Monday
Psalm 95.1 “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.”
This ancient poet reminds us that joyful shouting isn’t only for rock concerts and football matches. God is reason enough for joy because in a world that changes rapidly and unpredictably God is Rock solid. The rock is a metaphor for permanence. In fact Jesus said if you build your life on the rock of obedience to His teaching, your ‘house’ will stand firm when the inevitable life storms come. So yes! That’s reason enough for joy! “Come ye that love the Lord, and let your joys be known.”
Tuesday
Psalm 95.2 “Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song,”
Joyful shouting isn’t a mindless positivity hoping to create a feel-good factor. Joy arises from a grateful heart and is disciplined in song and prayer. Saying thank you is the least we can offer for the kindness of someone who has surprised us with unlooked for generosity. That’s what God does, every day we wake up: “Thou hast given so much to me. Give one thing more, a grateful heart.”
Wednesday
Psalm 95.3 “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
God is that to which we give our whole lives. Whatever matters more than anything else, whatever we would sell our soul for, that to us is ‘god’. The Psalm-poet claims that the God of Israel is God the first and foremost. Jesus said just as clearly, the first commandment is to love “the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” God revealed to us in Jesus is the One whose love and grace has surprised us with unlooked for generosity”. “Crown him the Lord of heaven, enthroned in worlds above; Crown him the king, to whom is given the wondrous name of Love.”
Thursday
Psalm 95. 4 “In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.”
However low we fall, however high we climb, God is there. Height and depth, length and breadth – the four dimensional reach and range of the gracious mercy of God is inescapable. For a pilgrim people, deep valleys and mountain ridges were hard places to navigate. But God is there. He holds the deeps, he owns the mountain heights. This too is reason for praise, and to extol him with music and song: “Let all the world in every corner sing: My God and King.”
Friday
Psalm 95.5 “The sea is his for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.”
For Israel the sea was a mixed blessing. Many of their enemies came from the sea. The sea itself was a symbol of danger, trouble, and serious threats to life. But just as the boundaries of sea and land are set by God, so whatever the circumstances of life that can at times come crashing around us, they don’t overpower God. When Jesus calmed the storm he was enacting this visible and credible authority of God – “even the wind and seas obey him." “Eternal Father strong to save, whose arm has bound the restless wave, who bids the mighty ocean deep, its own appointed limits keep; O hear us when we cry to Thee, for those in Peril on the sea.”
Saturday
Psalm 95.6 “Come, let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”
“Come” is an invitation, a bidding word of encouragement. We live in a culture that resists the humility and readiness for service that the bent knee signifies. And by the way, gratitude is closely related to humility; the acknowledgement of our indebtedness presupposes the relinquishment of our pride. When we worship our whole being becomes an offering, a song of gratitude, a statement of intent to love and serve God wherever we are. “O worship the King, all glorious above; O gratefully sing his power and his love…”
Sunday
Psalm 95.7 “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”
To say “he is our God” doesn’t mean we own God, or have a claim on God. But it does mean we belong to God and are kept under his care. Verses like this help us make sense of Jesus’ words: “I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” When we say “He is our God” that isn’t a possessive statement, but the glad recognition of a relationship of commitment, it is to find joy in God’s care and God’s giving of God’s own self in his Son, to be the Good Shepherd of his people. “The King of Love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am his and he is mine forever.”
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
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