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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout out praises to our Protector who delivers us. 2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout out to him in celebration. 3 For the Lord is a great God, a great king who is superior to all gods.⁠ 4 The depths of the earth are in his hand, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Creator. 7 For he is our God; we are the people of his pasture, the sheep he owns. Today, if only you would obey him. 8 He says, “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah, like they were that day at Massah in the wilderness,⁠ 9 where your ancestors challenged my authority and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work. 10 For 40 years I was continually disgusted with that generation, and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; they do not obey my commands.’ 11 So I made a vow in my anger, ‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 24:7 and Psalm 95:3

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 24 and Psalm 95 describe God as a divine warrior-king, using royal and militaristic language to describe his strength in battle and authority. Psalm 95 echoes this in a henotheistic context, declaring God as “a great king above all gods.”

Passages

Psalm 24:7

Hebrew Bible
7 Look up, you gates. Rise up, you eternal doors. Then the majestic king will enter. 8 Who is this majestic king? The Lord who is strong and mighty. The Lord a mighty man in battle. 9 Look up, you gates. Rise up, you eternal doors. Then the majestic king will enter. 10 Who is this majestic king? The Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He is the majestic king. (Selah)
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Psalm 95:3

Hebrew Bible
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout out praises to our Protector who delivers us. 2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout out to him in celebration. 3 For the Lord is a great God, a great king who is superior to all gods. 4 The depths of the earth are in his hand, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Psalm 24 speaks of creation and of God as the king of Glory - a mighty man or a man of war. The same is true of Psalms 47 (especially verse 3) and Psalm 95:3. Psalm 149:2 ties creation and kingship together. In Psalms 68:22-25 and 74:12-17 the king’s battle results in the creation of a people and of cosmos. It then comes as no surprise that the enthronement psalms exhibit the same form: Psalm 93 contains the elements of conflict, kingship, order, and temple, and hence relates to Baal type creation; compare Psalms 97 and 99 ..."
Stan Rummel, ed., Ras Shamra Parallels: The Texts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible, AnOr 51 (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1981), 3:261.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Psalm 24:7 and Psalm 95:3

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