Psalm 95 - The flock

Psalm 95 - The flock

Read: Psalm 95 vs 1-11

We live in a word where there is a huge amount of information all around us and where getting hold of that information has never been easier. Everything from the latest books, to today’s newspaper, to countless blogs, and social media posts are no more than a click away. It hasn’t always been like this. For many many centuries people lived in a world of very few books, and for centuries before that (the printing press was only invented in 1440) people lived in a world where printed words were extremely precious, the result of someone sitting and literally copying words onto a page or parchment.

During all these years the vast majority of Christian people were people of ‘one book’. That book was the Bible, and over a lifetime it was the words and stories of this book that singularly shaped their lives, their imaginations and their faith. In particular for generations Christian people lived daily in the Psalms, they read the Psalms, they sang the Psalms and they learnt the Psalms. People knew the Psalms. 

Psalm 95 is a Psalm to read, to re-read; a Psalm to learn and to live by. It begins with a summons to sing to the LORD, the source of true joy, and the Rock of salvation (vs 1). The fact that we can come to Him becomes a source of thanksgiving (vs 2). 

He is great, He is the King above all other gods, and from the mountain peaks to the oceans depths He has made all things (vs 3-5). These facts bring draw us into a daily pattern of worship, kneeling before our Maker, and finding our true identity as the ‘people of His pasture and the flock under His care’ (vs 7).

But Psalm 95 also warns us that time and again those who have gone before us have lived with hard hearts before God, and failed to worship Him, instead trying to make sense of life on their own strength and on their own terms. Place names like ‘Meribah’ and ‘Massah’ (vs 8) become danger signs that our hearts easily turn from worship to self-sufficiency. It is possible to spend many wasted years (40 years, verse 10) going astray from the One who is our true Shepherd. 

Gently, simply, clearly, Psalm 95 calls us back, to worship, to kneel, and to sing to our God today.

Prayer: Father help me to declutter my mind. Help me each day to listen to Your word. Forgive us when we allow other voices, other words to drown out what You want to say to us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.