Invitation and Warning: Psalm 95

Message Study Questions

Message Summary

Psalm 95 is an invitation to worship and a song of warning against unbelief. Come, let “us” is a call to worship in the community of other believers. The call to worship is a call for concentrated focus on God, not ourselves, and not performance. Our worship should be loud, exuberant, joyful, and full of thanksgiving. Individually and corporately, we reverence God by focusing on His attributes, His majesty as the God of creation, His complexity, His beauty, and His control of everything.

We also focus on His character, His love, holiness, and justice. The deeper we dive into God’s nature, the more in awe we stand of Him. The more we remember His acts of power, of love and justice, the more we love Him. For God is personal to us (Psalm 23:1) and loves us more than we can imagine. But if we refuse to trust in God, there is the warning: do not harden your hearts, rather worship him. Do not disobey, but obey. Remember and soak in God’s presence.

1. What work have you seen from God that has impressed you lately?
   

2. How do we exhibit unbelief today?
   

Consider This

The motivation for worship is that God is worthy. It isn’t for us to get something but it is about us worshiping God who made the seas and the depths of the earth. He owns it. The earth belongs to him. This worship isn’t just saying things about God, but it’s about connecting with God too—experiencing the creator of everything we know.

1. Read Psalm 95:1-7.

   • How does verses 1-7 counter our sometimes natural inclination toward entering God’s presence with apathy or preoccupied?

   • List the reasons for worshiping God with enthusiasm from verses 1-7.

   • How does verse 7 indicate that our worship of God is intimate in nature rather than only transcendent?

   • Do you think that listening equals obeying in verse 7? Why or why not?

2. According to Romans 8:38, can anything separate the believer from the love of God?
   

3. Worship in 95:6 means to bow down. It signifies accepting our own place and acknowledging God’s place over us. How do you see God’s place over you?
   

4. In public worship, what does it mean to, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name” (Ps 96:8a)?
   

5. How are worship and obedience connected in 1 Samuel 15:22? How does that apply to you today?
   

6. Who is speaking in verses 8-11? Do these truths apply to Christians today? (See Hebrews 3:7-13)
   

7. How does Hebrews 3:12 summarize Psalm 95:8-11?
   

8. Read Hebrews 3:13. Why is it important to remain connected to other believers and to encourage one another spiritually? What is the deceitfulness of sin?
   

Moving Forward – Application

Meribah and Massah mean to dispute and to test. It was the place in the wilderness of Zin where the people of Israel doubted that God would provide and quarreled with Moses. Hardening our hearts is refusing to take God at His word, in a word, unbelief.

1. How do you plan on preparing for corporate worship next Sunday? How could you be more engaged, more connected to God?

2. How can you guard against hardening your heart (unbelief) this week?

3. What could you do to better listen to God’s voice this week?

4. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
   Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). Will you consider making this your prayer each day this week and follow God’s leading?

“If this is a psalm about worship, it could give no blunter indication that the heart of the matter is severely practical: nothing less than a bending of wills and a renewal of pilgrimage.”
- Kidner