Psalms
Chapter 95
Psalm 95 is a call to worship. The first half invites the people to sing and kneel before the LORD, who made the sea, the land, and the mountains, and who cares for his people like a shepherd cares for sheep. The second half turns to a warning spoken by God himself, recalling how Israel tested him in the desert and so did not enter the rest he had promised.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
1Come, let us sing to the LORD. Let us shout for joy to the Rock who saves us.
2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
2Let us come to him and thank him. Let us shout to him with glad songs.
3For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
3The LORD is a great God. He is a great King over every other god.
4In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
4He holds the deepest places of the earth in his hand. The mountain peaks belong to him too.
5The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
5The sea is his, because he made it. His own hands shaped the dry land.
6O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
6Come, let us worship and bow low. Let us kneel before the LORD, the one who made us.
7For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
7He is our God. We are the people he feeds, the sheep he keeps. Today, if you hear his voice,
8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
8do not make your hearts stubborn, as your people did at Meribah, on that day at Massah in the desert.
The King James Version says "the provocation" and "the day of temptation." Those are the meanings of two place names, Meribah (arguing) and Massah (testing), where Israel complained against God in the desert.
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
9There your ancestors tested me and tried me, even though they had seen the things I did.
"Tempted me, proved me" here means they put God to the test to see what he would do. It does not mean they tried to get him to do something wrong.
10Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
10For forty years I was angry with those people. I said, "Their hearts keep wandering off, and they have not learned my ways."
11Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
11So I made a solemn promise in my anger: "They will never enter my rest."
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