8 Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land;
And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?
Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah.
Why do you make your hearts hard, like the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians? When he had made sport of them, did they not let the people go, and they went away?
So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test?
Now it is my purpose to put you in mind, though you once had knowledge of all these things, of how the Lord, having taken a people safely out of Egypt, later sent destruction on those who had no faith;
See that you give ear to his voice which comes to you. For if those whose ears were shut to the voice which came to them on earth did not go free from punishment, what chance have we of going free if we give no attention to him whose voice comes from heaven?
As it is said, Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart, as when you made him angry. Who made him angry when his voice came to them? was it not all those who came out of Egypt with Moses? And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land? And to whom did he make an oath that they might not come into his rest? was it not to those who went against his orders? So we see that they were not able to go in because they had no belief.
Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land, When your fathers put me to the test, and saw my works for forty years.
But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;
And the Lord, hearing your words, was angry, and said with an oath, Truly, not one of this evil generation will see that good land which I said I would give to your fathers,
How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears.
And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people have no respect for me? how long will they be without faith, in the face of all the signs I have done among them?
But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 95
Commentary on Psalms 95 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 95
Ps 95:1-11. David (Heb 4:7) exhorts men to praise God for His greatness, and warns them, in God's words, against neglecting His service.
1. The terms used to express the highest kind of joy.
rock—a firm basis, giving certainty of salvation (Ps 62:7).
2. come … presence—literally, "approach," or, meet Him (Ps 17:13).
3. above … gods—esteemed such by men, though really nothing (Jer 5:7; 10:10-15).
4, 5. The terms used describe the world in its whole extent, subject to God.
6. come—or, "enter," with solemn forms, as well as hearts.
7. This relation illustrates our entire dependence (compare Ps 23:3; 74:1). The last clause is united by Paul (Heb 3:7) to the following (compare Ps 81:8),
8-11. warning against neglect; and this is sustained by citing the melancholy fate of their rebellious ancestors, whose provoking insolence is described by quoting the language of God's complaint (Nu 14:11) of their conduct at Meribah and Massah, names given (Ex 17:7) to commemorate their strife and contention with Him (Ps 78:18, 41).
10. err in their heart—Their wanderings in the desert were but types of their innate ignorance and perverseness.
that they should not—literally, "if they," &c., part of the form of swearing (compare Nu 14:30; Ps 89:35).