Psalm 95 - "They shall not enter My rest"

Psalm 95 1Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. 4In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. 5The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land. 6Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7For 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 of trial in the wilderness, 9When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10For 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.’ 11So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” NKJV

”So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’. The psalm ends sort of abruptly doesn’t it? I have to admit that when I printed the text out to prepare for my Wednesday night study I thought my software had dropped a couple of verses. I flipped through my bible and sure enough verse 11 is the last verse. I really expected there to be some words of hope for the righteous if they choose to follow God, some exhortation reminding us of the rewards to come if we follow God. I wasn’t expecting “They shall not enter My rest – The End”.

Why is that? Why did I expect the assurance of the reward? David spent the first ten verses exhorting me to follow God. Look at the breakdown:

Verse 1 – Our salvation is secure through God.
Verse 2 – We are to approach God with a spirit of thanksgiving
Verse 3 – God is above all
Verse 4-5 – God is in control of creation
Verse 6 – We are to approach God with a sense of humility
Verse 7 – God watches over us and protects us.

How much more exhortation do I need? As if that weren’t enough, David reminds me what happens to the rebellious in verses 8-11. The rebellious generation died in the wilderness. They never entered the promised land.

I’m glad that the psalm ended abruptly, I need to be shaken sometimes. I need to be reminded that serving God is reward enough. I need to be reminded that the salvation provided by God is better than anything that this world has to offer. I need to be reminded that the consequence of my choice to be rebellious is unrest.

I do not want to go astray in my heart…
I want to know His way…
I want to enter into His rest…

Pray that I learn to be content simply in Christ and I’ll do the same for you.

Grace and peace to you all.