Psalms 95:7

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

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

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 31:49 . Today, i.e. forthwith or presently, as this word is used, ,8 27:9 ,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 , 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 God’ s 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 God’ s call delivered by his Son, take the following counsel.

Psalms 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] His cades brought up at hand, eating of his meat and drinking of his cup, and lying in his bosom, as Uriah’ s ewe lamb did, 2 Samuel 12:3. Today if ye will hear his voice] i.e. While the day of grace lasteth, which is not long, 2 Corinthians 6:2. Qui paenitenti veniam spospondit, peccanti crastinum non promisit, saith Gregory.

(7) To-day if . . .—In joining this clause with Psalms 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 John 10:4. Notice the resemblance in Psalms 95:6-7 to Psalms 100:3-4.

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 Exodus 17:7; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.

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. Psalms 74:1, note. To day if ye will hear &c.] The A.V. follows the LXX in taking this clause as the protasis to Psalms 95:8. But here the Psalmist is still speaking (‘his voice’), while in Psalms 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. Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 4:30.

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.

7. For he is our God—The reasons for this lively, willing, and unreserved devotion were, in Psalms 95:3-5, drawn from the greatness of God as creator and governor of the world.