Our Scripture reading this day is one that is sometimes used in some churches as an opening call to worship, and that is one of the main themes of this psalm - come and worship the Lord. The unknown psalmist entreats his fellow believers to sing out, to even shout out, their praises and worship to the Lord God. Some people might have been brought up believing that in church, in worship services, we need to be quiet, and that worship and hushed tones go together. That is not always the case, as we see in this psalm. Though quiet and reverential times of worship are right and proper, shouting out one’s praise to God is equally desired by Him. In the first two verses we are instructed to shout out joyfully our praise to the Lord. The Book of Psalms was like a hymnbook for the believers in Bible days and in the early Church, and our psalmist urges us to shout joyfully to God with psalms. Let it be a song of delight in God, one of exultation to Him. He is pleased when we let out a whoop for Him!
One thing we can praise the Lord for is mentioned in verse 1, and that the Lord God is the Rock of our salvation. One thing about a rock is that it is strong and solid. A big, huge rock or boulder is set firmly in its place. The psalmist would have been familiar with giant rocks or boulders, particularly in the wilderness and desert areas of the land of Israel. They were set firmly on the ground, and weren’t going anywhere. Many times throughout the Bible, God is called or described as a rock. Strong, firmly set, never moving or changing. Huge rocks or boulders were often seen as a place of shelter or protection from one’s enemies, and a cleft in a rock was also protection from storms. Huge rocks also gave shade from the heat of the desert. Here the psalmist describes how the salvation we have through the Lord God is as sure and solid as those strong rocks he saw out in the wilderness. Nothing can move it or destroy it. When we’ve placed our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus it is strong and secure as an immovable rock.
Our psalmist sought to remind the people that Yahweh is a great God, greater than any of the false gods (vs. 3). In reality there are no other gods, besides Him. They are false, and just figments of people’s imagination. Many of the Israelites, though, were tempted to follow after these other gods of the nations around them, just as people today are tempted to follow after other gods and false ideologies, as well. The psalmist urges us all to follow and worship the one and only true God. He is far superior to anything that anyone else could ever come up with. All of the Baals and Astartes of his day, and false gods of today, are worthless and nothing compared to Yahweh.
One of so many reasons to worship and shout out our praise to the one true God, Yahweh, is that He is the One who created the world around us (vs. 4 - 5). The hand of the Lord God created the earth. He didn’t just make a formless blob and throw it out into space, and somehow it formed by itself into the world we see today. He specifically created this earth, from the lowest places on earth, around the Dead Sea, to the highest mountain, Mt. Everest (vs. 4). These were formed by the very hand of God. He made the oceans, lakes and rivers, from the small, rippling creeks way on the tops of the mountains, down to the deepest trenches at the dark bottoms of the oceans. All of the dry land was created specifically by the Lord God, as well, from the mountains, to the prairies, to tropical rain forests (vs. 5). None of this can be said of the false gods, either the ones that the Israelites kept being drawn to, or the false gods of today. Nor is this world something that just happened as a result of random evolution. It was created specifically, wondrously, and lovingly by our Creator God.
The psalmist gives the most important reason to praise, sing, and shout joy to God in verses 6 and 7, and that is that He is our Creator and Maker. We are not the product of random evolution, either. Yahweh is our Maker, and He, He alone, is worthy of our worship. There are times when we should get down in prostrate worship before God, and verse 6 reminds us of that. Yahweh, alone, is God. He is our God, and He loves us enough to call those who believe in and worship Him, His people.
Our passage concludes with another theme that winds through the Bible, and that is that of God as the Shepherd of those who worship Him, and that we are His sheep. Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd. Those who have accepted Him as Savior are a part of His pasture, and are held close in His hand (vs. 7). Make sure you are a part of His flock!
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