upon new proof, after his power had been already amply testified by undeniable evidences. There is another meaning, however, that may be given to the term "proved", —according to which, the meaning of the passage would run as follows: —Your fathers tempted me in asking where God was, notwithstanding all the benefits I had done them; and they proved me, that is, they had actual experience of what I am, inasmuch as I did not cease to give them open proofs of my presence, and consequently they saw my work. —John Calvin.

Proved me, put me to the proof of my existence, presence, and power, by requiring me to work, i.e. to act in an extraordinary manner. And this desire, unreasonable as it was, I gratified. They not only demanded, but they war-Mg likewise saw my work, i.e. what I could do. —J.A. Alexander.

Forty years. To understand this passage we must bear in mind the event referred to. The same year in which the people of Israel came forth from Egypt, they were distressed for water at Rephidim, (Ex 17:1); and the place had two names given to it, Massah and Meribah, because the people tempted God and chided with Moses. The Lord did not swear then that they should not enter into the land of Canaan; but this was in the following year, after the return of the spies. (Nu 14:20-38.) And God said then that they had tempted him "ten times"; that is, during the short time since their deliverance from Egypt. It was after ten temptations that God deprived them of the promised land. Bearing in mind these facts, we shall be able to see the full force of the passage. The "provocation" or contention, and "temptation" refer clearly to the latter instance, as recorded in Nu 14:1-45 because it was then that God swore that the people should not enter into his rest. The people's conduct was alike in both instances. To connect "forty years" with grieved, was the work of the Punctuists, and this mistake the Apostle corrected; and it is to be observed that he did not follow in this instance the Septuagint, in which the words are arranged as divided by the Masorites. Such a rendering as would correspond with the Hebrew is as follows, —

"Today when ye hear his voice,

8. Harden not your hearts us in the provocation, In the day of temptation in the wilderness.

9. When your fathers tempted me, they proved me And saw my works forty years: 10. I was therefore offended with that generation and said, Always do they go astray in heart, And they have not known my ways; 11. So that I swore in my wrath, `They shall by no means enter into my rest.'"

The meaning of the ninth verse is, that when the children of Israel tempted God, they proved him, i.e., found out by bitter experience how great his displeasure was, and saw his works or his dealings with them forty years. He retained them in the wilderness during that period until the death of all who disbelieved his word at the return of the spies; he gave them this proof of his displeasure. —John Owen, of Thrussington, 1853.

O the desperate presumption of man, that he should offend his Maker forty years! O the patience and longsuffering of his Maker, that he should allow him forty years to offend in! Sin begins in the heart, by its desires wandering and going astray after forbidden objects; whence follows inattention to the ways of God, to his dispensations, and our own duty. Lust in the heart, like vapour in the stomach, soon affects the head, and clouds the understanding. —George Horne.

Forty Years. It is curious to know that the ancient Jews believed that "the days of the Messiah were to be forty years." Thus Tanchuma, F. 79, 4. "Quamdiu durant anni Messiae? R. Akiba dixit, 40 annos, quemadmodum Israelitae per tot annos in deserto fuerunt." It is remarkable, that in forty years after the ascension, the whole Jewish nation were cut off equally as they who fell in the wilderness. —John Brown, in "An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews." 1862.

Was I grieved. The word is a strong wold, expressive of loathing and disgust. —J.J.S. Perowne.

This generation. The word rwd, dor, signifies an age, or the allotted term of human life; and it is here applied to the men of an age, as if the psalmist had said, that the Israelites whom God had delivered were incorrigible, during the whole period of their lives. —John Calvin.

It is a people that do err in their heart. We may observe here, that he does not simply say, This people errs. What mortal is there that does not err? Or where is there a multitude of mortals, exposed to no errors? But he adds, "In their heart." Every error therefore is not blamed here, but the error of their heart is fastened upon. It is to be noted, therefore, that there is a twofold kind of error:

1. One is of the intellect, by which we go astray through ignorance. In this kind of erring Paul erred when he persecuted the Church of Christ; the Sadducees erred, not knowing the Scriptures, Mt 22:29; and to this day many in the Church go astray, endowed with zeal for God, but destitute of a true knowledge of Him.

2. The other kind of erring is of the heart and affections, by which men go astray, not through ignorance, but through corruption and perversity of heart. This error of heart is a mind averse to God, and alienated from the will and way of God, which is elsewhere thus described in the case of this very people: "And their heart was not right with Him." —Musculus.

It is a people that do err in their heart. In err in heart may mean either to err in judgment, or in disposition, intention: for the Hebrew bbl, and after it the Greek kardia, means either animus, judicium, or, mens, cogitatio, desiderium. I understand kardia here, as used according to the Hebrew idiom (in which it is often pleonastic, at least it seems so to us,)so that the phrase imports simply, They always err, i.e. they are continually departing from the right way. —Moses Stuart.

Err in their heart. He had called them sheep, and now he notes their wandering propensity, and their incapacity for being led; for the footsteps of their Shepherd they did not know, much less follow. —C.H.S.

They have not known my ways; that is, they have not regarded my ways, have not allowed of them, or loved them; for otherwise they were not ignorant of them; they heard his words, and saw his works. —David Dickson.

They have not known my ways. This ungrateful people did not approve of God's ways —they did not enter into his designs —they did not conform to his commands —they paid no attention to his miracles —and did not acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands. —Adam Clarke.

A people that do err in their heart, & c. These words are not to be found in Nu 14:1-45; but the inspired Psalmist expresses the sense of what Jehovah said on that occasion. "They do always err in their heart", (Heb 3:10). They are radically and habitually evil. They have not known my ways. God's "ways" may mean either his dispensations or his precepts. The Israelites did not rightly understand the former, and they obstinately refused to acquire a practical knowledge —the only truly valuable species of knowledge —of the latter. The reference is probably to God's mode of dealing: Ro 11:33 De 4:32, 8:2, 29:2-4. Such a people deserved severe punishment, and they received it. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. The original words in the Hebrew are, "If they shall enter into my rest." This elliptical mode of expressing oaths is common in the Old Testament: De 1:35 1Sa 3:14 Ps 89:35 Isa 62:8. This awful oath is recorded in Nu 14:21-29: "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me." The words of the oath seem here borrowed from the account in De 1:35. There are many threatenings of God which have a tacit condition implied in them; but when God interposes his oath, the sentence is irreversible. The curse was not causeless, and it did come. We have an account of its actual fulfilment, Nu 26:64-65. The "rest" from which they were excluded was the land of Canaan. Their lives were spent in wandering. It is termed "God's rest", as there he was to finish his work of bringing Israel into the land promised to their fathers, and fix the symbol of his presence in the midst of them, —dwelling in that land in which his people were to rest from their wanderings, and to dwell in safety under his protection. It is His rest, as of His preparing, De 12:9. It is His rest —rest like His, rest along with Him. We are by no means warranted to conclude that all who died in the wilderness came short of everlasting happiness. It is to be feared many of them, most of them, did; but the curse denounced on them went only to their exclusion from the earthly Canaan. —John Brown.

Verses 10-11. And said. Mark the gradation, first grief or disgust with those who erred made him say; then anger felt more heavily against those who did not believe made him swear. The people had been called sheep in Ps 95:7, to sheep the highest good is rest, but into this rest they were never to come, for they had not known or delighted in the ways in which the good Shepherd desired to lead them. —John Albert Bengel.

The word swearing is very significant, and seems to import these two things. First, the certainty of the sentence here pronounced. Every word of God both is, and must be truth; but ratified by an oath, it is truth with an advantage. It is signed irrevocable. This fixes it like the laws of the Medes and Persians, beyond all possibility of alteration and makes God's word, like his very nature, unchangeable. Secondly, it imports the terror of the sentence. If the children of Israel could say, "Let not God speak to us, lest we die, what would they have said had God then sworn against them?" It is terrible to hear an oath from the mouth but of a poor mortal, but from the mouth of an omnipotent God, it does not only terrify, but confound. An oath from God is truth delivered in anger; truth, as I may so speak, with a vengeance. When God speaks, it is the creature's duty to hear; but when he swears, to tremble. —Robert South.

That they should not enter into my rest. There is something unusual and abrupt in the conclusion of this psalm, without any cheering prospect to relieve the threatening. This may be best explained by assuming, that it was not meant to stand alone, but to form one of a series. —J.A. Alexander.

An invitation to praise the Lord.

1. A favourite method of worship —"let us sing."

2. A fitting state of mind for singing —joyful gratitude.

3. A fitting subject to excite both gladness and thankfulness —the rock of our salvation.

The rock of our salvation. Expressive imagery. Rock of shelter, support, indwelling, and supply —illustrate this last by the water flowing from the rock in the wilderness.

1. What is meant by coming before his presence? Certainly not the holiness of places, etc.

2. What offering is most appropriate when we come into his presence?

1. The greatness of God as god. He is to be conceived of as great in goodness, power, glory, etc.

2. His dominion over all other powers in heaven or earth.

3. The worship which is consequently due to him.

Verses 4-5. The universality of the divine government.

1. In all parts of the globe.

2. In all providences.

3. In every phase of moral condition. Or, Things deep, or high, dark or perilous are in his hand; circumstances shifting, terrible, overwhelming as the sea, are under his control as much as the comfortable terra firma of peace and prosperity.

A true conception of God begets

1. A disposition to worship.

2. Mutual incitement to worship.

3. Profound reverence in worship.

4. Overwhelming sense of God's presence in worship. —C.A. Davis.

Verses 6-7. God is to be worshipped —

1. As our Creator —"our maker."

2. As our Redeemer, "the people," etc.

3. As our Preserver, "the sheep," etc. —George Rogers.

The entreaty of the Holy Ghost.

1. The special voice —"the Holy Ghost saith" —

(a) In Scripture.

(b) In the hearts of his people.

(c) In the awakened.

(d) By his deeds of grace.

2. A special duty, "hear his voice", instructing, commanding, inviting, promising, threatening.

3. A special time —"today." While God speaks, after so long a time, in the day of grace, now, in your present state.

4. The special danger —"harden not your hearts", by indifference, unbelief, asking for signs, presumption, worldly pleasures, etc.

Sinners entreated to hear God's voice. "Hear his voice", because —

1. Life is short aud uncertain;

2. You cannot properly or lawfully promise to give what is not your own;

3. If you defer, though but till tomorrow, you must harden your hearts;

4. There is great reason to fear that, if you defer it today, you will never commence;

5. After a time God ceases to strive with sinners;

6. There is nothing irksome or disagreeable in a religious life, that you should wish to defer its commencement. —Edward Payson.

The Difference of Times with respect to Religion. —Upon a spiritual account there is great difference of time. To make this out, I will shew you,

1. That sooner and later are not alike, in respect of eternity.

2. That times of ignorance and of knowledge are not alike.

3. That before and after voluntary commission of known iniquity, are not alike.

4. That before and after contracted naughty habits, are not alike.

5. That the time of God's gracious and particular visitation and the time when God withdraws his gracious presence and assistance, are not alike.

6. The flourishing time of our health and strength, and the hour of sickness, weakness, and approach of death, are not alike.

7. Now and hereafter, present and future, this world and the world to come, are not alike. —Benjamin Whichcot.

This supposition, If ye will hear, and the consequence inferred thereupon, harden not your hearts, doth evidently demonstrate that a right hearing will prevent hardness of heart; especially hearing of Christ's voice, that is, the gospel. It is the gospel that maketh and keepeth a soft heart. —William Gouge.

Verses 8-11.

1. Israel's fearful experiment in tempting God.

2. The awful result.

3. Let it not be tried again. —C.A. Davis.

The error and the ignorance which are fatal.

The fatal moment of the giving up of a soul, how it may be hastened, what are the signs of it, and what are the terrible results.

Verses 10-11. The kindling, increasing, and full force of divine anger, and its dreadful results.