1Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout to the Rock of our salvation! 2Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him in song. 3For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. 5The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. 6O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work. 10For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.” 11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
Matthew Henry's Commentary
part. An exhortation to praise God. (1-7) A warning not to tempt Him. (7-11) 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. 7-11 Christ calls upon his people to hear his voice. You call him Master, or Lord; then be his willing, obedient people. Hear the voice of his doctrine, of his law, and in both, of his Spirit: hear and heed; hear and yield. Christ's voice must be heard to-day. This day of opportunity will not last always; improve it while it is called to-day. Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all distrust of the Lord. The sins of others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition. God is not subject to such passions as we are; but he is very angry at sin and sinners. That certainly is evil, which deserves such a recompence; and his threatenings are as sure as his promises. Let us be aware of the evils of our hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest.