THE KING AND HIS PEOPLE

Read this psalm as if it relates, not to His coming nation, but to His present church, since there is a message in it for us. Amidst the storm clouds of Psalm 94, a song can be raised and heard. The joyous peals of happy hearts are greater than the thunder claps. There is a rock beneath our feet, v. 1, whilst sinking sands may surround us. We dare so to sing for we have a covert in the storm, v. 2, and before us, moving us to quiet worship, v. 6, is our Lord (Jehovah), a great God and a great King above all gods, v. 3. What a calming perspective! If the earth about us seems to quake and yawn, the deepest places are in His hand, and if the highest mountains should totter and fall, then they are His also, v. 4. If the sea should toss and roar, and the dry land shake, He the great Creator is in control, v. 5.

With such a God before us, the greatest storm and uprising floods become a quiet pasturage, and we are not wrecks of the tempest but sheep of His pasture, not submerged in the maelstrom but in His hand. Ours can be a stable experience within a storm-tossed world. If the shrieking of the rising outrage of man should increase, the call to the assured soul is to “come”, “sing”, “be joyful”, “kneel”, “bow down”, “worship”; then the still small voice is heard, John 14. 27.

Is all this just rhetoric to us? Listen to the words, “Today, Oh that ye would hear his voice”, v. 7 R.V., and “Harden not your heart as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness”, v. 8 R.V. With all the encouraging ministry of the psalm before us, vv. 1-7, what is perhaps robbing us of a God-promised rest?, v. 11. Is not God able to provide in the severest circumstances: Meribah, Massah?, Exod. 17; Num. 20.

Here are two rock scenes: thirst, and desperation rising and a people ready for riot. They had not learnt the lesson of the first to strengthen them for the second. These occasions were never forgotten by God; see Num. 27. 14; Psa. 81. 7. The Lord’s complaint is that Israel “have not known my ways”. In Psalm 77. 13, we learned that the ways of the Lord are only known “in the sanctuary”, and here in verses 1-6 we are invited there, so that this, when heeded, prepares us for verse 10.

Let not life’s storms disturb our rest; God is greater.