3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all gods.
For you, Lord, are most high over the earth; you are lifted up over all other gods.
For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all other gods.
I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is greater than all other gods.
There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power. Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
<A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the town of our God, in his holy mountain. Beautiful in its high position, the joy of all the earth, is the mountain of Zion, the mountain of God, the town of the great King.
Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he has overcome them in their pride.
A curse on the false man who has a male in his flock, and takes his oath, and gives to the Lord a damaged thing: for I am a great King, says the Lord of armies, and my name is to be feared among the Gentiles.
For the Lord Most High is to be feared; he is a great King over all the earth.
For, from the coming up of the sun till its going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place the smell of burning flesh is offered to my name, and a clean offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of armies.
He who makes Moab waste has gone up against her; and the best of her young men have gone down to their death, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies.
By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so will he come.
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath. This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens. He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out. At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses. Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them. They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them. The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.
Have no fear, be strong in heart; have I not made it clear to you in the past, and let you see it? and you are my witnesses. Is there any God but me, or a Rock of whom I have no knowledge?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 95
Commentary on Psalms 95 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 95
For the expounding of this psalm we may borrow a great deal of light from the apostle's discourse, Heb. 3 and 4, where it appears both to have been penned by David and to have been calculated for the days of the Messiah; for it is there said expressly (Heb. 4:7) that the day here spoken of (v. 7) is to be understood of the gospel day, in which God speaks to us by his Son in a voice which we are concerned to hear, and proposes to us a rest besides that of Canaan. In singing psalms it is intended,
This psalm must be sung with a holy reverence of God's majesty and a dread of his justice, with a desire to please him and a fear to offend him.
Psa 95:1-7
The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively affections, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often backward to it and cold in it. Observe,
The latter part of this psalm, which begins in the middle of a verse, is an exhortation to those who sing gospel psalms to live gospel lives, and to hear the voice of God's word; otherwise, how can they expect that he should hear the voice of their prayers and praises? Observe,
Now this case of Israel may be applied to those of their posterity that lived in David's time, when this psalm was penned; let them hear God's voice, and not harden their hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were stiffnecked like them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges of his temple at Jerusalem, of which he had said, This is my rest. But it must be applied to us Christians, because so the apostle applies it. There is a spiritual and eternal rest set before us, and promised to us, of which Canaan was a type; we are all (in profession, at least) bound for this rest; yet many that seem to be so come short and shall never enter into it. And what is it that puts a bar in their door? It is sin; it is unbelief, that sin against the remedy, against our appeal. Those that, like Israel, distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer the garlick and onions of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will justly be shut out from his rest: so shall their doom be; they themselves have decided it. Let us therefore fear, Heb. 4:1.