1. O come, let us sing unto the Lord. We love
him, we admire him, we reverence him; let us express our feelings with the
choicest sounds, using our noblest faculty for its noblest end. It is well thus
to urge others to magnify the Lord, but we must be careful to set a worthy
example ourselves, so that we may be able not only to cry Come, but also
to add let us sing, because we are singing ourselves. It
is to be feared that very much even of religious singing is not unto the Lord,
but unto the ear of the congregation: above all things we must in our service
of song take care that all we offer is with the heart’s sincerest and most
fervent intent directed towards the Lord himself. Let us make joyful noise
to the rock of our salvation. With holy enthusiasm let us sing, making a
sound which indicates our earnestness; with abounding joy let us lift up our
voices, actuated by that happy and peaceful spirit which trustful love is sure
to foster. The author of this song had in his mind’s eye the rock, the
tabernacle, the Red Sea, and the mountains of Sinai, and he alludes to them all
in this first part of his hymn. God is our abiding, immutable, and mighty rock,
and in him we find deliverance and safety; therefore it becomes us to praise
him with heart and with voice from day to day; and especially should we delight
to do this when we assemble as his people for public worship.
2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Here is probably a reference to the special presence of God
in the Holy of Holies above the mercy-seat, and also to the glory which shone
forth out of the cloud which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is
present, but there is a special presence of grace and glory into which us
should never come without the profoundest reverence. We may make bold to come
before the immediate presence of the Lord—for the voice of the Holy Spirit in
this psalm invites us, and when we do draw near to him we should remember his
great goodness to us and cheerfully confess it. Our worship should have
reference to the past as well as to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for
what we have already received, how can we reasonably look for more. We are
permitted to bring our petitions, and therefore we are in honor bound to bring
our thanksgivings. And make joyful noise unto him with psalms. We should
shout as exaltingly as those do who triumph in war, and as solemnly as those
whose utterance is a psalm. It is not always easy to unite enthusiasm with
reverence, and it is a frequent fault to destroy one of these qualities while
straining after the other. The perfection of singing is that which unites joy
with gravity, exultation with humility, fervency with sobriety. The invitation
given in the first verse is thus repeated in the second with the addition of
directions, which indicate more fully the intent of the writer. One can imagine
David in earnest tones persuading his people to go up with him to the worship
of Jehovah with sound of harp and hymn, and holy delight. The gladsomeness of
his exhortation is noteworthy. The noise is to be joyful; this quality
he insists upon twice. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in
ordinary services; people are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be
serious that they put on the aspect of misery, and quite forget that joy is as
much a characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself.
3. No doubt
the surrounding nations imagined Jehovah to be a merely local deity, the god of
a small nation, and therefore one ot the inferior deities; the psalmist utterly
repudiates such an idea. Idolaters tolerated gods many and lords many, giving
to each a certain measure of respect; the monotheism of the Jews was not
content with this concession; it rightly claimed for Jehovah the chief place,
and the supreme power. This verse and the following supply some of the reasons
for worship, drawn from the being, greatness, and sovereign dominion of the
Lord.
4. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. He is the God of the valleys and the hills, the caverns,
and the peaks. Far down where miners sink their shafts, deeper yet where lie
the secret oceans by which springs are fed, and deepest of all in the unknown
abyss where the huge central fires of earth rage, there Jehovah’s power is
felt, and all things are under the dominion of his hand. When Israel drank of
the crystal fount which welled up from the great deep, below the smitten rock,
the people knew that in the Lord’s hands were the deep places of the earth. The
strength of the hills is his also. When Sinai was issuing smoke the tribes
learned that Jehovah was God of the hills as well as of the valleys. Everywhere
and at all times is this true. Strength is the main thought which strikes the
mind when gazing on those vast ramparts of cliff which front the raging sea, or
peer into the azure sky, piercing the clouds, but it is to the devout mind the
strength of God; hints of Omnipotence are given by those stern rocks which
brave the fury of the elements, and like walls of brass defy the assaults of
nature in her wildest rage.
5. The sea is his.
This was seen to be true at the Red Sea when the waters saw their God, and
obediently stood aside to open a pathway for his people. It was not Egypt’s sea
though it washed her shores. The Lord on high reigned supreme over the flood,
as King forever and ever. So is it with the broad ocean; Neptune is but a
phantom, the Lord is God of ocean. And he made it. Hence his right and
sovereignty.
And his hands formed the dry land. As the potter molds his clay, so did Jehovah with his hands
fashion the habitable parts of the earth. Count it all as the floor of a temple
where the footprints of the present Deity are visible before your eyes if you
do but care to see.
6. Here the
exhortation to worship is renewed and backed with a motive which, to Israel of
old, and to Christians now, is especially powerful; for both the Israel after
the flesh and the Israel of faith may be described as the people of his
pasture, and by both he is called “our God.” O come, let us worship and
bow down. The adoration is to be humble. The “joyful noise” is to be
accompanied with lowliest reverence. We are to worship in such style that the
bowing indicates that we count ourselves as nothing in the presence of the
allglorious Lord. Let us kneel before the Lord
our maker. Posture is not everything—prayer is heard when knees cannot
bend—but it is seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating
the body, and bending the knee.
7. For he is our God.
Here is the master reason for worship. Jehovah has entered into covenant with us,
and from all the world beside has shown us to be his own elect. Happy is the
person who can sincerely believe that this sentence is true in reference to
himself. And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
As he belongs to us, so do we belong to him. And we are his as the people whom
he daily feeds and protects. Our pastures are not ours, but his; we draw all
our supplies from his stores. We are his, just as sheep belong to the shepherd,
and his hand is our rule, our guidance, our government, our succor, our source
of supply. Israel was led through the desert, and we are led through this life
by “that great Shepherd of the sheep.” Can we refuse to worship and bow down
when we clearly see that this God is our God forever and ever, and will be our
guide, even unto death?
But what is this warning which follows? The favored nation
grew deaf to their Lord’s command, and proved not to be truly his sheep, of
whom it is written, “My sheep hear my voice”; will this turn out to be our
character also? God forbid. Today if ye will hear his voice. Dreadful if.
Many would not hear; they put off the claims of love, and provoked their God. Today,
in the hour of grace, in the day of mercy, we are tried as to whether we have
an ear for the voice of our Creator. Nothing is said of tomorrow; he presses
for immediate attention; for our own sakes he asks instantaneous obedience.
8. Harden not your heart.
We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will
be fatal. As in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the
wilderness (or, “like Meribah, like the day of Massah in the
wilderness”). Be not willfully, wantonly, repeatedly, obstinately rebellious.
Let the example of that unhappy generation serve as a beacon; do not repeat the
offenses which have already more than enough provoked the Lord.
9. When your fathers tempted me. As far as they could do so they tempted God to change his
usual way, and to do their sinful bidding. God’s way is perfect, and when we
would have him alter it to please us, we are guilty of tempting him; and the
fact that we do so in vain, while it magnifies the Lord’s holiness, by no means
excuses our guilt. We are in most danger of this sin in times of need, for then
it is that we are apt to fall into unbelief, and to demand a change in those
arrangements of providence which are the transcript of perfect holiness and
infinite wisdom. Proved me. They put the Lord to needless tests,
demanding new miracles, fresh interpositions, and renewed tokens of his
presence. Are we not prone to demand specialities, with the alternative
secretly offered in our hearts, that if they do not come at our bidding we will
disbelieve? True, the Lord is very condescending, and frequently grants us
marvelous evidences of his power, but we ought not to require them. If we were
forever testing the love of our wife or husband, and remained unconvinced after
years of faithfulness, we should wear out the utmost human patience. Friendship
only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence; shall the Lord God, true and
immutable, be day after day suspected by his own people? Will not this provoke
him to anger? And saw my work. They tested him again and again, though
each time his work was conclusive evidence of his faithfulness. We must forever
be seeing, or we waver in our believing.
10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. The impression upon the divine mind is most vivid; he sees
them before him now, and calls them this generation. He
does not leave his prophets to upbraid the sin, but himself utters the
complaint and declares that he was grieved, nauseated, and disgusted. It is no
small thing which can grieve our long-suffering God to the extent which the
Hebrew word here indicates, and if we reflect a moment we shall see the
abundant provocation here given; for no one who values his veracity can endure
to be suspected, mistrusted, and belied, when there is no ground for it. Which
shall we most wonder at, the cruel insolence of mankind or the ender patience
of the Lord? And said, it is a people that do err in their heart, and they
have not known my ways. Their heart was obstinately and constantly at
fault; it was not their head which appealed to their affections, could not
convert them. The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in
order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. If sin were only skin-deep, it
might be a slight matter; but since it has defiled the soul, the case is bad
indeed. Wanderers in body, they were also wanderers in heart. Are we better
than they? Are we not quite as apt to misinterpret the dealings of the Lord?
Many treat unbelief as a minor fault, even rather as an infirmity than a crime,
but the Lord thinketh not so.
11. There can
be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If man and miracles could not satisfy
Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with
milk and honey. Solemn warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths
of petulant grumbling and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in
because of unbelief; “let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into his rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it.”
One blessed inference from this psalm must not be forgotten.
It is clear that there is a rest of God, and that some must enter into it. The
unbelievers could not enter, but “we which have believed do not enter into
rest.” Let us enjoy it, and praise the Lord for it forever. While we do so,
let us “come into his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalms.”
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
