Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 95

O come. —The invitation is general, and may be contrasted with the heathen warning to the uninitiated, procul este profani. This exhortation to worship God, not with penitence, but with loud thanksgiving, is, as Perowne notes, the more remarkable considering the strain in which the latter part of the psalm is written.

Make a joyful noise. —There is no one English expression for the full burst of instrumental and vocal music which is meant by the Hebrew word here applied to the Temple service. Vulgate, jubilemus.

Rock of our salvation. —As in Psalm 89:26. (Compare to rock of refuge, Psalms 94:22.)

Come before. —Literally, go to meet. It is the word rendered “prevent” in Psalms 18:5 (see the Note there).

Above all gods. —Not here angelic beings, but the gods of surrounding tribes, as accurately explained in Psalm 96:4-5. (Exodus 18:11.) Commentators trouble themselves with the difficulty of ascribing real existence to these tribal deities in the expression, “King above all gods.” But how else was Israel constantly falling into the sin of worshipping them? It was in the inspired rejection of them as possessing any sovereign power, and in the recognition of Jehovah’s supremacy shown by the psalmists and prophets, that the preservation of Israel’s religion consisted.

Deep places. —From a root meaning “to search,” perhaps by digging. Thus, either “mines” or “mineral wealth.”

Strength of the hills. —The Hebrew word rendered “strength” is rare, found only here and in Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8 (strength of an unicorn), and Job 22:25 (plenty of silver; margin, silver of strength). The root to which the word is usually assigned means “to be weary,” from which the idea of strength can only be derived on the lucus a non lucendo principle. Keeping the usual derivation, we may, with many critics, give the word the sense of “mines” or “treasures,” because of the labors of extracting metal from the earth. This suits Job 22:25 and makes a good parallelism. But the Septuagint and Vulgate have “heights,” and by another derivation, the Hebrew may mean shining, and so “sunny summit.” This agrees with the rendering of the Septuagint in Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8, and the rhythm is preserved by an antithetic parallelism, as in the next verse.

Worship. —Properly, prostrate ourselves.

Kneel. —The practice of kneeling low in the East, only used in moments of deep humiliation, is first mentioned in 2 Chronicles 6:13. It was also Daniel’s practice (Daniel 6:10).