Bible verse wall art
Psalm 95: the deep places and the hills are his
For centuries, Psalm 95 has been the first thing many Christians sang each morning. It begins as a joyful call to worship and ends with a solemn warning, and both halves belong together.
Psalm 95 print
Psalm 95 · King James Version
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also
O come, let us sing
The psalm opens, O come, let us sing unto the LORD. In Latin its first word is Venite, and under that name it has been sung at the start of Morning Prayer in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and as the invitatory psalm of the daily office in the Catholic tradition. The Hebrew psalm has no heading, though the Letter to the Hebrews quotes it and speaks of it as spoken in David.
Verse 3 gives the reason for the song: the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. The next verses fill out that claim with geography.
What does Psalm 95:4 mean?
Verse 4 is the line on our poster: In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The psalmist pairs opposites. The lowest places and the highest peaks both rest in God's hand, and so, in verse 5, does the sea, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands formed. Nothing between the depths and the summits lies outside his rule.
For ancient peoples, mountains often belonged to local gods, and the sea was a place of chaos. The psalm claims all of them for the one Creator. The strength of the hills, the very thing that seems most permanent and powerful, is simply his.
The sheep of his hand
Then the call deepens: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. The reason this time is personal. He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. The same hand that holds the deep places holds the flock.
Our Shepherd Above the Valley print brings the two images together, a shepherd and his flock on a high hill above a misty landscape. It is Christian wall art for a living room, a church office or a gift for a pastor, and it pairs naturally with prints of Psalm 23.
Today if ye will hear his voice
The psalm ends with God speaking. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the wilderness, at the place of testing. The reference is to Exodus 17, where the thirsty Israelites quarreled with Moses at Massah and Meribah. For forty years, God says, that generation grieved him, and they did not enter his rest.
Hebrews 3 and 4 quote this passage at length and apply it to Christian readers. The word today, the letter says, is still open.