Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
Psalms 95:1-11 NLT
If we can learn the lessons from the Bible, our lives will be stronger. This psalm tells the story of one of the worst days in the history of Israel: the day they rebelled against God in the desert. The Lord had set them free from slavery in Egypt and led them to the edge of the Promised Land. But they refused to trust in His power—even after all He had done. Their rebellion led to the punishment of an entire generation dying in the wilderness, passing on the painful faith lessons to their children. The next generation learned, trusted in the Lord, risked their lives, and captured the Promised Land with God’s help. This story is told in Numbers 14, Psalm 95, and Hebrews 4. God wants His people to learn the lesson!
The psalm makes the heartfelt plea: don't rebel against God, no matter how hard life is, no matter how big the challenge ahead of you is. God can defeat giants! God can overcome the crisis you are in. God is with you; don’t run away from Him. The psalm is a call to worship and prayer; it is a call to bow our lives down before God. That means not going our own way, but truly worshipping Jesus every day of the week through our choices and conversations. Don’t rebel but follow Jesus; conquer your fear with His presence and power.
What fears in your life hold you back from being fully devoted to Jesus? Why is going Jesus’ way often harder? Is it worth it?
