Psalm 95

Roy preached on the topic of worship from Psalm 95. Psalm 95 consists of three main parts: 2 calls to worship and a
prophetic warning. In the first call to worship (vv. 1–5), the psalmist invites us to give praise to the Lord in joy,
shouting, thanksgivings, music and song (vv. 1–2). The reason we are given to praise the Lord is because He is the
Creator (3–5). Roy discussed how worship is dependent on who God is and not on how we might feel from day-to-day.
God alone is the reason for our worship. With that said, though, we still come to God with our emotions. Why? Because
there is no other way to come to God. God wants our whole, unfiltered selves. Sometimes when we don’t feel like
worshipping, it can be helpful to physically respond. This is the focus of the next call to worship.
In the second call to worship (vv. 6–7a), the psalmist invites us to respond with physical praise by bowing down and
kneeling. Worship is something you do with your whole body. Roy shared about how sometimes your body will respond
to your heart yearning for worship and other times your heart may respond to your body in worship. For example, Roy
shared about how sometimes he bows down because his heart yearns for God. Other times, he bows down because he
isn’t “feeling it” and that helps his heart enter into a posture of worship. Whether you’re feeling in the spirit of
worship or not, Roy encouraged us to come to worship with expectation. Sometimes God will do something and
sometimes he won’t. In either case, God is present, and we worship with hopeful expectancy.
In the final section of Psalm 95 (vv. 7b–11), worship is contrasted with warning and we are reminded of Israel’s past
failures. We are called not to harden our hearts as Israel did at Meribah and Massah. Meribah and Massah (which means
“quarreling” and “testing”) is a reference to Exodus 17 where the Israelites quarreled among themselves and “tested
the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Ex. 17:7). The psalm ends with a reminder that the ongoing quarreling
resulted in forty years of wandering in the wilderness and, consequently, an entire generation being kept from entering
into the promised land (i.e., God’s rest). In this context, worship is an alternative to complaint and rebellion. As Roy
shared, worship is an expression of love toward God, is an act of prayer, and is a lifestyle.

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