The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"O come," Hebrew lekhu (לְכוּ). The psalm summons glad worship to the great Creator-King, and it begins by calling people to move: "O come." Worship here is something one goes to, not something that merely happens where one already is.

"let us sing," nerannenah (נְרַנְּנָה), sing for joy. "O come, let us sing unto the LORD." The invitation is in the first person plural throughout; the singer is not commanding others to worship but drawing them along with himself.

"a joyful noise," nari'ah (נָרִיעָה), a ringing shout. "Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." Beyond song there is shouting, a sound with volume and force in it, offered "before his presence with thanksgiving."

"the rock of our salvation," tzur yish'enu (צוּר יִשְׁעֵנוּ). The One shouted to is named as a rock, immovable and reliable, and as the source of salvation. The gladness has a reason: this God has saved, and He does not shift.

"a great King above all gods," melekh gadol al-kol-elohim (מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל עַל־כָּל־אֱלֹהִים). "For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods." Whatever the nations bowed to, He is above it, and the worship called for matches the rank of the One receiving it.

"the deep places of the earth," mechqerei-aretz (מֶחְקְרֵי־אָרֶץ). "In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also." From the unexplored depths to the mountain heights, and the sea and dry land besides, everything is held in the hand of the King they are called to praise.

Explanation

Two things shape this opening call to worship. First, its warmth: it is not a command barked from above but an invitation offered from alongside, "O come, let us sing... let us make a joyful noise... let us come before his presence." Four times over the psalmist links arms with us and says "let us." True worship is a shared summons; one glad heart calls another, and together they come. And the worship called for is exuberant, "sing," "a joyful noise," "a ringing shout", no half-hearted mumble, but full-throated gladness before God. Second, look at the reasons given, for worship in this psalm always rests on who God is. He is "the rock of our salvation", firm, unshakable, the ground we stand on and are saved by. He is "a great God, and a great King above all gods", supreme over every rival power that men have ever called divine. And He is the Maker of everything, from the lowest to the highest: "in his hand are the deep places of the earth" (the hidden depths, the ocean floor, the mines below) and "the strength of the hills is his also" (the towering peaks); "the sea is his, and he made it." From the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountains, every inch of creation is His by right of making, and He holds it all "in his hand." A God that great, who is also our Rock and salvation, is worthy of the loudest, gladdest song we can raise.

Gospel Focus

"The rock of our salvation", this Rock is the Lord Jesus Christ, for of the rock that followed Israel Paul writes, "that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is the sure foundation on whom our salvation rests, and He is the "great King above all gods," for He bears the name "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:16). And the Maker in whose hand are the depths and the hills is the same Christ, for "all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3), and "by him were all things created" (Colossians 1:16). The One we come before with thanksgiving is the One through whom we have our very access to God. So the call goes out to us still: come, and sing to the Rock of your salvation, the Lord Jesus, the great King and Maker of all, and let your worship be as glad and full-voiced as the greatness of your God.

Word Study

"let us worship," Hebrew nishtachaveh (נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה), bow ourselves down, prostrate. A second "O come" calls not to song but to submission. The word is not about feeling but about posture: to worship is to put oneself down on the ground.

"bow down," nikhra'ah (נִכְרָעָה). "O come, let us worship and bow down." The body is bent low, and the repetition presses the point that the loud shouting of the first summons is not the whole of worship.

"let us kneel," nivrekhah (נִבְרְכָה). "Let us kneel before the LORD our maker." A third word for the same downward movement; the psalm will not let its hearers stand upright before God.

"our maker," osenu (עֹשֵׂנוּ). The reason for kneeling is given in a single word. He made us, and the creature that owes its existence to Another has no ground on which to stand tall before Him.

"the people of his pasture," am mar'ito (עַם מַרְעִיתוֹ). "For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture." The Maker is also a shepherd, and the ground the people kneel on is His field.

"the sheep of his hand," tzon yado (צֹאן יָדוֹ). "And the sheep of his hand." The same hand that holds the deep places of the earth and the strength of the hills closes around this small flock, and holds it just as surely.

Explanation

Notice that the psalm sounds its "O come" a second time, but now the posture changes. In verse 1 the call was to sing, to lift the voice; here in verse 6 it is to bow, to lower the body. "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." Three verbs of humbling pile up, worship, bow, kneel, bringing the whole body low before God. This shows us that true worship has two movements, and it needs both. First there is the exuberant, standing gladness of song; then there is the reverent, kneeling humility of submission. Praise that never bows becomes shallow; awe that never sings becomes cold. The full worshipper both shouts for joy and falls on his knees. And see the tender ground given for our kneeling. We do not bow before a tyrant, but before "the LORD our maker", and He is "our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." He who made us also shepherds us; the God we kneel to is the One who feeds His flock and holds us in His hand. That changes the whole character of the submission. To kneel before such a One is not the cringing of a slave but the glad trust of a sheep before the shepherd who cares for it. And the verse ends on a hinge, "To day if ye will hear his voice," turning us suddenly from what we say to God, to what God says to us.

Gospel Focus

"We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand", this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. He says, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), and of His flock, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28), the very "sheep of his hand." To bow before "the LORD our maker" is to bow before Him by whom all things were made, so that in the end "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:10). The One before whom we kneel is not a distant power but our Shepherd, who laid down His life for us and holds us safe in His hand. So come and bow before Him, not in dread, but as sheep before the Shepherd who loved them and gave Himself for them, and know that the hand you kneel before is the hand from which nothing can ever pluck you.

Word Study

"harden not," Hebrew al-taqshu (אַל־תַּקְשׁוּ). The call to worship ends with God's own solemn warning: "Harden not your heart." The danger set against kneeling is not open rebellion but a stiffening, a heart that will not bend.

"the provocation," merivah (מְרִיבָה), Meribah, "strife". The warning is anchored to a place-name: "as in the provocation." Israel's quarrel with God in the wilderness was remembered in the very name given to the spot where it happened.

"the day of temptation," massah (מַסָּה), "testing". "And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness." The second name records what they did there: they put God to the test, as though He were the one who had to prove Himself.

"tempted me, proved me," nissuni bechanuni (נִסּוּנִי בְּחָנוּנִי). "When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work." The two words are piled together for weight, and the sting is in the last clause: they tested Him after they had already seen what He could do.

"I was grieved," aqut (אָקוּט), loathed, was disgusted. "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation." The word is stronger than sorrow; God speaks of a settled revulsion at a people who "do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways."

"my rest," menuchati (מְנוּחָתִי). "Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." The rest is God's own, His to give and His to withhold, and hardened hearts are shut out of it by oath.

Explanation

Here the psalm makes its most striking move: a song of joyful worship ends with a stern warning, because worship and warning belong together. The God we sing to and kneel before also speaks, and His voice demands an answer, and demands it now: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." The example held up is Israel at Meribah and Massah in the wilderness, "the provocation" and "the day of temptation," when the people heard God's voice, saw His works, and yet stiffened their hearts against Him, tested Him, and murmured. And mark carefully what the deadly sin was. It was not one dramatic act of rebellion; it was a hardened heart, a slow, settled stiffening against God that persisted even after they had "seen my work." They had every reason to trust, and still they would not soften. The result was terrible: God "sware in his wrath that they should not enter into my rest." A whole generation who came out of Egypt died in the desert and never set foot in the promised land, not because God's arm was short, but because their hearts were hard. And the sharp point of it all is the word "to day." The warning is not merely history; it is aimed at the reader now. God's voice is speaking today, and the heart hardens by degrees, a little resistance, a little delay, a little excuse, until it can no longer feel Him at all. So the psalm presses the most urgent of all appeals: while it is still called today, while His voice can still be heard, do not harden your heart.

Gospel Focus

"To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart", the New Testament seizes this passage and drives it straight at the church. Three times the letter to the Hebrews quotes it, "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation" (Hebrews 3:7-8, 15; 4:7), and explains that the wilderness generation "could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19). The "rest" they forfeited was a shadow of a greater rest, for "there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9), the rest of salvation in Jesus Christ, entered by faith and barred only by a hard, unbelieving heart. This is why the gospel is always a matter of "to day," for "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). The same hardening that shut Israel out of Canaan shuts hearers out of Christ, and it happens not in one defiant leap but by the slow refusal to yield "to day." So if today you hear His voice, in the word, in conviction, in the drawing of His Spirit, do not put it off, do not stiffen, do not wait for a tomorrow that may never be soft. Come to Christ, the true Rest, today.