Those who enter the rest of God

[Psalms 95]

How are you getting ‘rest of mind’?  In Psalms 94:19, the psalmist says: “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.”  How many thoughts of this or that are there when we are in a difficult situation.  At that time, the Lord comforted us not only to bring peace to our souls, but also to delight our souls.  In order to enjoy peace and joy in our souls, we must learn the law of the Lord like the psalmist in difficult situation.  Then we can control our hearts with the Lord's precepts even in suffering and enjoy the peace that God gives us.  In the midst of that, we go further and experience the Lord's lovingkindness.  Then our souls can enjoy rest.  This is what Hebrews 4:9-10 says: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”  The “Sabbath-rest” that remains for us, we will enter into eternal rest the day the Lord comes again.  There we will rest from our work, just as God rests from His work.  Therefore, we must strive to enter that eternal rest (v. 11).

In Psalms 95:11, the psalmist David says, “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”  I would like to think about two things those who enter the rest of the Lord do based on this word, under the heading “Those who enter the rest of God’.  Therefore, I hope and pray that we can enjoy God's rest even in the process of entering into God's eternal rest.

            First, those who enter the rest of God praise God.

                Look at Psalms 95:1-2: “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”  David is exalting all together (“come”) to go to God with thanksgiving and “shout joyfully” (2x).  In other words, he is encouraging everyone to praise God together.  Why is David encouraging everyone to come together and enjoy praise Him?

(1)   The first reason is because God is “the rock of our salvation”.

Look at Psalms 95:1 - “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.”  In other words, the reason why we should praise God with thanksgiving is because He is our Savior.  When I think of God as the rock of salvation, I remember the gospel song “Ascribe Greatness to our God”: “Ascribe greatness to our God the Rock/ His work is perfect and all His ways are just/ Ascribe greatness to our God the Rock/ His work is perfect and all His ways are just/ A God of faithfulness and, without injustice/ Good and upright is He/ A God of faithfulness and, without injustice.”  We, who have received the grace of God's salvation, must praise God, who is the rock of salvation.  And we who live in the wilderness while receiving His salvation should praise God with thanksgiving.  Just as God gave the Israelites their daily bread and delivered them from hunger and quenched their thirst by pouring out water from the rock, He even quenches our spiritual thirst and rescues us.  That’s why we must praise God.  This is what Dr. Park said: “The reason why no one thinks of the Savior or how to please Him is because he still doesn’t know his situation is miserable’ (Park).

(2)   The second reason is because God is “a great God” .

Look at Psalms 95:3 – “For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods.”  I remember the gospel song “Great is the Lord”: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised/ In the city of our God, In the mountain of His holiness/ Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole earth/ Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, The city of the great King/ Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah!/ The city of the great King.”  When a problem, pan and wound seem great, we should look to the great Lord so that we can praise God with gratitude through the grace that God has given us.  We can praise the great God when we realize the greatness of God because we become small through pain and adversity.

(3)   The third reason is because God is the great Creator God.

Look at Psalms 95:4-5: “In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also.  The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.”  I remember the gospel song “Great and Might is the Lord our God”: “Great and mighty is the Lord our God/ Great and mighty is He (2x)/ Lift up your banner. Let the anthems ring/ Praises to our King.”  ‘Because the great God created and has jurisdiction over the deep and high places of the earth, places that human hands cannot relate to, and even the heavens and the earth and the sea, David also praised God (Park).

                We must all come together to praise God, the rock of salvation, the great God, and the great Creator God.  We must praise with thanksgiving, and sing joyfully to the Lord.  When we enter the true eternal rest of God, we will forever give thanks to God joyfully.

            Second, those who enter the rest of God worship God.

                Look at Psalms 95:6 – “Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”  The reason we praise God is because of what He has done for us.  We praise God because the great Creator God, the great God, and the rock of salvation have given us the grace of salvation.  To worship God means to worship God as He is.  In other words, we are worshiping God not because of what God has done to us, but because “He is our God” (v. 7).  “For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (v. 7).  If we are truly worshiping God, we must hear His voice (v. 7b).  We must never harden our hearts (v. 8).  Also, we must not test God as the forefathers of the Israelites tested Him in the wilderness (v. 9).  We must receive the word of God with the heart like good soil by breaking our unplowed ground.  David urges us to “bow down” and “kneel” before the Lord (v. 6) and worship God, teaching us that we who worship God must hear and obey His voice.  If we say that we worship God and don’t hear His voice and obey Him, then we are simply worshiping the Lord with our lips, and our hearts are far from Him (Isa. 29:13).  Therefore, in the end, the ancestors of Israel made God angry for 40 years in the wilderness (Ps. 95:10).  They are the people who don’t know the ways of God, and their hearts went astray (v. 10).  And they refused to hear the voice of God and disobeyed His commandments.  Therefore, in the end, they made God angry.  As a result, they couldn’t enter the rest of God.

Those who enter the rest of God worship God.  And those who truly worship God hear His voice and obey His commandments.  The true worshipers never harden their hearts when they hear the word of God.  Rather, they diligently break up the unplowed ground, soften their hearts, and are quick to hear His word.  They know the way of God, so they cannot be deceived.  Therefore, they don’t make God angry.  Rather, they please God's heart.  And they are the ones who enjoy rest.

We are those who are moving toward an eternal haven.  Therefore, we long for the eternal rest that God gives us, and even partly enjoy that eternal rest while we live in this world.  All of us who enjoy this rest today must praise God and worship Him.

Enjoying the rest of God,

James Kim

(Praying for worshiping God all the days of my life)