Invitation to Worship (Psalm 95, Part 3)

Respond: Worship with Wholehearted Obedience (Verses 7c-11)

⁷Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

         as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,

      ⁹where your ancestors tested me;

         they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;

      I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,

      and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,

      ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Our worship includes both jubilation and wholehearted obedience to God. May God’s lordship over the entire world give us the context to hear His word of instruction. If we do not keep our eyes focused on God through Christ we will waver in our belief. Let us examine our hearts and set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. When we heed God’s Word we will enter God’s eternal rest.

Loving God, we respond to Your vision; we worship You with wholehearted obedience. Keep our hearts from going astray. Help us to regard Your ways. Lord, we want to enter Your rest.

When we worship may we rejoice and revere and respond to God’s Word.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

John Newton (1725-1807)

Invitation to Worship (Psalm 95, Part2)

Revere: Worship with Humble Submission (Verses 6-7a)

⁶Come, let us bow down in worship,

         let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

      ⁷ for he is our God

         and we are the people of his pasture,

      the flock under his care.

Since the Creator-God cares about us, may we worship and bow down before Him, submitting ourselves to God in worship, expressing our reverence to Him. He is our covenant Lord and our Shepherd. As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ we are the people of his pasture. Together in humble submission we worship God by listening to His Word and publicly taking our stand with the Christian community.

Lord, our Maker, we revere You. We worship You with humble submission, kneeling before You, our Maker. We are the sheep of Your pasture; thank You for Your care for us.

Invitation to Worship (Psalm 95, Part 1)

Psalm 95 invites us to worship by rejoicing with joyful praise, revering with humble submission, and responding with wholehearted obedience. As we kneel before the LORD we acknowledge that He is our God and we are His sheep. May we worship Him alone.

Rejoice: Worship with Joyful Praise (Verses 1-5)

¹Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

         let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
²Let us come before him with thanksgiving

      and extol him with music and song.

³For the Lord is the great God,

         the 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.

We can catch the tone of joy in this psalm as the community of Christ-followers come together to worship God because He is our Savior. With joyful praise and thanksgiving may we reverently recognize His over-arching authority and supremacy. He is the Creator and Controller of the universe. He is sovereign and all creation depends on Him.

Lord of all, we sing to You. We rejoice in You, Rock of our salvation. We worship You with joyful praise. You, Lord, are the great King above all gods. In Your hands are the depths of the earth. The heights of the Olympic Mountains are Yours, the Salish Sea is Yours for You made it. This land is Yours, for You formed it.