Psalm 95 is the 95th psalm of the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of ...

, beginning in English in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

: "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation". The Book of Psalms starts the third section of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

version of the Bible, and in the Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

, this psalm is Psalm 94. In

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, it is known as "Venite exultemus" or simply "Venite". The psalm is a hymn psalm, one of the Royal psalms, praising God as the King of His people. Psalm 95 identifies no author, but Hebrews 4:7 attributes it to

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. The Vulgate also names David as the author. The psalm forms a regular part of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

and other Protestant liturgies, in particular as the invitatory in daily liturgies. It has inspired hymns such as " Kommt herbei, singt dem Herrn", and has been set to music by

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (; also Tallys or Talles; 23 November 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one ...

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque music, Baroque composer and organ (music), organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of ...

and

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

, among others.

Uses

New Testament

Verses 7-11 of Psalm 95 are quoted in

Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which pre ...

;

, 7.

Judaism

Psalm 95 is the opening paragraph of Kabbalat Shabbat in Ashkenazic, Hasidic and some Sephardic communities. It is recited in some communities on Shabbat Hagadol. The first three verses are recited in most communities at the end of the psalm of the day for the Shir Shel Yom on

Wednesday Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In English, the name is derived from Old English and Middle English , 'day of Woden', reflecting ...

, which is primarily the previous psalm: this is the only day of the week in which the song of the day is composed on verses from multiple psalms, and the addition of these verses seems to be relatively late. These verses are added by some communities because of their inspiring message.

Christianity

In the Latin Psalters used by the Roman liturgy, the psalm forms the invitatory which is sung daily at the beginning of Matins or at the beginning of

Lauds Lauds is a canonical hour of the Divine office. In the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours it is one of the major hours, usually held after Matins, in the early morning hours (between 3:00:00 and 5:59:59). Name The name is derived from the three la ...

. It may be sung as a

canticle In the context of Christian liturgy, a canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a psalm-like song with biblical lyrics taken from elsewhere than the Book of Psalms, but included in psalters and books su ...

in the

and

liturgy of Morning Prayer, when it is referred to by its

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

as the Venite or "Venite exultemus Domino",Parallel Latin/English Psalter / Psalmus 94 (95)
medievalist.net sometimes also ''A Song of Triumph''.

Musical settings

The Venite has been used as the invitatory, the opening psalm of daily liturgies, in both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. In Catholic rites, it used to start Nocturns in the

Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours (), Divine Office (), or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the Latin Church. The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official ...

. After the reforms of the liturgy following the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

, it was placed at before the Office of Readings or

, whichever was said first in a liturgical day. In the Morning Prayer of the Anglican Church, the Venite used to open the service. " Kommt herbei, singt dem Herrn" is a 1972 hymn in German, a paraphrase of Psalm 95 by Diethard Zils to an Israeli melody.

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

set Psalm 95 as the Venite in his Great Service of around 1600.

contributed a setting of the psalm as one of nine Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, a 1567 collection of

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

psalm settings in a

metrical psalter A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisa ...

compiled and published for Matthew Parker,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

set the psalm in a metred version in German as part of the '' Becker Psalter'', first published in 1628, "Kommt herzu, laßt uns fröhlich sein", SWV 193.

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (, 25 December 1711 (baptised) – 8 October 1772), also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, was a French violinist and composer. He was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great succe ...

set one grand motet "''Venite, exultemus"'' in 1743.

wrote a setting of the psalm in German, ''Kommt, laßt uns anbeten und knien von dem Herrn'', Op. 46, for three soloists, choir and orchestra in 1842.

Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text of the Psalm with vowels, alongside the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

text in the

and the English translation from the

. Note that the meaning can slightly differ between these versions, as the Septuagint and the

Masoretic text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

come from different textual traditions.A 1917 translation directly from Hebrew to English by the

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by Reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

can be foun
here
o
here
and an 1844 translation directly from the Septuagint by L. C. L. Brenton can be foun
here
Both translations are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. In the Septuagint, this psalm is numbered Psalm 94.

Notes

References

External links

* * * Text of Psalm 95 according to th
1928 Psalter

text in Hebrew and English, mechon-mamre.org
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation.
text and footnotes, usccb.org United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

introduction and text, biblestudytools.com
Psalm 95 – God Worthy of Our Humble and Obedient Worship
enduringword.com
Psalm 95 / Refrain: Come, let us worship and bow down.

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Psalm 95
at biblegateway.com
Hymns for Psalm 95
hymnary.org
Recordings of the first verse of the psalm, as sung during Kabbalat Shabbat
{{Psalms 095