HISTORICAL PSALMS 95

0. Introduction

a) For the original hearers, the historical psalms were vivid reminders of God's past acts on behalf of Israel. These history songs were written for passing on important lessons to succeeding generations. They celebrated the many promises of God had made and faithfully kept; they also recounted the faithlessness of the people.

b) We cannot read this ancient history without reflecting on how consistently God's people failed to learn from the past. They repeatedly turned from fresh examples of God's faithfulness and forgiveness only to plunge back into sin. God can use these psalms to remind us how often we do exactly the same thing: having every reason to live for God, we choose instead to live for everything but God. If we paid more attention to "his story" we wouldn't make so many mistakes in our own stories.

1. Historical psalms 95

a) A call to worship and obedience

¹Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. ² Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

³ For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. ⁴ In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. ⁵ The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.

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 will hear His voice: ⁸ “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. ¹⁰ For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ ¹¹ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalms 95:1-11 NKJV)