O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,
WEEK 12
KNOWING TRUE JOY
PSALM 95:1-11
O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His
hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.
OUR FATHER, we offer praise to You with this psalm,
which begins with a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation— but ends with a somber warning. The inspired psalmist moves from
the joy of salvation, the love of thanksgiving, and the singing of praise (all celebrating the greatness of Your saving glory) to a threat of everlasting judgment—the forfeiture of eternal rest
for those who stubbornly harden their hearts against You.
May we never be like those with Moses in the wilderness,
who complained and put You to the test, even after they saw Your glory in an unparalleled display.1
Your Word shows us such a stark contrast between
those who come to You in faith and those who refuse. For the faithful, there will be permanent
joy, hope, and blessing. For the faithless, there is nothing to look forward to but
hopelessness, judgment, and everlasting punishment. Hold us by Your grace, that we may be counted
with the faithful.
We thank You for Your precious grace in saving us, Lord. You are both the source and the object of our highest joy. We sing out to You because our hearts cannot contain
the gladness of salvation, and in exalting You,
we are lifted even higher. You are our light and our salvation,
the stronghold and sanctuary in whom we find refuge.2
You refresh our souls daily with joys
we can neither fathom nor fully count.
We confess, however, with deep sadness,
that we are rebellious by nature, so we do not always serve You as we should. We want to bask in the fullness of Your joy
and find our deepest delight in the sunshine of Your glory. Yet we are prone to wander. We are too easily tempted. We are weak and worldly and wrong-hearted creatures,
great debtors to Your mercy
and in desperate need of Your grace.
And so, Lord, we thank You that You are faithful and just to forgive.3
We are prompted from hearts transformed at our salvation
to run to You and embrace You with glad surrender. Help us, Lord, to be earnest and honest in self-examination,4
and in that exercise may Your Spirit testify together with our spirit
that we are true children of our heavenly Father,5
born again to a living hope.6
Grant us grace that the fruit of regeneration
will flourish and multiply in our lives.
May our tears be tears of true repentance; may our hope be grounded solely in Your Word; may our works be energized by love; and may our faith endure to the end of time!
We rest in the promise that none could ever snatch us
out of Your mighty hand.7
May we feel the firmness of Your grip on us,
and may we reflect the passion of Your love. We ask these things humbly in the name of Christ. Amen.
1. Numbers 14:1-35 2. Psalm 27:1 3. 1 John 1:9 4. 2 Corinthians 13:5 5. Romans 8:16; John 1:12 6. 1 Peter 1:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17 7. John 10:28-29