Shout Triumphantly (Psalm 95)

Do we question God like Israel in the wilderness? Let’s look at Psalm 95.

Is it appropriate to shout and sing in church or are we more conservative than that?

Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to Him in song. (Ps 95:1-2 HCSB)

Do we describe God as “awesome” or prefer the word “great” that most other translations seem to use? Do we recognize that He holds everything that exists?

For the Lord is an awesome God; a great king above all divine beings. He holds in his hand the lowest parts of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea that he made belongs to him, along with the dry land that his hands formed. (Ps 95:3-5 ISV)

Do we recognize our position in the heavenly scheme of things?

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Ps 95:6-7a KJV)

Though a generation of Israel had seen God’s work setting them free from slavery, did they still harden their hearts in disbelief? Do we?

Today, if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tried Me, They tested Me, though they had seen My work.” (Ps 95:7b-9 LSB)

Is that why that generation had to wander in the wilderness for forty years and were not granted entrance to the land of promise?

“For forty years I was disgusted with that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, They certainly shall not enter My rest.” (Ps 95:10-11 NASB)

If under Joshua they did not find rest in either the Sabbath or the land of rest, what is then a Sabbath rest remaining for the people of God? Is it our eternal rest?

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. (Heb 4:8-11 NIV)

Do we question God like Israel in the wilderness? You decide!