July 12
Psalm 95 – An Invitation Psalm
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day oftrial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
Verses 1-5 are about rejoicing/praise/thanksgiving
Verses 6-7 are about reverence/worship
Verses 8-11 are requiring a response
You are never going to be a joyful person if you don’t have a thankful heart. If you’re dealing with depression, being down and out, it’s because you are forgetting all that you have to be thankful for! In James, were instructed to “count it all joy when we fall into different temptations, tests, and trials.” The reason for that is, Joy is not a natural response to negative circumstances. It’s something you have to do in spite of your circumstances. If no one else on planet earth can be thankful, you can! If you want to increase your capacity to receive from God, you have to develop a lifestyle of being thankful. Everyone has something they can be thankful for. The word teaches us, “in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us.” We have to be people of faith and we have to be positive people. You’ll never be able to worship God like He wants you to, unless you get first things first. You must enter His presence with thanksgiving, then into his courts with praise, the into His holy place with worship.
Anyone can have the things of God. IF they put aside the excuses and go after it. You have to have a thankful heart! It’s not THANKS until you GIVE it. The more you give it, the fuller you become! Thankfulness puts the mind in its rightful place. Worship keeps God in His place. Bow down and keep God higher than you! He’s above us. Everyone is bowing down to something. If you don’t take the time daily to bow down to God, you will bow to other things.
Genesis 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LordGod had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When Eve ate, she died. She didn’t die physically, but spiritually. The nature and life of God was put out, and the nature of Satan was put in.
Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
God didn’t just breathe air into man. He breathed spirit and life and His nature into Him. When Adam and Eve ate, they lost that, and it was replaced with the nature of the devil. They traded life for death.
John 15: 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
You are the branch. Jesus is the vine. You must abide, dwell, trust, remain in the vine. If you do, you bring forth the fruit. When you remain in the vine, what’s in it flows into you.
You’ll produce the same fruit God does. You don’t have the ability or smarts to do what God wants you to do. You NEED Him. You cannot overcome the devil without God. Your next breath and your very destiny is in His hands. Every day God is calling you to be with Him. Every day you have to plug into the vine. Every Day He is extending an invitation to you. He wants to give you peace and joy and remove anxieties. That’s the God you serve. If you want ALL He’s got, give Him ALL you’ve got. God is always moving! He’s always talking! You have to position yourself to hear Him. Every day there is something new about God that you’ve never experienced. Anyone can access it! God can turn the hardness in your heart to softness. If you don’t takethe time you won’t findthe time. When you worship, you become nicer, sweeter, gentler, tender, compassionate. It’s a rarity to find a person like that in our day. Don’t die without entering into what God has for you!
In the last part of this Psalm, He is asking for a response. He says, “…Today, if you will hear His voice. Do not harden your hearts…” Life can make us hard of heart. The worst is when you are hardened, and you don’t know it. Worship will soften your heart.
You don’t have to worship God. He gives us free choice. satan forces worship. God cannot worship Himself. If He did, He would be like satan. And that’s pride. God isn’t on an ego kick. He’s calling you into relationship with Him. He wants to do things for you! God can! He has the resources to do anything for you! If you never worship God another day in your life, He will not love you any less. And if you do worship Him, it won’t make Him love you anymore! But it will help you increase in love. It won’t change God. He never changes. He doesn’t need to! We are the ones who will change. If you want to draw closer to God, and change things in your life that will affect your children, and grandkids life, worship him.
Deuteronomy 5: 29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
People have constant problems in their lives. In their marriages, careers, health, and finances. Its because of one thing. They won’t worship God. When you don’t worship God, he’s on the outside of your life. When you start to worship Him, He gets involved in your life. It’s a whole other way of life and it’s much better!