Psalm 95 "Sheep of His Pasture"

Sheep on a hilltop.
Photo: Greg K Dueker

Psalm for Today = 95:6-9

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
                  let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
        and we are the people of his pasture,
                    and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice,
 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
                             as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
 when your fathers put me to the test
                          and put me to the proof,

                                                 though they had seen my work.” 

Comments:

Verse 6-7 are the words to one of my favorite old praise choruses. But verses 8-9 really provide an interesting context. The Israelites were rebellious sheep as evidenced in (Ex. 17 and Numbers 20) the two places mentioned. They might say that they belonged to the Lord…but often they didn’t live like it.

We too, consider ourselves to be God's people. We love Psalm 23 about the Lord being our shepherd...but if the Shepherd speaks to us today (and he does—this passage is quoted 3 times in Hebrews 3-4) do we harden our hearts, repeatedly put him to the test, or do we--like a lamb he has carried--follow his voice without hesitation?