{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Let’s examine verses 7 through 11:
7 They say, “Yah isn’t looking;
the God of Ya‘akov won’t notice.”
8 Take notice, yourselves, you boors among the people!
You fools, when will you understand?
9 Will the one who planted the ear not hear?
Will the one who formed the eye not see?
10 Will the one who disciplines nations not correct them?
Will the teacher of humanity not know?
11 Adonai understands that people’s thoughts
are merely a puff of wind.
Story of “Brent Gone”.
Not to say my toddler brother was wicked; he was more like hilarious! But the wicked are like that! They think they will never be held accountable for their wickedness! But, as Eliyahu Rabbah 18 says, “He searches out the most remote places with His candlelight and uncovers them.”
The Torah makes distinctions between a robber and a burglar. A robber is required to pay back only what he stole, whereas a burglar is required to pay back double. When his Yeshiva students asked Rabbi YOchanan ben Zakkai about this, he replied, “The robber openly access his victims. He fears no one, neither man nor God. But, the burglar doesn’t dare to rob openly; he sneaks into homes when no one is looking. Thus, he shows that he has more fear of man than of God. In effect, the burglar claims that God is blind to human crime.”
The sages make distinction between the titles “God of Israel” and “God of Jacob.” The former conveys more greatness and authority (Gen. 32:29) than the latter. Gentiles associate Hashem with the latter title, God of Jacob, a name they believe is tainted by Jacob’s crookedness and treachery. In defaming Hashem in this manner, they delude themselves that He neither sees nor understand the crimes of man. They are so sadly mistaken.
By contrast, how happy is the man whom Yahweh corrects, and whom He teaches from His Torah!, as verse 12 says. Studying God’s word gives those who do so rest from evil days, days of trouble. I certainly believe that, and I hope you also find it to be so. Let’s read verses 12 through 13.
12 How happy the man whom you correct, Yah,
whom you teach from your Torah,
13 giving him respite from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked!
We had a family gathering recently, and my siblings and I were somewhat wryly reminiscing about our childhoods together and how our parents would “take a hickory to us” as needed. They did not “spare the rod”, so to speak. Mother’s instrument of discipline was the hickory switch or branch, and Daddy’s was the belt. Neither was any fun for us, the recipients, for sure. However, my parents were united in that they believed that misbehavior needed a consequence, and “consequently”, they followed through. Not in anger, not in abuse, but in physical discipline.
Conversely, I was talking on the phone to a friend a day or two ago about her niece’s child. Her niece and the child were at a play area, and it was time to leave. The youngster, who is about 5 years old, literally laid down on the floor and threw a fit - - screaming, crying, and so forth. My friend said that the mother should have just applied some physical discipline to the child, instead of reasoning with her, begging her, etc.
You may agree that the young mother’s approach was the right one.
But, the point is, that disciplinary approach must fit the situation and fit the child. My youngest sibling did not get many spankings, switchings, etc., because our parents could just look at her with a stern look, and she would dissolve into tears. I, on the other hand, got the most, I’m convinced, because I was so headstrong and stubborn. Pretend you are surprised, lol.
The discipline of the Lord is a good thing. It demonstrates His love for you. The wicked ask, “If the righteous are truly loved by God, why do they suffer?” The answer is that Hashem will afflict those He loves because their suffering is for their benefit. In Deuteronomy 8 verses 5 and 16 we read: “You shall realize in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so does Hashem’s, your God, discipline you…so hat He might afflict you and so that He might test you in order to benefit you, in the end.” We find similar words from King Solomon, in Proverbs 3:12 - - - For Hashem rebukes him whom He loves even as a father does to the son in whom he delights.”
Often suffering will drive us to the Word of God, where we find our understanding and appreciation of His ways enhanced and increased.
The next couple of verses are quite pertinent to our present day.
14 For Adonai will not desert his people,
he will not abandon his heritage.
15 Justice will once again become righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
We must not allow ourselves to fall prey to the worldly, godless belief that God has abandoned His chosen nation, Israel. I’m talking about both spiritual Israel and the nation of Israel. Influencers today like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Megan Kelly and others are spreading this satanic lie that the Catholic Church, whom most of the world sees as “Christianity” has replaced God’s chosen people.
Hashem made promises to the Jewish nation that He will not break. These promises have not all been fulfilled. God is not going to just forget about them. Right now, Jews as a whole are under a partial blindness about Mashiach. This is something Hashem has allowed, for the moment. That is not the same as “abandonment”.
Hashem has not “re-chosen” a people called Christians. He has not divorced Israel to choose Christians in their place. We are currently living in what the Bible calls The Time of the Gentiles. What is being fulfilled is that the Word of God is being spread throughout the whole earth. What was once the exclusive property of the Jews - - that liberating word of God is now being shared. The Torah of the Old Testament was re-stated, expanded upon, fulfilled in the New, through Yeshua and His followers, both Jewish and Gentile. It is the whole Word of God which we proclaim, as Messianics.
Hardline Jews who reject Yeshua are no more “wrong” that so-called Christians who reject the Jews and the God of the Old Testament. Together, we form “one new man”, as Paul described us centuries ago.
For generations, scholars have kept a tight rein on their scholarly knowledge….sharing it with only those whom they deemed worthy and hiding it from others. But, with the advent of the printing press in the 1500s CE and then with the internet, at the end of the 20th century, knowledge is much more accessible on a number of topics, including the writings of the New Testament (which most Jews have never read) and the writings of Judaism, which most Christian followers of Yeshua are largely unfamiliar with. Case in point - - I attended a Christian university for four years and left there being completely ignorant of the seven required, eternally-established festivals of Leviticus. As I look back on that now, it’s astounding.
So, today, the “one new man” is becoming more and more a reality because each part of it is beginning to study “the whole” of God’s Word, not just their previously officially sanctioned by their scholars’ parts of it.
And, thank God, as a result, replacement theology is being exposed for the demonic doctrine from Hell that it is.
Allright, let’s move on, to read verses 16 through 19.
16 Who will champion my cause against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
17 If Adonai hadn’t helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
What is “the land of silence”? Is that the grave? Hebrew scholars say that this is another name for Hell, i.e. Gehinnom, because in Hell all souls are silenced whereas in Heaven they are not because there in Heaven they sing God’s praises continually.
Another way to look at these two verses is an application to the here and now. There are times when we must speak up in this life to combat the evil we encounter. If we don’t stand up against the evildoers, then what will we say when we stand before God? And, honestly, it is hard to have the courage to do that. It is much easier to just say, “Well, someone else will do it.” It takes time to contact your congressperson or senator about key issues. They always want your email address, which is annoying, for example. Then, you’ve got people who are enduring actual loss of fame and fortune because they stood up against the evil so prevalent in our day. People like the sports figure who spoke up against sexual perversion and got cut from his team. People like bookstore owners and bakers who refuse to compromise their biblical convictions in order to pacify the governmental authorities. We must do these types of things, and do them only in the strength of the Ruach HaKodesh, because as the verse says, “if Adonai does not help us, we will remain in the land of silence”. And, silence in the face of evil is sin.
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
your grace, Adonai, supported me.
19 When my cares within me are many,
your comforts cheer me up.
These verses remind me of an old gospel song from around 1930, published and popularized nearly 100 years ago, during the Great Depression. It is called “All That Thrills My Soul is Jesus”, and some of the lyrics go like this.
Chords & Lyrics: All That Thrills My Soul Is Jesus
Key: G (often used in the original 1931 publication)
[Verse 1]
G Am7 D7sus4
Who can cheer the heart like Je--sus,
D G
By His presence all divine?
G Am7 D7sus4
True and tender, pure and pre--cious,
D G
O how blest to call Him mine!
[Chorus]
G B7 Em B7 Em
All that thrills my soul is Je--sus,
A7 D
He is more than life to me;
G Am7 D7sus4
And the fairest of ten thou--sand
D G
In my blessed Lord I see.
[Verse 2]
Love of Christ so freely given,
Grace of God beyond degree,
Mercy higher than the heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea! [Chorus]
Beautiful song! Ok, let’s read the rest of the verses of this psalm now.
20 Can unjust judges be allied with you,
those producing wrong in the name of law?
21 They band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But Adonai has become my stronghold,
my God is my rock of refuge.
23 But he repays them as their guilt deserves;
he will cut them off with their own evil;
Adonai our God will cut them off.
The psalm seems to end on a “downer”, doesn’t it? Because of this, on the 4th day of the week, remember that this psalm was designated as Song of the Day for the 4th day of the week’s synagogue services, the custom became to add on the first two verses of Psalm 95 at the end of Psalm 94. We’ll look at them in just a moment.
First some strategic facts about Psalm 95. It is the sixth of the 11 psalms which David attributed to Moses. The psalm is aligned with the tribe of Issachar, the fifth son of Leah/Jacob. The tribe is known as a tribe of scholars, constantly immersed in the joyous study of Torah, as well as a tribe gifted in agriculture. In 1 Chronicles 12:32, they are referred to as “men of understanding”, those with wisdom, foresight and strategic thinking. In Jacob’s last blessings upon each of his sons, Genesis 49:14-15, he called Issachar a “raw-boned donkey”, resting between two burdens, seeing that "rest was good" and land was "pleasant". This blessing seems to indicate a hardworking, peaceful agricultural people who preferred security over military ambition. The tribe was allocated land in the lower Galilee, Jezreel Valley region. Although they supported Deborah and Barak during the period of the Judges, (Judges 5) they followed the other nine tribes who seceded from the righteous alliance of Levi, Judah and Benjamin, to become one of the 10 tribes of the idolatrous Northern Kingdom.
The most notable member of the tribe of Issachar was one of the Judges, a man named Tola, who judged Israel for 23 years, as recorded in Judges chapter 10.
The joyous song of studying God’s word is incomparable for lifting us out of the trials and tribulations of spiritual exile, for sure. The welcoming service of the Sabbath day is called Kabbalat Shabbat, and it begins with the opening verse of this psalm.
The sages of Talmudic times and particularly the kabbalists of the 16th century would put on their finest clothes and go out into the fields to greet the Sabbath. They would recite psalms 95-99 and also psalm 29, the so-named “six mizmorim”, during the Friday night service, to welcome the Sabbath, which they called “the queen” of days. This custom then spread to virtually all Jewish communities. But, the common theme of these six psalms is that Hashem is King of the universe. This theme echoes the theme of the Sabbath, which reminds us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh, He rested from His labors.
The eleven verses of Psalm 95 can be divided into two parts. The first seven verses are a call to Hashem’s people, a call to sing to God, to praise Him, thank Him, to acknowledge Him in all His greatness. The second 4 verses are an exhortation from God to His people to not follow in the footsteps of the Hebrews who sinned in the wilderness.
Allright, let’s look at verses 1 and 2.
95 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!
Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
The first word of this psalm is “L’Khu!”, which is an imperative form of the Hebrew verb, “halach”, which means “to walk”, as in “to walk in God’s ways”. It is the verb from which we get the noun, halacha, which means, essentially, the way we should walk or the way we should live our lives according to the ways of Hashem. It is often translated as “go” or “come”, but the truest translation is “walk”.
Anyway, here, it is urging us to forget our concerns with lesser things, often idolatrous pursuits, and to join with the family of faith in singing God’s praises.
It is a beautiful thing when our brothers and sisters in the faith shout for joy in corporate worship. In the Tehillim ArtScroll translation of verse 1, it is rendered “let us blow the shofar”, instead of “let’s shout for joy”. If you have not been in a corporate worship service where the shofar has been blown, it is an experience that thrills the soul.
This reminds me of a Shavuot gathering I had the privilege to attend. It was a weekend up in the mountains, staying at a home by a beautiful, flowing creek. There were probably a dozen or so of us there. At any rate, on one of the evenings, we heard someone from across the creek playing taps on a trumpet as the sun went down. We responded by getting out shofar and joyfully blowing them enthusiastically! It is hard to hide the sound of a shofar. When it is sounded publicly, this demonstrates our faith and obedience in a dramatic, loud announcement!
In verse 1 we have two different names for Hashem - - the first one used is the Tetragrammaton, which is the four-letter name that is formed from the letters of the Hebrew phrase “HaYAH, HoVEH, v’yeehehYEH”, which means “Who was, Who is and Who will be.” This is the name that Hashem gave to Moshe at the burning bush manifestation of His Presence, when Moshe asked Hashem - - “who shall I say sent me? This is the name that suggests to all nations Hashem’s most personal name, His most intimate name, but also His name connoting Him as the Source of all life. The second name, Rock of our Salvation, is a name more specific to the nation of Israel, at least that was the case when this psalm was written. Today, it is true of anyone who comes to God through His one, unique Son, Yeshua. A form of Yeshua’s name is even present in this name for Hashem, as Yeshua, in Hebrew means, literally, “salvation”.
It is also still true that God protects Israel supernaturally today. I was reading while formulating this lesson last Monday, about an operation that the IDF undertook on April 8th, 2026, just 5 days earlier. In this military operation, which lasted 10 minutes, and code named Operation Eternal Darkness, 250 Hezbollah leaders were sent off into eternity by the IDF. These were not minor leaders either; these were the head honchos. Just an amazing accomplishment. Hillel Fuld had this to say about it. “I am fairly convinced that this operation will go down in history as one of the most impressive and successful military operations ever!” And, then, there are stories after stories from this current war with Iran, where huge, and I mean huge in size as well as hugely potentially deadly, missiles landed in Israel, with absolutely NO Israeli casualties. None. And, this has happened over and over and over again. Hillel calls these types of thing “the daily miracle”, and he’s right.
Verse 2 basically is saying in the Hebrew, “before He shows up, let’s greet Him with thanksgiving”. The phrase, “Let us come before His presence” is better translated “let us PRECEDE His presence”. I thought that was interesting.
Allright, y’all’s eyes are glazing over. Let’s look at verse 3.
3 For Adonai is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
Verse 3 proclaims that Hashem is melech gadol, Hebrew for “a great King” above all the other elohim (lower case “e”), referring to the other heavenly powers/beings, such as Hashem’s divine council, which we studied about a few weeks go. It is through such beings that Hashem demonstrates His mastery of the universe. Sometimes, the acts these intermediary beings are assigned to do or to regulate cause spiritually blind men and women to worship them as idols. However, as this verse proclaims, Hashem is still their acknowledged King, no matter how “powerful” they appear to be.
Verses 4 and 5 - -
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his — he made it —
and his hands shaped the dry land.
Verse 4 is intended to demonstrate the scope and breadth of Hashem’s power and sovereignty, by invoking images of the very lowest depths of the earth, to the highest of earth’s mountain peaks. In the Hebrew language, the word for peaks or summits
(toh-ah-FOHT) is the word for bird (oaf)? This pictures an area so high and remote that only birds can access it.
This verse also refers to mysteries which God foreordained and which we struggle to understand. The platypus, for example. It is the “ugly biscuit” of creation, some would say. Do you know what “the ugly biscuit” is? Well, when you are cutting out your biscuits from a rolled-out sheet of dough, when you have cut out all that you can, you gather up the last strands of dough and shape them into a misshapen biscuit, and you bake that with the rest of the perfectly round ones. An ugly biscuit is not perfectly formed, however, and therefore earns the name “the ugly biscuit”. It is a biscuit made up of the stray parts which were left over from the others. The platypus has a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and feet like an otter! It’s like God took all the extra spare parts he had lying around and decided, “Well, I’ll combine them to make this platypus creature.” Mysterious! And, that is, of course, just one example. There are many natural phenomena which defy logic and human investigation. Yet, God understands them all, and deliberately created them for His purposes. He is not a boring God. Had we been doing creation stuff? We’d have made everything as similar as possible, most likely.
Concerning verse 5, have you ever wondered why fish don’t require ritual slaughtering? The sages explain that there is a difference between “shaping” and “making”. The former refers to broad strokes and general outlines or dimensions. The latter has an aspect of completion about it. Because this verse states that Hashem “made” the sea, that is it His alone, its creatures need not be refined by human hands and that that is why fish don’t require a ritual slaughtering, as does kosher meat from the land animals. I had never thought about that, actually.
Verse 6 through 7a - -
6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;
let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people
in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
In this translation, the CJB, we do not see clearly that three separate physical acts of worship are called for. The first is to prostrate ourselves. The second one is to bow and the third one is to kneel. Prostrate is one of those words that is often hilariously confused with the male organ, the prostate. However, they are completely different meanings. To prostrate oneself is to stretch out full length on the floor, with our stomach and front side touching the floor. To bow is to incline the head and upper body, much as observant Jews do when reciting certain prayers, such as the daily Amidah. To kneel is to descend to the floor on one’s bent knees. These are not listed in progressive order, are they? The most extreme and humble one is prostration, with kneeling being next and the least troublesome or humbling being bowing. Why was prostration listed first? One of the sages, Hirsch, says that before we bow or kneel, we must first completely prostrate our hearts, totally submitting ourselves to God before we change our physical position at all.
Here are some instances from Scripture upon which the Hebrew people prostrated themselves before Hashem. Genesis 22:5 - - Abraham and Isaac, at Mt. Moriah. Exodus 4:31 - - the Hebrew people and mixed multitude prostrated themselves before they began the Exodus from Egypt. Exodus 24:1 - - the people prostrated themselves at Mt. Sinai, in preparation to receive the Torah. And finally, Hannah prostrated herself before the LORD, as her heart cried out to receive a child. It was not long after that she conceived Samuel.
About us being compared to sheep in verse 7, you know that is not a compliment, right? We are compared to sheep also in Psalm 79, if you remember back to our study of that psalm, verse 13. In Ezekiel 34:31, we read “But you are my flock, the flock of my pasture.” When God compares us to sheep that is not Him saying, “You are strong and independent and thriving.” That is God looking at people as a whole and saying, “Yeah, you can’t do this on your own.” Especially at their inception, the newly formed nation of Israel acted like a helpless flock of sheep, led by the Divine Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, who guided them through the wilderness into the Promised Land, ultimately.
We often act like sheep too. He calls us sheep because we are NOT capable without Him. We DON’T make wise decisions independently from Him. No, we instead get ourselves into situations that are nonsensical and then stand there wondering how we got ourselves into such a fix. Total sheep behavior. Sheep are not smart animals! Without their shepherd, they simply do not survive.
I did a teaching on Psalm 23 a while back, a psalm which also is a sheep analogy, and learned a lot about sheep and how they act. Sheep don’t understand that they have predators. They don’t understand the perils of their terrain. They get stuck in places they had no business being in. Then, they panic about their situation, which makes it worse. And finally, they require rescue from a wiser being. No, it is not a compliment that God compared us to sheep, instead of dolphins or some other smart animal.
When our Shepherd says “no, you are not going there”, it sounds like a type of insulting control. But, really, it is Hashem’s mercy. It is His protection. And, for that I am so thankful. We were not created to “go it alone”, but instead to stay close to the One who knows exactly where He is going and where I should be going.
7b and following - -
If only today you would listen to his voice:
8 “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah,
as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,
9 when your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, even though they saw my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray,
they don’t understand how I do things.’
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they would not enter my rest.”
Here, as I mentioned earlier, the Psalmist begins the second part of the psalm, which gives a horrible warning against rebellion, using as an example the generation who left Egypt in the Exodus and then because of their hard-heartedness were condemned to wander in the desert until they all died off. “An errant-hearted people are they”, said the Tehillim translation. The CJB, as you saw, put it as “as people whose hearts go astray”, and describes them as a people who Hashem came to “loathe”. In Exodus 32:9, Hashem described them as “stiff-necked”. How awful! I never want to be put into that category!
Let’s take a moment and re-examine the behaviors of that generation, and examine our own hearts to see if we spot any of their traits we are emulating in our walk with God.
What happened at Meribah? Do you remember?
This was a slave people, still possessing a slave mentality, when they left Egypt. I think about my maternal grandmother, who had been a young married woman, with a small baby, my mother, as the Great Depression was in full-swing. These impoverished experiences affected her greatly, her entire life. I remember one time our family invited her to go with us to FL on a vacation, and she told my father she would pack tomato sandwiches for us to eat and other food we could take with us, while we were on vacation. My dad replied, “Lorena, we are going on vacation. We are not going to cook every meal while we are gone!” But, she had that very frugal mentality born out of her experiences of “scraping by”, during those lean years. My mother got some of it. She bred into me that we do not waste food. Any food left over, not served onto a plate, at a meal, was fair game for a future meal.
Well, you see, in a similar way, the Hebrew nation brought slave attitudes with them, out of Egypt. When they left that pagan place, they did not just bring the wealth of Egypt with them. They also, unfortunately brought with them the pagan attitudes and idolatrous influences they had accumulated into their national spirit over the hundreds of years of exile there. This people group, this fledgling nation, never put their full faith in God. So, when at Meribah, they ran out of water, they did not hesitate to quarrel with God, to challenge and to test Him, communicating through His appointed leader, Moses. Exodus 17:7 says that the name of the place became called Meribah because the children of Israel asked “Is Hashem among us or not?” And also called Massah, which means “testing”. The day of Massah means, therefore, “day of testing”.
Verse 9 alludes to the stark fact that all of this testing of Hashem took place during a time when the people were witness to an untold, hitherto unseen, level of miraculous care for them by Hashem! He provided abundant clouds, which protected them from the sun’s scorching desert heat, by day. He led they by huge, amazing pillars of fire, by night. He provided them nourishment in the form of manna, called by the sages “the food of angels”. In reaction to the manna, they said (Numbers 21:5) - -“ There is no bread nor is there any water and our soul loathes this miserable bread.” Referring to the manna. If that were not enough, Hashem miraculously made it so that the people’s clothing and shoes did not wear out, as it would have under normal circumstances.
So, Hashem further hardened the hearts of that stiff-necked generation. This is reminiscent of what happened when He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. I’ve heard it taught that even though Hashem hardened Pharaoh’s heart, all he did was to let Pharaoh’s heart continue on in the direction that Pharaoh was taking it in to begin with. Pharaoh hardened his heart as an act of his will, and Hashem just let him continue down that road. I believe this is similar to what happened here with the generation that was condemned to wander in the wilderness until dead.
This was a generation that did not know God’s ways. Because they were oblivious to His miracles toward them, they considered the promise of entering the Promised Land to be strange and unknown, a place of fear and failure, instead of a land of milk and honey. Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 29:2 that God “did not give you a heart to understand, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear, until this day.”
So, they missed out. They did not enter the land of rest, the land of contentment. They did not inherit the promise. So very sad! In Sanhedrin 110a, The Talmud teaches that “my rest” refers to eternal rest and reward in the Olam Haba, the World to Come. Rabbi Akiva maintained that this means they would not only die in this world but that they would be cut off from the World to Come as well. There are other rabbinical opinions that disagree with that, though. Rabbi Eliezer is one who disagreed, for instance.
Well, that psalm ended on a sad note too, didn’t it? Hmmm.
In the time we have left, let’s begin to look at Psalm 96.
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