The first three verses of Psalm 95 call us to sing, give thanks, and worship the LORD, Yahweh, the Rock of salvation, the great God, the great King above all gods. This God is distinct among all the man-made gods of the earth. We call Him Jesus and acknowledge that no other god had the love for us than that shown by the Rock of salvation who died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead to take His rightful place by the Father over all creation.
Verses 4-7 remind us that God the LORD is our Maker. He made us. He designed this world to sustain us. We kneel before Him in surrender and allegiance, for we are His, where in the past we belonged to sin and evil.
If you know the difference between being captive to sin and being in the kingdom of light, worship Him. He made us to be willing subjects who flourish under His care. He possesses the “deep places of the earth,” and that includes the deep place of your heart, where His Spirit dwells.
Verses 8-11 encourage us not to respond to His care with the unthankful attitude of those that God guided out of slavery toward the land of milk and honey. The Promised Land is a picture of full and willing surrender to God. Wherever the Commander of the Lord of hosts led the armies, they overcame the enemy in the land. So it is with us: when the Spirit is leading us against sin, we stand against it in faith and it is overcome.
We want to be like Joshua and Caleb, the only ones who believed the Lord through the wilderness trek, thankful of the daily bread that nourished them. They believed in a great God who will definitely drive out the giants in the land.
Jesus did so, breaking the back of sin, when from the cross He said, “It is finished.” Now we consider ourselves “to be dead to sin, but alive to God” (Romans 6:11) in recognition of this fact.
Jesus, King above all gods, given the Name above all names, waits to be King of your heart. “Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” Confess His right to rule. “Not my will but Yours be done.” Today. Do not harden your heart. If you have accepted Him, keep Him distinct above every god. If not, receive Him as the one who forgives your sins and gives you power over them.
He was grieved with that generation who dragged their feet, who refused to believe His promises of the better place He was leading them to. Let God be God. Let Him inspire faith with submission. Let our Maker conform us into the image of His Son. Let the great King’s glory shine out of these jars of clay. And having this hope, “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.”
