8 Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
He called the name of the place Massah,{Massah means testing.} and Meribah,{Meribah means quarreling.} because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"
You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn't they let the people go, and they departed?
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?"
Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe.
See that you don't refuse him who speaks. For if they didn't escape when they refused him who warned on the Earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,
while it is said, "Today if you will hear his voice, Don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion." For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn't all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
Don't harden your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested me by proving me, And saw my works for forty years.
But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers,
How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Yahweh said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?
But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn't listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 95
Commentary on Psalms 95 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 95
Ps 95:1-11. David (Heb 4:7) exhorts men to praise God for His greatness, and warns them, in God's words, against neglecting His service.
1. The terms used to express the highest kind of joy.
rock—a firm basis, giving certainty of salvation (Ps 62:7).
2. come … presence—literally, "approach," or, meet Him (Ps 17:13).
3. above … gods—esteemed such by men, though really nothing (Jer 5:7; 10:10-15).
4, 5. The terms used describe the world in its whole extent, subject to God.
6. come—or, "enter," with solemn forms, as well as hearts.
7. This relation illustrates our entire dependence (compare Ps 23:3; 74:1). The last clause is united by Paul (Heb 3:7) to the following (compare Ps 81:8),
8-11. warning against neglect; and this is sustained by citing the melancholy fate of their rebellious ancestors, whose provoking insolence is described by quoting the language of God's complaint (Nu 14:11) of their conduct at Meribah and Massah, names given (Ex 17:7) to commemorate their strife and contention with Him (Ps 78:18, 41).
10. err in their heart—Their wanderings in the desert were but types of their innate ignorance and perverseness.
that they should not—literally, "if they," &c., part of the form of swearing (compare Nu 14:30; Ps 89:35).