Psalm 95:6

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Worship.—Properly, prostrate ourselves.

Kneel.—The practice of kneeling low in the East, only used in moments of deep humiliation, is first mentioned in 2Chronicles 6:13. It was also Daniel’s practice (Daniel 6:10).

Benson Commentary

Psalm 95:6. O come, let us worship and bow down — Let us not be backward, then, to comply with this invitation; but let us all, with the lowest prostrations, devoutly adore this great and glorious Being. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker — With humble reverence, and a holy awe of him; as becomes those who know what an infinite distance there is between us and him, how much we are in danger of his wrath, and in how great need we stand of his mercy. The posture of our bodies, indeed, by itself, profits little; yet certainly it is meet and right they should bear a part in God’s service, and that internal worship should be accompanied and signified by that which is external, or that the reverence, seriousness and humility of our minds, should be manifested by our falling down on our knees before that great Jehovah, who gave us our being, and on whom we are continually dependant for the continuance of it, and for all our blessings.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

95:1-7 Whenever we come into God's presence, we must come with thanksgiving. The Lord is to be praised; we do not want matter, it were well if we did not want a heart. How great is that God, whose the whole earth is, and the fulness thereof; who directs and disposes of all!, The Lord Jesus, whom we are here taught to praise, is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and God over all, blessed for evermore. To him all power is given, both in heaven and earth. He is our God, and we should praise him. He is our Saviour, and the Author of our blessedness. The gospel church is his flock, Christ is the great and good Shepherd of believers; he sought them when lost, and brought them to his fold.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

O come, let us worship and bow down - Let us worship him by bowing down; by prostrating ourselves before him. The word here rendered "come" is not the same which is used in Psalm 95:1. Its literal meaning is "come," and it is an earnest exhortation to come and worship. It is not a particle merely calling attention to a subject, but it is an exhortation to approach - to enter - to engage in a thing. The word rendered "worship," means properly to bow down; to incline oneself; and then, to bow or prostrate oneself before anyone in order to do him homage, or reverence. Then it means to bow down before God in the attitude of worship. It would most naturally refer to an entire "prostration" on the ground, which was a common mode of worship; but it would also express adoration in any form. The word rendered "bow down," means properly to bend, to bow, spoken usually of the knees. Isaiah 45:23 : "every knee shall bow." Compare Judges 7:5-6; 1 Kings 8:54; 2 Kings 1:13. The word might be applied, like the former word, to those who bow down with the whole person, or prostrate themselves on the ground. 2 Chronicles 7:3.

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker - The usual attitude of prayer in the Scriptures. See the notes at Daniel 6:10; compare 2 Chronicles 6:13; Luke 22:41; Acts 7:60; Acts 9:40; Acts 20:36; Acts 21:5. All the expressions here employed denote a posture of profound reverence in worship, and the passage is a standing rebuke of all irreverent postures in prayer; of such habits as often prevail in public worship where no change of posture is made in prayer, and where a congregation irreverently sit in the act of professedly worshipping God. People show to their fellowmen the respect indicated by rising up before them: much more should they show respect to God - respect in a posture which will indicate profound reverence, and a deep sense of his presence and majesty. Reverently kneeling or standing "will" indicate this; sitting does not indicate it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. come—or, "enter," with solemn forms, as well as hearts.

The Treasury of David

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. To-day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Psalm 95:6

Here the exhortation to worship is renewed and backed with a motive which, to Israel of old, and to Christians now, is especially powerful; for both the Israel after the flesh and the Israel of faith may be described as the people of his pasture, and by both he is called "our God." "O come, let us worship and bow down." The adoration is to be humble. The "joyful noise" is to be accompanied with lowliest reverence. We are to worship in such style that the bowing down shall indicate that we count ourselves to be as nothing in the presence of the all-glorious Lord. "Let us kneel before the Lord our maker." As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous; familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as creatures before their maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something; prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating the body, and bending the knee.

Psalm 95:7

"For he is our God." Here is the master reason for worship. Jehovah has entered into covenant with us, and from all the world beside has chosen us to be his own elect. If others refuse him homage, we at least will render it cheerfully. He is ours, and our God; ours, therefore will we love him; our God, therefore will we worship him. Happy is that man who can sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to himself. "And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." As he belongs to us, so do we belong to him. "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." And we are his as the people whom he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not ours, but his; we draw all our supplies from his stores. We are his, even as sheep belong to the shepherd, and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our government, our succour, our source of supply. Israel was led through the desert, and we are led through this life by "that great Shepherd of the sheep." The hand which cleft the sea and brought water from the rock is still with us, working equal wonders. Can we refuse to "worship and bow down" when we clearly see that "this God is our God for ever and ever, and will be our guide, even unto death"?

But what is this warning which follows? Alas, it was sorrowfully needed by the Lord's ancient people, and is not one whit the less required by ourselves. The favoured nation grew deaf to their Lord's command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of whom it is written, "My sheep hear my voice": will this turn out to be our character also? God forbid. "To-day if ye will hear his voice." Dreadful "if" Many would not hear, they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God. "To-day," in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of to-morrow, "he limiteth a certain day," he presses for immediate attention, for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience. Shall we yield it? The Holy Ghost saith "To-day," will we grieve him by delay?

Psalm 95:8

"Harden not your heart." If ye will hear, learn to fear also. The sea and the land obey him, do not prove more obstinate than they!

"Yield to his love who round you now

continued...

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By which expressions he teacheth that even in gospel times God is to be glorified and worshipped, as well with the members of our bodies, as with the faculties of our souls.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

O come, let us worship and bow down,.... Before him who is the Rock of our salvation, the great God and great King, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the proper object of all religious worship and adoration: Christ is to be worshipped with every part of external worship under the New Testament dispensation; psalms and songs of praise are to be sung unto him; prayer is to be made unto him; the Gospel is to be preached, and ordinances to be administered, in his name; and likewise with all internal worship, in the exercise of every grace on him, as faith, hope, and love: see Psalm 45:11,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; both in a natural and spiritual sense: Christ is the Maker of us as creatures, of our souls and bodies; we have our natural being from him, and are supported in it by him; and he is the Maker of us as new creatures; we are his workmanship, created in him, and by him; and therefore he should be worshipped by us, Ephesians 2:10. Kimchi distinguishes these several gestures, expressed by the different words here used; the first, we render worship, signifies, according to him, the prostration of the whole body on the ground, with the hands and legs stretched out; the second, a bowing of the head, with part of the body; and the third, a bending of the knees on the ground; but though each of these postures and gestures have been, and may be, used in religious worship, yet they seem not so much to design them themselves, and the particular use of them, as worship itself, which is in general intended by them.

Geneva Study Bible

O come, let us {d} worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

(d) By these three words he signifies one thing: meaning that they must wholly give themselves to serve God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Let us offer the lowliest homage expressive of humility and submission to His Will, in contrast to that obstinacy of heart (Psalm 95:8) which was the ruin of our fathers.

our Maker] It is the ‘making’ of Israel into a nation, rather than the creation of individuals, that is meant. Cp. Deuteronomy 32:6; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Isaiah 44:2; Isaiah 51:13; Isaiah 54:5; Psalm 100:3; Psalm 149:2.

6, 7. A renewed call to worship Jehovah, on the ground of His relation to Israel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel. The outward and visible worship of the body is required of man, no less than the inward and spiritual worship of the soul. Before the Lord our Maker; i.e. "who has made us what we are - created us, redeemed us, taken us to be his people" (comp. Deuteronomy 32:6; Psalm 100:3; Psalm 102:18; Psalm 149:2; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 44:2, etc.). Psalm 95:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The adorableness of God receives a threefold confirmation: He is exalted above all gods as King, above all things as Creator, and above His people as Shepherd and Leader. אלהים (gods) here, as in Psalm 96:4., Psalm 97:7, Psalm 97:9, and frequently, are the powers of the natural world and of the world of men, which the Gentiles deify and call kings (as Moloch Molech, the deified fire), which, however, all stand under the lordship of Jahve, who is infinitely exalted above everything that is otherwise called god (Psalm 96:4; Psalm 97:9). The supposition that תּועפות הרים denotes the pit-works (μέταλλα) of the mountains (Bφttcher), is at once improbable, because to all appearance it is intended to be the antithesis to מחקרי־ארץ, the shafts of the earth. The derivation from ועף (יעף), κάμνειν, κοπιᾶν, also does not suit תועפות in Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8, for "fatigues" and "indefatigableness" are notions that lie very wide apart. The כּסף תּועפות of Job 22:25 might more readily be explained according to this "silver of fatigues," i.e., silver that the fatiguing labour of mining brings to light, and תועפות הרים in the passage before us, with Gussetius, Geier, and Hengstenberg: cacumina montium quia defatigantur qui eo ascendunt, prop. ascendings equals summits of the mountains, after which כסף תועפות, Job 22:25, might also signify "silver of the mountain-heights." But the lxx, which renders δόξα in the passages in Numbers and τὰ ὕψη τῶν ὀρέων in the passage before us, leads one to a more correct track. The verb יעף (ועף), transposed from יפע (ופע), goes back to the root יף, וף, to stand forth, tower above, to be high, according to which תועפות equals תופעות signifies eminentiae, i.e., towerings equals summits, or prominences equals high (the highest) perfection (vid., on Job 22:25). In the passage before us it is a synonym of the Arabic mı̂fan, mı̂fâtun, pars terrae eminens (from Arab. wfâ equals יפע, prop. instrumentally: a means of rising above, viz., by climbing), and of the names of eminences derived from Arab. yf' (after which Hitzig renders: the teeth of the mountains). By reason of the fact that Jahve is the Owner (cf. 1 Samuel 2:8), because the Creator of all things, the call to worship, which concerns no one so nearly as it does Israel, the people, which before other peoples is Jahve's creation, viz., the creation of His miraculously mighty grace, is repeated. In the call or invitation, השׁתּחוה signifies to stretch one's self out full length upon the ground, the proper attitude of adoration; כּרע, to curtsey, to totter; and בּרך, Arabic baraka, starting from the radical signification flectere, to kneel down, in genua (πρόχνυ, pronum equals procnum) procumbere, 2 Chronicles 6:13 (cf. Hlemann, Bibelstudien, i. 135f.). Beside עם מרעיתו, people of His pasture, צאן ידו is not the flock formed by His creating hand (Augustine: ipse gratiâ suâ nos oves fecit), but, after Genesis 30:35, the flock under His protection, the flock led and defended by His skilful, powerful hand. Bttcher renders: flock of His charge; but יד in this sense (Jeremiah 6:3) signifies only a place, and "flock of His place" would be poetry and prose in one figure.