◄ Psalm 95:7 ►














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Our Moral Relations With God
Psalm 95:7
R. Tuck
People of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Some writers try to amend this sentence, because the poetical figure seems complicated. It is much better to leave it in its poetical suggestiveness. It indicates familiarity with Eastern shepherding. The shepherd lives with his flock day and night; feels for them a personal affection; tends them in all their times of need with his own hands. So the Eastern sheep and shepherd figures, for God and his people, are stronger and more suggestive than we can realize if we keep ourselves to Western shepherd associations. In so carefully putting people into one sentence, and sheep into the other, the psalmist reminds us that God's sheep are moral beings, and the mere physical relations of shepherds to their sheep do but represent and illustrate the moral relations in which God stands to his people as moral beings. So we rise into a sphere in which we need the help of another figure - that of the father and his family. The "Lord our Maker" here brings God before us as the Universal Creator; and as the Founder of the Israelite nation.

I. OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR CHARACTERS. Illustrate from the shepherd's estimate of each sheep. But the end at which the shepherd aims is health, fatness. The end at which God aims is cultured, developed, perfected character. And this is the Divine aim forevery man, and the Divine work in every man. If we can see the issue more plainly reached in some men than in others, this need not dim our confidence that the work is going on in all.

II. OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR MOODS. For no man can study human nature without observing that men are constantly acting, on occasion, out of harmony with their characters. The difficulty of dealing wisely with children lies in their occasional strange lapses and oddities. God bears shepherd-like relation to the odd moods of his moral beings.

III. OUR MORAL RELATIONS WITH GOD INCLUDE OUR SINS. This brings us into a very familiar field, and opens to view the redeeming and sanctifying work of God. These moral relations of God to us are the real reason why we should "worship and bow down." - R.T.

Biblical Illustrator
To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
Psalm 95:7, 8
To-day
I. THE TIME SPECIFIED — "To-day if ye will hear His voice." This is the uniform time and tense of the Holy Ghost's exhortations. "Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord." "I command thee this thing today." "Son, go work to-day in My vineyard." Therefore, "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart."

1. "To-day" is a time of obligation Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord today, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day.

2. Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favoured day, for it is the Lord's day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. Today our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that He might declare the justification of His people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore I pray you to seize the golden moments.

3. Remember that it is a time limited (Hebrews 4:7). To-day will not last for ever; a day is but a day. When days are longest, shadows fall at last and night comes on. The longest life soon wanes into the evening of old age, and old age hastens to the sunset of the tomb.

4. A word of encouragement: it is a time of promise, for when God says to a man, Come to Me at such a time, He by that very word makes an engagement to meet him. He has made no appointment with thee to meet with thee to-morrow, but He has engaged to speak with thee to-day, if thou wilt hear His voice. Never shall one wait and say, like young Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth," without God's speaking in words of love ere long.

II. THE VOICE TO BE REGARDED. "His."

1. Remember that the voice of God is the voice of authority. God has a right to speak to you; shall the creature refuse to hear the Creator? Shall those who are nourished and fed by Him turn a deaf ear to the Preserver of men? When He saith "to-day," who among us shall dare to say that he will not hearken to-day, but by and by?

2. It is the voice of love. How wooing are its tones!

3. It is the voice of power. Old man, the Holy Ghost saith still, "To-day, to-day"; and He that saith "to-day " can make to-day for thee a day of tenderness and melting, till you will be no longer like a stone.

4. It is a pledging voice. When He saith, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found," He doth, as it were, covenant that He will be found of you. Listen, then, to His promising voice, His cheering voice; it will cast all unbelieving fear out of you, and drive away Satan better than David's harp drove the evil spirit out of Saul. God help you so to do.

5. The voice of God should be easy to hear; for "the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty."

III. THE EVIL TO BE DREADED. "Harden not your heart."

1. It will be a serious evil if you do. Under the sound of love's entreaties, within ear-shot of mercy's imploring tones, the sinner is hardening his heart. Sad work to harden one's heart against one's own welfare! Shall any man do this and go unpunished? What think you?

2. It is a greater sin in some than in others, for the Scripture quotes the instance of Israel (Hebrews 3:8). Some of you are the highly privileged as compared with others.

3. This dreadful sin can be committed in a great many ways. Some harden their hearts by a resolution not to feel, some by wishing to wait, some by getting into evil company.

4. This sin will bring with it the most fearful consequences. "He sware in His wrath, they shall not enter into My rest!" You wish to rest at last, you long to rest even now. But it cannot be till you yield to God. You are not at peace now, and you never will be if you harden your hearts.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

Sinners entreated to hear God's voice
E. Payson, D.D.
I would press the importance, the necessity, of immediately becoming religious —

I. BECAUSE OF THE SHORTNESS AND UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. You are mortal; it is appointed to all men once to die. You are frail, and may die soon and suddenly. You stake your soul without any equivalent; for if life should be spared you gain nothing; but should it be cut short, you lose all, you are ruined for eternity.

II. BECAUSE YOU CANNOT PROPERLY, OR EVEN LAWFULLY, PROMISE TO GIVE WHAT IS NOT YOUR OWN. To-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day is the only time which you can properly give to God.

III. BECAUSE IF YOU DEFER THE COMMENCEMENT OF A RELIGIOUS LIFE, THOUGH BUT TILL TO-MORROW, YOU MUST HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AGAINST THE VOICE OF GOD. God commands and exhorts you to commence a religious life immediately. If you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach you and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one; if none can readily be found, you will invent one. This tends most powerfully to harden the heart.

IV. IF YOU DO NOT COMMENCE A RELIGIOUS LIFE TO-DAY, THERE IS GREAT REASON TO FEAR THAT YOU WILL NEVER COMMENCE IT. The very causes which induce you to defer its commencement render it highly improbable that you will ever become religious. Every day's delay will render it more difficult.

V. BECAUSE, AFTER A TIME, GOD CEASES TO STRIVE WITH SINNERS AND TO AFFORD THEM THE ASSISTANCE OF HIS GRACE. He gives them up to a blinded mind, a seared conscience, and a hard heart. Thus He dealt with the old world; the wicked sons of Eli; the Jews in the time of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9,10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviour's time (Luke 19:41, 42).

VI. BECAUSE YOU ARE, WHILE YOU DELAY, CONSTANTLY MAKING WORK FOR REPENTANCE; YOU ARE DOING WHAT YOU MEAN TO BE SORRY FOR; YOU ARE BUILDING UP TO-DAY WHAT YOU MEAN TO THROW DOWN TO-MORROW. How irrational and absurd is this! I will not now hear God's voice, but I mean to mourn, to be grieved for it hereafter. Could you say this to your fellow-creatures without blushing?

VII. BECAUSE IT IS THE EXPRESS COMMAND OF GOD. "God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." And the Holy Ghost saith, Obey God's command, hear His voice to-day, and do not harden your hearts against it. Dare any of you trample on a known command of God?

(E. Payson, D.D.)

Hardening process
R. Venting.
In the winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is far past the meridian glory, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a two-fold reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable. In the first place, the frost, with increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods; on the other hand, the genial rays of the sun, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. As long as the sinner remains unconverted, he is under a double process of hardening. The frosts of eternal night are settling down upon his soul, and the Sun of Righteousness is withdrawing His powerful beams for evermore. If grace do not penetrate the heart to-day, there will be less chance of it to-morrow.

(R. Venting.)

People
Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Care, Ear, Flock, Gives, Hearken, O, Oh, Pasture, Sheep, To-day, Voice
Outline
1. An exhortation to praise God
3. For his greatness
6. And for his goodness
8. And not to tempt him

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 95:7

     1220   God, as shepherd
     7021   church, OT anticipations

Psalm 95:3-7

     8608   prayer, and worship

Psalm 95:6-7

     7130   flock, God's
     8624   worship, reasons

Psalm 95:7-8

     1412   foreknowledge
     4903   time
     4966   present, the
     6195   impenitence, results
     6734   repentance, importance
     8023   faith, necessity
     8705   apostasy, in OT

Psalm 95:7-9

     5889   ingratitude

Psalm 95:7-11

     5048   opportunities, and salvation
     5059   rest, eternal
     5473   proof, through testing
     5694   generation
     6185   imagination, desires
     6223   rebellion, of Israel
     7223   exodus, significance
     8126   guidance, need for
     8743   faithlessness, nature of

Library
Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

O Come, Loud Anthems Let us Sing
[1180]Park Street: Frederick M. A. Venua, c. 1810 Psalm 95 Tate and Brady, 1698; Alt. DOXOLOGY O come, loud anthems let us sing, Loud thanks to our almighty King, And high our grateful voices raise, As our Salvation's Rock we praise. Into his presence let us haste To thank him for his favors past; To him address, in joyful songs, The praise that to his Name belongs. For God the Lord, enthroned in state, Is with unrivaled glory great; The depths of earth are in his hand, Her secret wealth at his …
Various—The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA

Weighed, and Found Wanting
'And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4. And they said one …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Covenanting a Duty.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,--recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171] The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Temporary Hardening.
"Lord, why hast Thou hardened our heart? "--Isa. lxiii. 17. That there is a hardening of heart which culminates in the sin against the Holy Spirit can not be denied. When dealing with spiritual things we must take account of it; for it is one of the most fearful instruments of the divine wrath. For, whether we say that Satan or David or the Lord tempted the king, it amounts to the same thing. The cause is always in man's sin; and in each of these three cases the destructive fatality whereby sin poisons …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Epistle xxxi. To Phocas, Emperor .
To Phocas, Emperor [218] . Gregory to Phocas Augustus. Glory to God in the highest who, according as it is written, changes times, and transfers kingdoms, seeing that He has made apparent to all what He vouchsafed to speak by His prophet, That the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will (Dan. iv. 17). For in the incomprehensible dispensation of Almighty God there are alternate controlments of mortal life; and sometimes, when the sins of many are to be smitten, …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Fundamental Oneness of the Dispensations.
Hebrews iii. i-iv. 13 (R.V.). "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High-priest of our confession, even Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him as also was Moses in all his house. For He hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some one; but He that built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity the Careful Walk of the Christian.
Text: Ephesians 5, 15-21. 15 Look therefore carefully how ye walk [See then that ye walk circumspectly], not as unwise, but as wise; 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19 speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 giving thanks always for all things …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

The Shepherd and the Fold
... Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.' EXODUS XV. 13. What a grand triumphal ode! The picture of Moses and the children of Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of national pride and of worship! We belong to a better time, but still we can feel its grandeur. The deliverance has made the singer look forward to the end, and his confidence in the issue is confirmed. I. The guiding God: or the picture of the leading. The original is 'lead gently.' Cf. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Arguments Usually Alleged in Support of Free Will Refuted.
1. Absurd fictions of opponents first refuted, and then certain passages of Scripture explained. Answer by a negative. Confirmation of the answer. 2. Another absurdity of Aristotle and Pelagius. Answer by a distinction. Answer fortified by passages from Augustine, and supported by the authority of an Apostle. 3. Third absurdity borrowed from the words of Chrysostom. Answer by a negative. 4. Fourth absurdity urged of old by the Pelagians. Answer from the works of Augustine. Illustrated by the testimony …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Covenanting a Privilege of Believers.
Whatever attainment is made by any as distinguished from the wicked, or whatever gracious benefit is enjoyed, is a spiritual privilege. Adoption into the family of God is of this character. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (margin, or, the right; or, privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."[617] And every co-ordinate benefit is essentially so likewise. The evidence besides, that Covenanting …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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