Today The Deaf Shall Hear

A poetic commentary on Psalm 95

1 O come, let us sing unto "The Name"; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Come! Gather round! Join in! We are shouting for joy to God. We are singing with every breath! He is the rock in the storm to which we cling, upon which we stand and are saved!

2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout for joy unto Him with psalms.

Come now! The way into His presence is clear. It is the way of thanksgiving. Give Him thanks and draw near! Sing all the psalms from your soul and enter in unto Him!

3 For "The Name" is a great God, and a great King above all gods;

The name of God is made known by God. He speaks it to those who are in His presence. He is a great King and Ruler! All judges bow down before him. All princes stand in fear at the entrance to His presence.

4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also.

The depths of the earth are His to shake or to settle in peace. The mountains are His to bring down or to raise up. He has made them all.

5 The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.

He will turn the sea to blood. He will part it and part it again. He will make it crystal pure like glass. He will make it a path for His people to pass over. His commandment has formed the sea and His hands have formed the dry ground.

6 O come, let us bow down and bend the knee; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

Come now, let us all as one finally bend our knees and bow down before Him! Let us repent as one human being and kneel before our Maker, before the One whose name we long to hear!

7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the flock of His hand. To-day, if ye would but hearken to His voice!

Let's all turn around as one human being and turn back to our God, for in truth he is our God. Even though we have rebelled, He keeps us in his pasture. He shepherds us with his own hand. Do you hear His voice? Today, if you hear His voice, the love of His voice, let us respond and turn and follow His voice!

8 'Harden not your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness;

Do not resist the voice of your Creator's love. Some who have began to enter into His presence before you have resisted His voice, doubting the strength of His kindness toward them. They tested Him to prove whether He truly has unlimited kindness. Do not doubt Him in that way.

9 When your fathers tried Me, proved Me, even though they saw My work.

Some believers who have gone before you, indeed, struggled with fear. Yes, some of your spiritual fathers, even some of those who stood at the sea when God parted it and who crossed over on dry ground, and who stood on the mountain when God spoke and gave them His Torah, and the stars of heaven trembled, felt a need to prove God's unconditional love and grace toward them. It is time to learn from this mistake. It is time to believe God with the simple faith of little children.

10 For forty years was I wearied with that generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways;

Even when they had wandered for many years and had learned not to say a word, God knew their hearts. When the heart measures its own unworthiness as being greater than God's goodness and power to redeem how can it be filled with thankfulness? How can the heart leave the wayward steps of sin behind and walk the path of righteousness? It is the human heart that God watches, to see which way it will go.

11 Wherefore I swore in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest.'

How long have we been wandering? How long have we been labouring in an effort to prove ourselves worthy of standing in God's presence? And we have never yet stood firm and walking forward in complete faith in God to bring us into the whole land of promise. But today... Today if we hear His voice, let us turn and trust Him whose love is calling us.