Sing In Exultation Series

This morning, my brothers and sisters, you have been personally invited into the very presence of God. “O come, all ye faithful (stanza 1) … “come into His presence” (Psalm 95:2). What a singular, unspeakable honor, amen? We have been invited to come into the presence of the “King above all gods” (Psalm 95:3) … “the King of Heaven and earth” … “True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal” (stanza 2). We are invited to come into the very presence of “our Maker” (Psalm 95:6) … whose hands hold “the depths of the earth … the heights of the mountains (Psalm 95: 4). Whose hands formed “the sea … and the dry land” (Psalm 95:5).

And how should you come into the presence of the One whose hands both made and now holds the cosmos in them? Joyfully, triumphantly, singing His praises and making a joyful noise with trumpets and lyres, harps and drums. And then we bow down in submission and wait for our Great Shepherd to speak to “the people of His pasture … the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7).

John F. Wade’s hymn, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” is filled with “invitations” … twenty to be exact. Sixteen times Wade invites us to “come.” Twelve times he invites us to “adore” Christ. In the original Latin, Wade’s chorus invites us to “venite adoramus” three times. “Venite” means “come you” or “you” come and “adoramus” means “we adore.” While the English translation says “O come, let us adore Him,” a more accurate, and I feel more beautiful translation is “you” … the person singing this hymn … “you come and adore Christ the Lord with us” who are also singing this hymn.

Worship is a combining of the individual with the congregation as we praise and worship the Lord, our King. Psalm 95 doesn’t start out: “O come, let me sing to the LORD” or “O come, let you sing to the Lord.” It says: “O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!” (Psalm 95:1-2; emphasis mine). The writer of Psalm 95 invites us to come together and sing to the Lord … to come together to shout to the Rock of our salvation … to come together into God’s presence with thanksgiving … to come together and make a joyful noise with song and praise … to bow down and worship the Lord our Maker together.

Wade’s hymn, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” is also a call for all believers, all the faithful who adore Christ, to come together in worship. Again, I want you to hear the call for the individual to become a part of the faithful. O come, you who are faithful … O come, you who are joyful … O come, you who are triumphant … come, join with us, who are faithful … come join with us who are triumphant … come join with us as we adore the common focus and source of our worship and praise.

In verses 4 and 5 of Psalm 95, the psalmist connects Genesis and Exodus as a way of describing and emphasizing God’s role as “Maker” in verse 7. In Genesis, or the “beginning,” God separated the land from the sea on the third day (Genesis 1:9). In Exodus, God parted the Red Sea and the escaping Israelite slaves passed through on dry land. The repeated image of God’s hands in verses 4 and 5 creates a picture of God using His hands like a potter or sculptor to mold and shape His creation and those same hands holding and encompassing what He has created … and so, because He created us and because He sustains us and upholds us as part of His creation, we praise and worship Him and acknowledge that He is “our Maker” (Psalm 95:6) and “our God” (v. 7).

The psalmist’s allusion to Exodus in verses 4 and 5 and his more specific references in verses 8 through 11 suggest a more personal aspect of God’s creation. God, the Israelites’ “Maker,” brought the them out of Egypt and made them into a people … His people … who are now praising Him and worshiping Him in the Temple, in the city of Jerusalem, in the fruitful land and fertile pastures that He had promised them … leading them like a shepherd leads his flocks.

The image of “shepherd” in Psalm 95 and “shepherds” in Wade’s hymn, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” create a significant and powerful contrast. In Psalm 95, the congregation knows that they belong to the Lord because He is their “Maker.” He brought them into existence. He formed them into a people and a nation in the wilderness. And He continues to watch over “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7). “The shepherd image used to interpret the relation of God to people is far more than a lovely pastoral metaphor,” says Bible commentator James Mays. “It is a royal image of the relation of a king to those he rules and portrays his role as leader, provider, and protector. … The LORD rules this people, not only because they live in His world,” says Mays, “but even more because they owe Him their existence” (Mays, J.L. Psalms. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press; 1994; p. 306). Contrast that with Wade’s reference to shepherds in his hymn.