Let Us Sing Unto the Lord – Psalm 95

A text – Psalm 95

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
³ For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.                                                                                        

⁶ O 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.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
⁸ Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ when your ancestors tested me 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 whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
¹¹ Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

A reflection:

Something in me would prefer to begin this psalm with the last section and then read verses 1-7 after. I guess I like ending on a high note rather than a low one. But this is Lent, and it’s the right season to remember and acknowledge that we humans fail to pay attention or, worse, we test God’s patience with the ones he loves: us. We always have.

God is remembering what trials he had with the Israelites who were freed from slavery in Egypt. God is recalling every intervention into history that God made to get them out of the powerful bondage of a powerful pharaoh. Yet how many times after that did the people complain and disobey. They were becoming a nation with a shared history, getting used to God’s leadership, but bucking God’s authority at every turn, like teenagers, I suppose. “No. You’re not the boss of me!”

So. Rather than make those mistakes as we so often do, rather than always trying to outmaneuver and somehow get around the rules, let’s repent of our attempts to be cleverer than God and our attempts to get out of doing what we know we ought to do – praise God and thank God for our lives and our families and our homes and our blessings. Let us make this Lenten season a time when we don’t try to get out of things. Let us make this Lenten season a time when we remember to get in step with God and praise him every morning and evening.

I’m using this old prayer format: “Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe.” Then I add to that opening sentence something God has just done for me that I am grateful for. “You brought me through a good night of sleep.” Or “You gave me a day when I only strayed twice from my healthy habit of eating better.” Two sentences in the morning and evening that remind me that 1) God rules over everything and 2) I am grateful for God’s help lead me often to more conversation with God, which in turn keeps my mind on the One who does bring me blessings every day for which I am grateful. It is a way I can live into Psalm 95, “¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.”

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being present and in touch with our lives. Help us to remember that you are there with us daily, and that you want to hear from us because you love us. Amen.