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Lenten Season · Third Sunday in Lent · Year A

Psalm 95

O Come, Let Us Worship, and Do Not Harden Your Hearts

March 8, 2026

Roman Landscape with a Shepherd and Sheep, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)
Roman Landscape with a Shepherd and Sheep, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto), late 1640sWikimedia Commons
A Genoese painter who specialised in animals and in biblical journeys full of livestock. Here a shepherd rests among ruins in the Roman campagna.We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Psalm 95 is a call to worship that ends by calling us a flock.Wikimedia CommonsNo holding institution is recorded with the image; it is known from the public domain reproduction.Wikimedia Commons
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelJohn 4:5-42Jn 4:5-42
EpistleRom. 5:1-11Rom 5:1-11
Old TestamentExod. 17:1-7Ex 17:1-7
PsalterPs. 95Ps 95

Overview & Insights

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. (Psalm 95:6)

The psalm opens with an invitation to joyful worship of the Lord as maker and shepherd, then turns without transition into a warning not to harden your heart as Israel did at Meribah and Massah. Set next to John 4, it puts the water Israel tested God over in the wilderness beside the living water Jesus offers at the well.

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Commentary

Commentary on Psalm 95Commentary on Ps 95 Working Preacher

Working Preacher's commentary names the tension between the psalm's call to praise and Lent's more subdued mood.

Psalm 95 CommentaryPs 95 Commentary CEP (cepreaching.org)

The Center for Excellence in Preaching draws the line from the psalm's warning back to Israel's testing of God at the rock.

Psalm 95 Bible CommentaryPs 95 Bible Commentary Enduring Word

David Guzik's commentary explains the Meribah and Massah references and why the psalm treats them as a warning.

Psalm 95:1 CommentariesPs 95:1 Commentaries BibleHub

BibleHub aggregates classic commentaries on the psalm's shift from praise to warning at verse 7.

Background & Word Study

Psalm 95 (Hebrew and English)Ps 95 (Hebrew and English) Sefaria

Sefaria's Hebrew text preserves the wordplay of Meribah, quarreling, and Massah, testing, the same wilderness water story that stands behind Jesus's offer of living water in John 4.

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