Psalm 95: Our maker and saviour

Psalm 95:1-7c inverts the categories of creation and salvation. Roughly, the pattern of the Psalm goes like this:

• Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord, the rock of our salvation (1-2)
• For, he is a great God who holds, owns and formed everything (3-5)
• Come, let us bow and kneel before our maker (6)
• For he is our God, and we are his people, under his care (7a-c)

What do I mean by inverting the categories? Simply this. We are to rejoice in the God of our salvation because he made everything. We are to kneel before God our maker because he has saved us.

We'd expect it to be the other way around. We'd expect to respond to God our Maker because he made us, and to respond to God our Saviour because he saved us. We'd expect this:

Come let us shout joyfully to the Lord, the rock of our salvation, for he is our God and we are his people under his care. Come, let us bow and kneel before our Maker, for he is a great God who holds, owns and formed everything.

Actually, it's all very deliberate, and apposite.

When we realise that our saviour made everything, including the sea, we burst into song with joy because we have such a secure rock. When we realise that our maker has chosen to adopt us as the objects of his special care, we kneel and bow before him, because it is a joy to submit to one who cares for us.

Wonderful.