Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 95:7
For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice,
7. our God ] P. B.V. the Lord our God, from the Vulg.
the people &c.] The people whom He shepherds, the flock which is His own especial charge. Cp. Psa 74:1, note.
To day if ye will hear &c.] The A.V. follows the LXX in taking this clause as the protasis to Psa 95:8. But here the Psalmist is still speaking (‘his voice’), while in Psa 95:8 God speaks; and it is better to take it as a wish, Oh that to-day ye would hearken to his voice! Cp. Deu 5:29. As the Psalmist recalls God’s care for His people in the wilderness, He cannot forget their thankless disobedience, and the earnest wish springs to his lips that this generation may not repeat the sin of their forefathers. This wish leads up naturally to the solemn warning of Psa 95:8-11. To day is emphatic, and has a special significance if the Psalm was sung at the Dedication of the Second Temple: now, in contrast to that former time; now, when Jehovah has visibly manifested His goodness; now, while the door of opportunity lies open before you. His voice is not merely the words which follow, but all His message. Cp. Deu 4:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For he is our God – Not only the God whom we worship as the true God, but One who has revealed himself to us as our God. We worship him as God – as entitled to praise and adoration because he is the true God; we worship him also as sustaining the relation of God to us, or because we recognize him as our God, and because he has manifested himself as ours.
And we are the people of his pasture – whom he has recognized as his flock; to whom he sustains the relation of shepherd; who feeds and protects us as the shepherd does his flock. See the notes at Psa 79:13; compare Psa 23:1-3.
And the sheep of his hand – The flock that is guided and fed by his hand.
To day if ye will hear his voice – His voice calling you; commanding you; inviting you; encouraging you. See this passage explained in the notes at Heb 3:7-11. The word today here means the present time; now. The idea is, that the purpose to obey should not be deferred until tomorrow; should not be put off to the future. The commands of God should be obeyed at once; the purpose should be executed immediately. All Gods commands relate to the present. He gives us none for the future; and a true purpose to obey God exists only where there is a willingness to obey now, today; and can exist only then. A purpose to repent at some future time, to give up the world at some future time, to embrace the Gospel at some future time, is no obedience, for there is no such command addressed to us. A resolution to put off repentance and faith, to defer attention to religion until some future time, is real disobedience – and often the worst form of disobedience – for it is directly in the face of the command of God. If ye will hear. That is, If there is a disposition or willingness to obey his voice at all; or, to listen to his commands. See the notes at Heb 3:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 95:7-8
To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
To-day
I. The time specified–To-day if ye will hear His voice. This is the uniform time and tense of the Holy Ghosts exhortations. Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord. I command thee this thing today. Son, go work to-day in My vineyard. Therefore, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.
1. To-day is a time of obligation Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord today, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day.
2. Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favoured day, for it is the Lords day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. Today our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that He might declare the justification of His people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore I pray you to seize the golden moments.
3. Remember that it is a time limited (Heb 4:7). To-day will not last for ever; a day is but a day. When days are longest, shadows fall at last and night comes on. The longest life soon wanes into the evening of old age, and old age hastens to the sunset of the tomb.
4. A word of encouragement: it is a time of promise, for when God says to a man, Come to Me at such a time, He by that very word makes an engagement to meet him. He has made no appointment with thee to meet with thee to-morrow, but He has engaged to speak with thee to-day, if thou wilt hear His voice. Never shall one wait and say, like young Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth, without Gods speaking in words of love ere long.
II. The voice to be regarded. His.
1. Remember that the voice of God is the voice of authority. God has a right to speak to you; shall the creature refuse to hear the Creator? Shall those who are nourished and fed by Him turn a deaf ear to the Preserver of men? When He saith to-day, who among us shall dare to say that he will not hearken to-day, but by and by?
2. It is the voice of love. How wooing are its tones!
3. It is the voice of power. Old man, the Holy Ghost saith still, To-day, to-day; and He that saith to-day can make to-day for thee a day of tenderness and melting, till you will be no longer like a stone.
4. It is a pledging voice. When He saith, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, He doth, as it were, covenant that He will be found of you. Listen, then, to His promising voice, His cheering voice; it will cast all unbelieving fear out of you, and drive away Satan better than Davids harp drove the evil spirit out of Saul. God help you so to do.
5. The voice of God should be easy to hear; for the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
III. the evil to be dreaded. Harden not your heart.
1. It will be a serious evil if you do. Under the sound of loves entreaties, within ear-shot of mercys imploring tones, the sinner is hardening his heart. Sad work to harden ones heart against ones own welfare! Shall any man do this and go unpunished? What think you?
2. It is a greater sin in some than in others, for the Scripture quotes the instance of Israel (Heb 3:8). Some of you are the highly privileged as compared with others.
3. This dreadful sin can be committed in a great many ways. Some harden their hearts by a resolution not to feel, some by wishing to wait, some by getting into evil company.
4. This sin will bring with it the most fearful consequences. He sware in His wrath, they shall not enter into My rest! You wish to rest at last, you long to rest even now. But it cannot be till you yield to God. You are not at peace now, and you never will be if you harden your hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sinners entreated to hear Gods voice
I would press the importance, the necessity, of immediately becoming religious–
I. Because of the shortness and uncertainty of life. You are mortal; it is appointed to all men once to die. You are frail, and may die soon and suddenly. You stake your soul without any equivalent; for if life should be spared you gain nothing; but should it be cut short, you lose all, you are ruined for eternity.
II. Because you cannot properly, or even lawfully, promise to give what is not your own. To-morrow is not yours; and it is yet uncertain whether it ever will be. To-day is the only time which you can properly give to God.
III. Because if you defer the commencement of a religious life, though but till to-morrow, you must harden your hearts against the voice of God. God commands and exhorts you to commence a religious life immediately. If you do not comply, you must refuse, for there is no medium. If you disobey, you must assign some excuse to justify your disobedience, or your consciences will reproach you and render you uneasy; if no plausible excuse occurs, you will seek one; if none can readily be found, you will invent one. This tends most powerfully to harden the heart.
IV. If you do not commence a religious life to-day, there is great reason to fear that you will never commence it. The very causes which induce you to defer its commencement render it highly improbable that you will ever become religious. Every days delay will render it more difficult.
V. Because, after a time, God ceases to strive with sinners and to afford them the assistance of His grace. He gives them up to a blinded mind, a seared conscience, and a hard heart. Thus He dealt with the old world; the wicked sons of Eli; the Jews in the time of Isaiah (6:9,10); and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in our Saviours time (Luk 19:41-42).
VI. Because you are, while you delay, constantly making work for repentance; you are doing what you mean to be sorry for; you are building up to-day what you mean to throw down to-morrow. How irrational and absurd is this! I will not now hear Gods voice, but I mean to mourn, to be grieved for it hereafter. Could you say this to your fellow-creatures without blushing?
VII. Because it is the express command of God. God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And the Holy Ghost saith, Obey Gods command, hear His voice to-day, and do not harden your hearts against it. Dare any of you trample on a known command of God? (E. Payson, D.D.)
Hardening process
In the winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing intensity, and when the sun is far past the meridian glory, and gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a two-fold reason why the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable. In the first place, the frost, with increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffening clods; on the other hand, the genial rays of the sun, which alone can soften them, are every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power. As long as the sinner remains unconverted, he is under a double process of hardening. The frosts of eternal night are settling down upon his soul, and the Sun of Righteousness is withdrawing His powerful beams for evermore. If grace do not penetrate the heart to-day, there will be less chance of it to-morrow. (R. Venting.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. For he is our God] Here is the reason for this service. He has condescended to enter into a covenant with us, and he has taken us for his own; therefore –
We are the people of his pasture] Or, rather, as the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and AEthiopic read, “We are his people, and the sheep of the pasture of his hand.” We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us.
To-day if ye will hear his voice] To-day-you have no time to lose; to-morrow may be too late. God calls to-day; to-morrow he may be silent. This should commence the eighth verse, as it begins what is supposed to be the part of the priest or prophet who now exhorts the people; as if he had said: Seeing you are in so good a spirit, do not forget your own resolutions, and harden not your hearts, “as your fathers did in Meribah and Massah, in the wilderness;” the same fact and the same names as are mentioned Ex 17:7; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our God, in a peculiar manner; and therefore it will be most unreasonable and abominable for us to forsake him, when the Gentiles submit to his law. The people of his pasture; whom he feedeth and keepeth in his own proper pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself.
The sheep of his hand; which are under his special care and conduct, or government; which is oft expressed by the hand, as Num 4:28; 31:49; Jdg 9:29.
Today, i.e. forthwith or presently, as this word is used, Deu 4:4,8; 27:9; Jos 22:16,18, &c. Or, this day; in this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets. And this word, though belonging to the following clause, as appears from Heb 3:7, may seem to be thus placed, to show that it had some respect to the foregoing words also. For the sense of the place may be this, We (Jews) are or shall be the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand; God will still own us for his people this day, i.e. in the days of the Messiah, if this day or in that time we shall hear his voice. Otherwise God will reject us, and receive the Gentiles in our stead.
If ye will hear his voice; if you will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands; which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that Gods presence and favour was not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but was suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which if they violated they should be rejected, and the Gentiles performing it should be received to his mercy. And this clause may be connected either,
1. With the former words, as the condition of their interest in God as their God, as was now said. Or,
2. With the following verse; If you are willing to hearken to Gods call delivered by his Son, take the following counsel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. This relation illustrates ourentire dependence (compare Psa 23:3;Psa 74:1). The last clause isunited by Paul (Heb 3:7) to thefollowing (compare Ps 81:8),
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For he is our God,…. God over all, blessed for ever, truly and properly God, and therefore to be worshipped: “our God”; in whom we have interest, who became our head and surety in covenant; took upon him our nature, is our “Immanuel”, God with as, which increases the obligation to worship him; these are the words of New Testament saints:
and we are the people of his pasture; for whom he has provided a good pasture; whom he leads into it, and feeds in it, even by the ministry of the word and ordinances:
and the sheep of his hand; made and fashioned by his hand, both in a natural and spiritual sense; led and guided by his hand, as a flock by the hand of the shepherd; are in his hand, being put there for safety by his Father; and upheld by it, and preserved in it, and from whence none can pluck them; see De 33:3 receiving such favours from him, he ought to be worshipped by them. The Heathens had a deity they called Pan, whom they make to be a keeper of sheep e; and some Christian writers have thought that Christ the chief Shepherd is meant; since, when the Heathen oracles ceased, after the coming and death of Christ, a voice is f said to be heard at a certain place, “the great Pan is dead: today, if ye will hear his voice”; the voice of the Shepherd, the voice of God, says Aben Ezra, his Word, as the Targum; the voice of the Messiah, both his perceptive voice, his commands and ordinances, which ought to be hearkened to and obeyed; and the voice of his Gospel, and the doctrines of it; which is to be heard not only externally, but internally: when it is heard as to be understood, to be approved of and believed, and to be distinguished; so as to have a spiritual and experimental knowledge of it; to feel the power and efficacy of it, and practically attend to it; it is an evidence of being the sheep of Christ; see Joh 10:4, where the sheep are said to know the voice of the shepherd, and not that of a stranger; of which Polybius g gives a remarkable instance in the goats of the island of Cyrnon, who will flee from strangers, but, as soon as the keeper sounds his trumpet, they will run to him: though the words may be connected with what follows, as they are in Heb 3:7, where they are said to be the words of the Holy Ghost, and are applied to times, and are interpreted of the voice of the Son of God in his house; for though it may refer to some certain day in David’s time, as the seventh day sabbath, in which the voice of God might be heard, the word of God read and explained; and in Gospel times, as the Lord’s day, in which Christ speaks by his ministers; and to the whole time of a man’s life, which is called “while it is today”, Heb 3:13, yet it chiefly respects the whole day of the Gospel, the whole Gospel dispensation, 2Co 6:2.
e “Pan ovium custos—-” Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. v. 17. “Pana deum pecoris veteres coluisse feruntur”, Ovid. Fasti, l. 2. f Plutarch. de orac. defect. p. 419. g Hist. l. 12. in principio.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The second decastich begins in the midst of the Masoretic Psa 95:7. Up to this point the church stirs itself up to a worshipping appearing before its God; now the voice of God (Heb 4:7), earnestly admonishing, meets it, resounding from out of the sanctuary. Since signifies not merely to hear, but to hear obediently, Psa 95:7 cannot be a conditioning protasis to what follows. Hengstenberg wishes to supply the apodosis: “then will He bless you, His people;” but in other instances too (Psa 81:9; Psa 139:19; Pro 24:11), like , has an optative signification, which it certainly has gained by a suppression of a promissory apodosis, but yet without the genius of the language having any such in mind in every instance. The word placed first gives prominence to the present, in which this call to obedience goes forth, as a decisive turning-point. The divine voice warningly calls to mind the self-hardening of Israel, which came to light at Merbah, on the day of Massah. What is referred to, as also in Psa 81:8, is the tempting of God in the second year of the Exodus on account of the failing of water in the neighbourhood of Horeb, at the place which is for this reason called Massah u – Merbah (Exo 17:1-7); from which is to be distinguished the tempting of God in the fortieth year of the Exodus at Merbah , viz., at the waters of contention near Kadesh (written fully Me – Merbah Kadesh , or more briefly Me – Merbah ), Num 20:2-13 (cf. on Psa 78:20). Strictly signifies nothing but instar Meribae , as in Psa 83:10 instar Midianitarum ; but according to the sense, is equivalent to . Psa 106:32, just as is equivalent to . On , quum, cf. Deu 11:6. The meaning of is not they also ( as in Psa 52:7) saw His work; for the reference to the giving of water out of the rock would give a thought that is devoid of purpose here, and the assertion is too indefinite for it to be understood of the judgment upon those who tempted God (Hupfeld and Hitzig). It is therefore rather to be rendered: notwithstanding (ho’moos, Ew. 354, a) they had (= although they had, cf. in Isa 49:15) seen His work (His wondrous guiding and governing), and might therefore be sure that He would not suffer them to be destroyed. The verb coincides with , . . , for which the lxx has , is anarthrous in order that the notion may be conceived of more qualitatively than relatively: with a (whole) generation. With Jahve calls to mind the repeated declarations of His vexation concerning their heart, which was always inclined towards error which leads to destruction – declarations, however, which bore no fruit. Just this ineffectiveness of His indignation had as its result that ( , not but , as in Gen 13:16; Deu 28:27, Deu 28:51; 2Ki 9:37, and frequently) He sware, etc. ( = verily not, Gesen. 155, 2, f, with the emphatic future form in n which follows). It is the oath in Num 14:27. that is meant. The older generation died in the desert, and therefore lost the entering into the rest of God, by reason of their disobedience. If now, many centuries after Moses, they are invited in the Davidic Psalter to submissive adoration of Jahve, with the significant call: “To-day if ye will hearken to His voice!” and with a reference to the warning example of the fathers, the obedience of faith, now as formerly, has therefore to look forward to the gracious reward of entering into God’s rest, which the disobedient at that time lost; and the taking possession of Canaan was, therefore, not as yet the final (Deu 12:9). This is the connection of the wider train of thought which to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb 3:1, Heb 4:1, follows from this text of the Psalm.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7 Because he is our God While it is true that all men were created to praise God, there are reasons why the Church is specially said to have been formed for that end, (Isa 61:3.) The Psalmist was entitled to require this service more particularly from the hands of his chosen people. This is the reason why he impresses upon the children of Abraham the invaluable privilege which God had conferred upon them in taking them under his protection. God may indeed be said in a sense to have done so much for all mankind. But when asserted to be the Shepherd of the Church, more is meant than that he favors her with the common nourishment, support, and government which he extends promiscuously to the whole human family; he is so called because he separates her from the rest of the world, and cherishes her with a peculiar and fatherly regard. His people are here spoken of accordingly as the people of his pastures, whom he watches over with peculiar care, and loads with blessings of every kind. The passage might have run more clearly had the Psalmist called them the flock of his pastures, and the people of his hand; (48) or, had he added merely — and his flock (49) — the figure might have been brought out more consistently and plainly. But his object was less elegancy of expression than pressing upon the people a sense of the inestimable favor conferred upon them in their adoption, by virtue of which they were called to live under the faithful guardianship of God, and to the enjoyment of every species of blessings. They are called the flock of his hand, not so much because formed by his hand as because governed by it, or, to use a French expression, le Troupeau de sa conduite. (50) The point which some have given to the expression, as if it intimated how intent God was upon feeding his people, doing it himself, and not employing hired shepherds, may scarcely perhaps be borne out by the words in their genuine meaning; but it cannot be doubted that the Psalmist would express the very gracious and familiar kind of guidance which was enjoyed by this one nation at that time. Not that God dispensed with human agency, intrusting the care of the people as he did to priests, prophets, and judges, and latterly to kings. No more is meant than that in discharging the office of shepherd to this people, he exercised a superintendence over them different from that common providence which extends to the rest of the world.
To-day, if you will hear his voice (51) According to the Hebrew expositors, this is a conditional clause standing connected with the preceding sentence; by which interpretation the Psalmist must be considered as warning the people that they would only retain possession of their privilege and distinction so long as they continued to obey God. (52) The Greek version joins it with the verse that follows — to-day, if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, and it reads well in this connection. Should we adopt the distribution of the Hebrew expositors, the Psalmist seems to say that the posterity of Abraham were the flock of God’s hand, inasmuch as he had placed his Law in the midst of them, which was, as it were, his crook, and had thus showed himself to be their shepherd. The Hebrew particle אם, im, which has been rendered if, would in that case be rather expositive than conditional, and might be rendered when, (53) the words denoting it to be the great distinction between the Jews and the surrounding nations, that God had directed his voice to the former, as it is frequently noticed he had not done to the latter, (Psa 147:20; Deu 4:6.) Moses had declared this to constitute the ground of their superiority to other people, saying, “What nation is there under heaven which hath its gods so nigh unto it?” The inspired writers borrow frequently from Moses, as is well known, and the Psalmist, by the expression to-day, intimates how emphatically the Jews, in hearing God’s voice, were his people, for the proof was not far off, it consisted in something which was present and before their eyes. He bids them recognize God as their shepherd, inasmuch as they heard his voice; and it was an instance of his singular grace that he had addressed them in such a condescending and familiar manner. Some take the adverb to be one of exhortation, and read, I would that they would hear my voice, but this does violence to the words. The passage runs well taken in the other meaning we have assigned to it. Since they had a constant opportunity of hearing the voice of God — since he gave them not only one proof of the care he had over them as shepherd, or yearly proof of it, but a continual exemplification of it, there could be no doubt that the Jews were chosen to be his flock.
(48) Hammond, after making a similar remark, adds — “But it is more reasonable to take the explanation from the different significations of רעה, [the word which Calvin renders pasture, ] as for feeding, so for governing, equally applicable to men and cattle; from whence it is but analogy, that מרעה, which signifies a pasture, where cattle are fed, should also signify dominion or kingdom, or any kind of πολιτεία, wherein a people are governed And then the other part, the sheep of his hand, will be a fit, though figurative, expression; the shepherd that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it by his hand, which manageth the rod and staff, Psa 23:4. The Jewish Arab reads, ‘the people of his feeding, or flock, and the sheep of his guidance.’”
(49) The text reads, “ Si tantum nomen Legis posuisset.” This is evidently a mistake of the printer for Gregis . The French version reads — “ Le Troupeau.”
(50) The flock under his conduct or guidance.
(51) The ancient Jewish writers frequently apply these words to the Messiah: and they have argued from them, that if all Israel would repent but one day the Messiah would come; because it is said, “To-day, if ye will hear his voice.”
(52) Hammond observes, that the particle אם, im, here rendered if, is in other places often used in an optative signification, as in Exo 32:32, “If thou wilt” for “O that thou wouldst forgive them;” and that therefore the rendering here may be, “O that to-day ye would hear his voice;” — a reading, he adds, which “may be thought needful to the making the sense complete in this verse, which otherwise is thought to hang (though not so fitly) on the 8 verse, and not to be finished without it.” He then goes on to say, “But it may be considered also, whether this verse be not more complete in itself by rendering אם, if, thus: ‘Let us worship and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and sheep of his hand, if ye will hear his voice to-day,’ i e. , speedily, — if ye will speedily perform obedience to him, — setting the words in form of a conditional promise, thereby to enforce the performance of the condition on our part. The condition to the performance of which they are exhorted, (verse 6,) is paying God the worship and lowly obedience due to him; and the promise secured to them in this performance, that he will be their God, and they the people of his pasture, etc. , i e. , that God will take the same care of them that a shepherd does of his sheep; preserve them from all enemies, Midianites, Philistines, Canaanites, etc.”
(53) “ Non erit proprie conditionalis, sed expositiva; vel pro temporis adverbio sumetur.” — Lat. — “ Ne sera pas proprement conditionnelle, mais expositive; ou bien elle sera prinse pour Quand .” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) To-day if . . .In joining this clause with Psa. 95:8-9 the Authorised Version follows the LXX. The Masoretic text connects it with the preceding part of the verse, and there seems no good reason for departing from that arrangement. Indeed, the change from the third person, his voice, to the first, tempted me, in the same sentence is intolerable even in Hebrew poetry. Nor is there any necessity to suppose the loss of a line. Render: For He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. Today would that ye would hearken to his voice. The Oriental custom of leading flocks by the voice is doubtless alluded to, as in Joh. 10:4. Notice the resemblance in Psa. 95:6-7 to Psa. 100:3-4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. For he is our God The reasons for this lively, willing, and unreserved devotion were, in Psa 95:3-5, drawn from the greatness of God as creator and governor of the world. In Psa 95:6-7 the motives appeal more directly to the heart and the moral feelings. He is “our God,” “our Maker,” and we are his “people,” his “sheep.”
Sheep of his hand That is, we are guided, cared for, and protected by “his hand,” his personal attention. Psalm 77:21; Psa 100:3; Psa 23:3-4.
Today The “to-day,” or this day, indicates that a decisive moment, a crisis, had come. So the apostle applies it (Heb 3:7-11) to the Jews of his day, who stood, with reference to the gospel, as the Hebrews at Kadesh did in reference to Canaan. Thus it applies to every sinner each moment of his probation. “Hereby is meant the whole time by which Christ speaketh by his gospel.” Ainsworth.
If ye will hear his voice Taking the conjunction here in its conditional sense, the apodosis, or concluding clause, seems obscure. Hengstenberg supplies it by reading: “‘If ye will hear his voice,’ he will bless you, his people.” This accords with the passage (Exo 23:22,) “If thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” But it equally answers the grammatical and doctrinal demand to supply, as the sense implies, , ( then, on this account,) after “voice,” and read: “To day, if ye will hear his voice, [ then ] harden not your hearts.” The hearing implies heeding hearing with a view to obeying which is impossible while unbelief hardens the heart and perverts the will. The conditioning protasis does not anticipate a promissory apodosis, but a caution; not the blessings which flow upon hearing, but the moral preparation implied in obedient hearing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 95:7. To-day if ye will hear his voice The people having said, We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand, God is introduced, saying, “Since then you are so, from this day be not like your fathers; behave like my sheep, and harden not your hearts.” It is plain, therefore, that the voice of God must begin here; accordingly, this sentence should begin the 8th verse, and be rendered thus: From this day, if you will hear my voice, harden not your heart as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness; Psa 95:9. When your fathers put me to the proof, tried me, even at the same time that they saw my glorious doing. Mudge. We would just observe, that the word rendered pasture, in the original, signifies also dominion. According to this sense of the word, the other phrase, sheep of his hand, will here be a more fit, though figurative expression: the shepherd who rules the sheep, doing it with his hand, which manages the rod and staff by which they are ruled. See Psa 23:4.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 95:7 For 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,
Ver. 7. The people of his pasture ] Whom he turns not out into commons and fallows, but feeds among lilies, Son 2:16 .
And the sheep of his hand
Today if ye will hear his voice
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
To day, &c. Compare Heb 3:7-11; Heb 4:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
For he: Psa 48:14, Psa 67:6, Psa 115:3, Exo 15:2, Exo 20:2, Jer 31:33, Heb 11:16
people: Psa 23:1, Psa 79:13, Psa 80:1, Psa 100:3, Isa 40:10, Isa 40:11, Eze 34:30, Eze 34:31, Joh 10:3, Joh 10:4, Joh 10:14-16, Act 20:28, 1Pe 2:25
To day: Heb 3:7, Heb 3:13, Heb 3:15, Heb 4:7
if ye: Pro 8:6, Isa 55:3, Mat 3:2, Mat 3:3, Mat 17:5, Rev 3:20
Reciprocal: Deu 9:29 – Yet they 1Ch 16:14 – the Lord 2Ch 24:19 – but they would Psa 74:1 – the sheep Psa 78:52 – like a Psa 105:7 – the Lord Psa 106:25 – hearkened Psa 119:60 – made Pro 27:1 – Boast Isa 43:7 – for I Isa 55:6 – Seek Eze 33:5 – heard Mic 7:14 – Feed Zep 2:2 – before the day of Mat 25:33 – the sheep Luk 19:42 – in this Joh 10:7 – the sheep Joh 10:9 – and shall Joh 21:16 – my sheep
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 95:7. For he is our God He not only has dominion over us, as he has over all the creatures, but stands in a special relation to us. He is our God in a peculiar sense, and therefore it would be most unreasonable and wicked if we should forsake him, when even the Gentiles shall submit to his law. And we are the people of his pasture Whom he feeds in his church, with his word and by his ordinances, and defends by his watchful providence. And the sheep of his hand Under his special care and government. To-day That is, forthwith, or presently, as this word is often used. Or the expression may mean this solemn day of grace, or of the gospel, which the psalmist speaks of as present, according to the manner of the prophets; if ye will hear his voice If ye will hearken to his call, and obey his further commands, which may be added as a necessary caution and admonition to the Israelites, that they might understand and consider that Gods presence and favour were not absolutely, necessarily, and everlastingly fixed to them, as they were very apt to believe, but were suspended upon the condition of their continued obedience, which, if they violated, they should be rejected, and the Gentiles, performing it, should be received for his people. And this clause may be connected with the preceding, and considered as expressing the condition of their interest in God as their God, thus: He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, &c., if ye will hear his voice; that is, if ye will be his obedient people he will continue to be your God. Or else the word , im, translated if, may be rendered in the optative form, O that you would hear his voice to-day, saying unto you, Harden not your hearts. However this be, says Dr. Horne, what follows, to the end of the Psalm, is undoubtedly spoken in the person of God himself, who may be considered as addressing us, in these latter days, by the gospel of his Son; for so the apostle teaches us to apply the whole passage, Heb 3:4. The Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, had a day of probation, and a promised rest to succeed it; but by unbelief and disobedience, they to whom it was promised, that is, the generation of those who came out of Egypt, fell short of it, and died in the wilderness. The gospel, in like manner, offers, both to Jew and Gentile, another day of probation in this world, and another promised rest to succeed it, which remaineth for the people of God in heaven. All whom it concerns are, therefore, exhorted to beware, lest they forfeit the second rest, as murmuring and rebellious Israel came short of the first.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
95:7 For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his {e} hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
(e) That is, the flock whom he governs with his own hand. He shows how they are God’s flock, that is, if they hear his voice.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Exhortation to believe the sovereign Lord 95:7b-11
Israel, however, had been a wayward flock in the past. This led the writer to warn the people to avoid the sins that had resulted in the wilderness wanderings, "the world’s longest funeral march." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 265.] At Meribah (lit. strife; Exo 17:1-7; Num 20:2-13) and Massah (lit. testing; Exo 17:1-7) Israel tested God by demanding that He provide for them on their terms. They should have simply continued to trust and obey God. Perhaps the writer mentioned these rebellions and not others because they so clearly reveal the ingratitude and willfulness that finally resulted in God sentencing that generation to die in the wilderness. Their actions betrayed the fact that they had not learned God’s ways, specifically, that He would do what was best for them in His own time and way. That generation could have entered into rest in the land of milk and honey. Likewise, believers who fail to follow their Good Shepherd faithfully can look forward to a life of hardship and limited blessing. In view of the urgency of this exhortation, the writer began it by calling for action "today."
The writer to the Hebrews quoted Psa 95:7-11 in order to urge Christians to believe God and move ahead in faith. Not obtaining rest, for the Christian, means failing to enter into all the blessings that could have been his (or hers) if he (or she) had faithfully trusted and obeyed God.
This psalm is a sober reminder that praise needs to connect with trust and obedience. It also anticipates the time when those who follow the Shepherd faithfully will reign with Him in His beneficent rule over the earth (cf. Psalms 2; 2Ti 2:12 a; Rev 3:21; et al.).