PSALM 95
6 Oh 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.
Today, if you hear his voice,8 do not harden your hearts,
as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof,
though they had seen my work.10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”– Psalm 95:6-11
PSALM 95 THE POSTURE OF HUMILITY
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
When God called his people and made a covenant with them
They were given the gift to hear his voice and follow his command
Because God has given us the free will to choose him
He will not force us to accept and receive his grace
So, if you hear his voice, do not be rebellious and turn from him
Instead, soften your heart to his call so you can overcome sin
Humble your heart and do not follow what your ancestors did
Expose the sins you inherited and remember your covenant with Him.
The book of Hebrews reiterates this psalm of David when the writer mentioned “today” as an invitation of God to his people to soften their hearts when they hear his voice. This is also true for all of believers today. When the Spirit of the Lord teaches, corrects, directs and warns us to follow the right path that leads to praising God, we must heed the call. David wrote this psalm as an invitation for them to recall what the Lord has done for his covenant people. The psalm directs the people of God to stay connected to Him so that they could never forget their part in that covenant. That is, not to harden their hearts when they hear his voice. Interestingly, these events go way back before Jesus was born and the promise of the Holy Spirit living in every believer was not yet fulfilled. Yet, we clearly witness the Spirit of the Lord on David because he knows God very intimately.
There is a posture of reverence in the words in this psalm. He invites the people of God to a posture of humility and true worship to God, who is the Maker of all things. He likens God as the shepherd in verse 7 who leads his flock to acknowledge God and bow down to him alone. What does it look like for us to have a posture of humility? It is an attitude of listening with the heart, mind, soul and spirit to where the voice of God leads us. It is a stance of reverence wherein we see our littleness before a holy and almighty and powerful God. It is a teachable and resilient spirit who obeys and does not resist the counsel given to him by God’s Spirit. It is a posture where it doesn’t look inside himself but look up to rely on God alone.
REFLECTION
· Can you see this posture of true worship in your church? Do you see it in all churches? Share.
