Don’t Drift Away From Joy
Psalm 95,
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains 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 hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Well, we are all born searching. Searching for something far greater than ourselves. Something, so great, in fact, that if we could just find it, and bind ourselves to it, it would give us life. It would sustain us in a way that we, on our own, know we cannot sustain ourselves.
So as infants, we go searching for it in milk , food, and water. “Life, life, life,” they seem to us as we reach our way to them.
As children, we go searching for it in toys, games, and pets. “I must have them, and I won’t be okay unless I have them.”
As teens, we turn toward friends, accomplishments, social status. “If I can move up the social ladder, then I’ll feel complete, whole, secure”
As adults, we look to salaries, spouses, even sports teams. “I can find life here” we think, and so we wrap our entire worlds around them.
We, as people, are those who go, and feel we must go — searching for life. Where can I go to find life? Our psalm for this morning, Psalm 95, provides the answer. And, importantly, provides a warning for once we’ve found it.
Let’s pray, and ask the Lord to guide us as we continue…
What We’re Searching For (vv. 1-5)
So, we’re all searching for life. And, as Psalm 95 shows us, you find it when you find someone who can save, can satisfy, and who is spectacular. Let’s start with that first one — someone who can save.
Someone Who Can Save
Psalm 95 names this early on in verse one.
“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”
Salvation. That’s the life we’re looking for. A salvation life. A saved life.
And the reason we’re looking for it is because, deep down, we know, we are not okay on our own. We feel, from our very first breath, we need to be saved.
Our life does not naturally expand. It contracts. Our life does not naturally add, it subtracts. The moment we’re born, our clock starts ticking, and it does not tick upward. Human life heads toward the grave unless salvation is found.
And so, we need someone, in whom salvation can be found. And Psalm 95 tells us, The Lord is the rock of our salvation. He is the rock. Think high-ground of our saving. Mountain peak rising high above harm’s reach and death’s sting. A location from which you look down, like a passenger peering through the window of an airplane, as all the chaos, destruction, loss, and heartache of the world down below slowly falls away in the distance
Don’t you want to dwell in such a place?
Don’t you want to rest your feat upon a rock from which you can finally rest?
Don’t you want to be saved?
Our Lord is the rock of our salvation, and he is the one who dwells among us in this very moment. He’s here. Your rock is here, right now, and you can have him. You can rest your weary soul upon him today. You can pray, “God, free me from my sin and sorrow, set my feet upon the rock, right now.”
We’re all searching for life. It is a life found in someone who can save. And, it is a life found in someone who can satisfy. Someone who can satisfy.
Someone Who Can Satisfy
Still verse one, but shifting our focus a bit.
“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”
You hear it? “Sing” “joyful”
These are the sounds of satisfied souls. And what, we might ask, has caused their satisfaction? What has made these singers so glad?
Is it salvation only in the sense of what they’re saved from — escape from the grave, avoidance of Hell?
Is it those things alone that have caused them to sing?
Now, hear me, I don’t ask the question as if to say these were small things. Escape from the grave and avoidance of Hell — these are not small things. They are miracles! Miracles grand enough to get you singing. But, are they miracles satisfying enough to keep you singing? That’s the question.
And in thinking that over this week, the lyrics of the old song, “Big Rock Candy Mountain” popped into my mind. You guys know that song?
In The Big Rock Candy Mountains. There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes, And you sleep out every night
The farmers' trees are full of fruit, And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow, Where the rain don't fall, the wind don't blow, In The Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Imagine yourself in such a world. In the Big Rock Candy Mountain world that’s entirely free from pain. Entirely free from problems. Where escape from death has become reality. Sounds good, right? But, go on living in that world. Go on experiencing that reality. Go on, century after century after century, and ask yourself, are you still singing? Are you still satisfied?
Or, are you beginning to grow bored? What’s the use of all these years of life? What’s the purpose here? This is a world that’s begun to grow old. You start realizing, Big Rock Candy Mountain might just be a big ole’ waste of time.
Salvation, brothers and sisters, salvation in the sense of freedom from something, is a miracle. But, it isn’t miracle enough. Not for us at least. See, what we’ve been made for is salvation not merely from something, but to something. Something that not only takes us away from sorrow, but into satisfaction. Where things don’t grow old, don’t grow boring, and you never think to ask, “What’s the purpose here?”
See with me, where that satisfaction is found, in verse 2.
“Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.”
You see it? The true joy; the deep and lasting joy; the joy that does not grow old, tired, or boring, is the joy that is found before the face of God.
We are saved from the grave, to be brought into God’s presence, where we will make a joyful noise to Him, because he is the one who makes us joyful. He is the one who fully satisfies.
God, is our very life. He saves, he satisfies, and, third, he is spectacular. And, look, this third one here is no add-on. Ah, it just so happens he’s also spectacular. No, this is not an add on. It is the very ground on which everything else here either stands or falls. He is spectacular.
Someone Who Is Spectacular
Look with me, verse three.
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”
This is the ground of our satisfaction. Here lies the reason God can truly satisfy.
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”
He is larger-than-life. His glory outshines our universe. He is a great God, and a great King above all gods. He is spectacular.
Just consider his hands, verse 4,
“In his hand are the depths of the earth;”
The many miles of dirt and granite, nickel and iron beneath our feet — they all fit into his palm.
Consider the mountains,
“The heights of the mountains are his also.”
Every peak upon the earth is his possession. Man can climb them. God owns them.
Consider the sea, verse 5,
“The sea is his, for he made it.”
We build backyard pools, splash pads, and hot tubs. God builds oceans. He speaks Atlantic’s and Pacific’s into being.
Consider every place you could set your feet on earth,
“His hands formed the dry land.”
Every inch of every continent — formed and shaped by him.
God is not a being who is slightly higher than ourselves. Not a god who stands 3rd or 4th or 5th in line. Certainly not a god who relies upon a bag of tricks to keep his people happy.
He is a great God, and a great King above all gods. He is the spectacular one. And because he is, he can satisfy for all eternity. He can be his peoples’ continual source of joy forever.
So, we’re all searching for life. It is a life found in the God who can both save and satisfy because he is spectacular.
Psalm 95 shows us this. And, as we said at the outset, Psalm 95 also provides a warning for once we’ve found him.
Warning (vv. 8-11)
And it’s interesting, you know, because this very thing came up just this last Monday, at 7:50pm, right over there in the Chapel. There, about 50 of us from our church had gathered to hear from a couple who’ve been serving as missionaries for about the last six years in an unreached and hostile area of the world.
Following a presentation that highlighted their work and the fruit they’ve been seeing, there was a bit of time leftover for some Q&A. One of our members raised her hand and asked a very good question: “What word do you have for us over here?” Like, from your vantage point, missionary in the middle east, what would you have to say to us, the church, over here, in America?”
Now, I’ll be honest with you, even though I’ve known this brother for over a decade, I did not anticipate his answer. I mean, just think about all the things he could have said:
Do more evangelism
Read more Bible
Pray more prayers
Give more money
Do more works
Expend more energy
Produce something, create something, do something
And it certainly wouldn’t been wrong for him to have said any one of those things. Still, that’s not what he said. Instead, he looked at us, serious, somber look upon his face, and said, “Don’t leave Christ.” “Don’t forsake Christ.” “Stay in Christ.”
That was his answer. A warning. “Don’t leave Christ.” Well, that’s the warning of Psalm 95 as well. See it with me, beginning at the very end of verse 7,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Do not harden your hearts. Do not turn your back on God. Don’t shake your fist at him. Don’t leave Christ. And then a comparison…
“Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”
The psalmist is pulling us back to the time of the Israelites just after they’d been rescued out of slavery in Egypt. You can find it in Exodus 17. Israel has moved on from the wilderness of Sin, and camped at Rephidim, where they found that, “There was no water for the people to drink” (Exodus 17:1). No water. Massive crowd of wandering people. No water.
And that, of course, is a problem. But so is a large body of water when its standing in front of you and you’ve got an vengeful army chasing after you with chariots and spears. After all, when the psalmist mentions, verse 9, “Though they had seen my work” he’s reminding us, those Israelites without water in the desert were no strangers to God’s work. They had seen God work with their own eyes.
His work which included the taking of an entire river’s worth of water, and splitting it in two, for his people to pass through on foot. That, and then the smashing back together of the walls of that same river over the heads of their enemies.
They had seen it. And now, at Rephidim, when they saw empty water cups, empty canteens, parched land — their word to God was not, “O, Yahweh, do it again. Show us your power over the waters again and fill our cups full!” No, instead, “the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)
And so, Moses marked that place “Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
And so, Psalm 95, written a few centuries later, says, “Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness…”
Go back with me to the Chapel for a moment. Back to those words of warning, “Don’t leave Christ.” Imagine yourself hearing that warning. You hear it, and then think:
“Well, I guess it is true, I haven’t simply enjoyed God for quite some time. Haven’t savored praying to him. I have been giving in to sin regularly. Not too much! But, yeah, I guess fairly frequently. Even so, it’s just a season. A particularly busy, tiring season. I’ll bounce back. I mean, it’s not like I’m actually about to leave Christ.”
Are you sure? Do you know how long of a season it was between the people of Israel walking through the sea, and the people of Israel asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?” About two-and-a-half weeks. Two and a half weeks!
Saved by the spectacular one. Offered satisfaction in him forever. An empty cup and about half a month was all it took for them to shake their fists at Yahweh. They had found the God who offered them life, saw his mighty works, hardened their hearts, and turned away.
The result? Verse 10,
“For forty years [God says] I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
They shall not be lifted high upon the rock of salvation. Shall not make a joyful noise to him. Shall not come into his presence with thanksgiving. Shall, instead, stay outside. “They shall not enter my rest.”
And you may think, “Well, that was Israel. Before Jesus. Before the cross. Before the resurrection. Before the sending of the Spirit. But we’re on the other side of all those things. And we have seen so much of God’s work. And so, we need not worry about hardening our hearts like they did.
The book of Hebrews says otherwise. See, Psalm 95 had pulled us back to the book of Exodus. Now, it’s going to send us forward to the book of Hebrews. And, this time, I want you to go there with me.
So, turn with me now to the New Testament book of Hebrews. Use your table of contents if you need to, New Testament, book of Hebrews, chapter 3. Beginning with verse 5. Hebrews 3:5,
“Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if…”
See that “if” there. It’s a big “if” and I’ll ask you to circle it. Underline it. Highlight it. Do whatever you need to do to really see it.
“…indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says…”
And, there it is, Psalm 95:7-11, but now, addressed to us, the church.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.”
It’s a warning. A “Do not leave Christ” warning. And it just keeps going. Hebrews 3:12,
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
And you’ll see it again in Hebrews 4:3. And again in Hebrews 4:5. And again in Hebrews 4:7. Over and over the message — to us, today, the church — do not harden your hearts as they did. Do not leave Christ.
Hear the warning, brothers and sisters. Heed the warning. And, receive the invitation back in Psalm 95. We’ve seen the example in Exodus. Heard the warning in Hebrews. Now, back to Psalm 95, for the invitation.
Positive Response (vv. 6-7)
Psalm 95:6,
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”
What’s the alternative to a hardened heart? Humble worship.
Notice, this text goes low: “bow down,” “kneel,” “worship.” It’s a humbling of one’s self before God. A posture of submission that says, “I trust you. I rely upon you. You are God, not me.”
The joy is still here — Oh, is it still here! But arrogance, pride, self-will is gone from view. Humble worship, from one’s knees. And, final word, humble worship from his pasture.
Verse 7. Final word:
“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
Brothers and sisters, we are those who’ve been invited into his pasture. We are sheep led on by our great shepherd. Do you hear your shepherd’s voice? Don’t harden your heart. Don’t run astray from his field. His pasture is where we belong. And we’ve found it. We’ve been offered it. His pasture is ours for the taking and he’d have it no other way. His pasture is our rest.
Table
Now, as we transition to the table, I want to remind us that this rest is, of course, ultimately offered to us in Christ. Jesus says to us, Matthew 11:28,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I’ll give it to you. Rest from your toil. Rest from your fears. Rest from your trying to save your own soul.
And even though we were those who had hardened our hearts against him in our sin, he shed his blood for us so that we might still, by faith, enter into his rest.
So, because this table anticipates that future rest, if you’re here today and you’ve received Jesus, then we invite you to take and eat with us. If you’ve not, just let the bread and cup pass, and in this moment, ask God,
Soften my heart, give me Christ.
