Slices
Prepare
Look at your hands and imagine God holding you in his. Prayerfully offer him whatever thoughts and emotions surface as you do this.
Bible passage
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 ‘Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
“They shall never enter my rest.”’
Explore
Psalm 95 greets us with a riot of joyful song, thanksgiving and praise as we respond to the invitation to enter God’s presence. I wonder how often we recognise worship – however it is expressed in our lives – as an invitation from God to enjoy his presence. As the psalm unfolds, we discover a clear focus: the God who is both Maker and Majesty, Creator and King. His unchanging and everlasting worth is the first, foremost and for ever foundation for our worship (vs 3–5). If that weren’t enough, the psalmist reminds us that these heavenly hands that constructed worlds also cradle us. The One who made and owns us has also made himself ours, and this wonder both welcomes us into his heart and wells up within our own, overflowing as worship (vs 6,7).
His hands, our hearts: these are the places where true worship is forged. His hands are worthy. Are our hearts willing? From the place where our desires, emotions, reason and will converge, we can choose between straying and striving or his paths and peace. Walking in his ways begins in wonder, is led by listening and ends in entering his rest – enjoying his presence eternally, both here and hereafter. What a breath-taking panorama of worship!
Respond
‘Lord God, you are worthy of all my worship. Please work within me a heart that is willing to walk in your ways – from here to eternity.’
Deeper Bible study
Pause, be still and read this psalm slowly, allowing it to speak to your heart.
It has been said that the biblical psalms ‘reach back to the beginnings of human existence’ and have survived for centuries ‘through changes of civilisation, religions and languages, to speak still a living word to us today’.1 This poem divides into two very distinct sections which are nonetheless closely related to each other. The first part, in verses 1–7, is an uninhibited, joyful celebration of God, ‘the Rock of our salvation’ (v 1). The exalted character of Israel’s God is loudly and gratefully affirmed in a world where other gods were worshipped and the ‘depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks’ (v 4) were believed to be sacred places inhabited by spiritual powers needing to be placated. Israel’s Lord, in contrast, is ‘the great God’ (v 3), who reigns over all, including the heights and depths of the created world once feared and avoided. The greatness of God and the comprehensiveness of his salvation compel his worshippers to sink to their knees in thanksgiving and adoration.
The second section (vs 8–11) reminds the worshippers that the ecstatic celebration of God’s greatness counts for nothing if it is not the fountainhead of lives of obedience to the covenant made with Moses. Worshippers are reminded of the possibility of failure to allow public worship to shape the entirety of personal and social life. The religion of the Bible is characterised ‘by a profound concern for inner truthfulness’ and celebratory worship is legitimate only if it results in ‘readiness to obey God’s voice and keep his commandments.’2 We no longer regard mountain peaks and the depths of the earth as places of spiritual danger, but there are modern equivalents which can compromise our worship of the Lord.
Why not spend a moment kneeling before ‘the Lord our Maker’ (v 6), rereading this psalm?
1 Claus Westermann, The Living Psalms, Eerdmans, 1989, p1 2 Artur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary, Westminster Press, 1962, p626
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 2 Kings 17,18; 2 Corinthians 7
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for the Global Board who meet online on Saturday, asking for wise and bold decisions. Pray too for the General Assembly which takes place online from 30 June to 3 July when all the national movement chairs and directors come together to review and plan.
