Psalms 95:3-11

95:3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to ¹  all gods.

95:4 The depths of the earth are in his hand, ² 

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

95:5 The sea is his, for he made it.

His hands formed the dry land.

95:6 Come! Let’s bow down and worship! ³ 

Let’s kneel before the Lord, our creator!

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ⁴ 

Today, if only you would obey him! ⁵ 

95:8 He says, ⁶  “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah, ⁷ 

like they were that day at Massah ⁸  in the wilderness, ⁹ 

95:9 where your ancestors challenged my authority, ¹⁰ 

and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.

95:10 For forty years I was continually disgusted ¹¹  with that generation,

and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; ¹² 

they do not obey my commands.’ ¹³ 

95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,

‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’” ¹⁴ 

[95:3]  ¹ tn Heb “above.”

[95:4]  ² tn The phrase “in his hand” means within the sphere of his authority.

[95:6]  ³ tn Heb “kneel down.”

[95:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[95:8]  ⁶ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the following words are spoken by the Lord (see vv. 9-11).

[95:8]  ⁷ sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, see also Pss 81:7; 106:32). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.

[95:8]  ⁸ sn The name Massah means “testing.” This was another name (along with Meribah) given to the place where Israel complained following the Red Sea Crossing (see Exod 17:1-7, as well as Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8).

[95:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “do not harden your heart[s] as [at] Meribah, as [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness.”

[95:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “where your fathers tested me.”

[95:10]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite or an imperfect. If the latter, it emphasizes the ongoing nature of the condition in the past. The translation reflects this interpretation of the verbal form.

[95:10]  ¹² tn Heb “a people, wanderers of heart [are] they.”

[95:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and they do not know my ways.” In this context the Lord’s “ways” are his commands, viewed as a pathway from which his people, likened to wayward sheep (see v. 7), wander.

[95:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my resting place.” The promised land of Canaan is here viewed metaphorically as a place of rest for God’s people, who are compared to sheep (see v. 7).