The warning of Hebrews 3:6 that membership in God’s household is suspended on a living and persevering faith introduces a long exhortatory section (3:7–4:13) in which the danger of apostasy and the necessity of an enduring faith are illustrated from the history of Israel. In 3:7–11, the author cites the warning of Psalm 95:7–11 as the living and active word of God (Heb. 4:12) demanding to be heard and obeyed now as then. It is introduced as the word of the Holy Spirit, though later it is ascribed to David (4:7), an example of the consistent assumption of the writers of the New Testament that what the Scripture says, God says (cf. Rom. 9:15, 17; Gal. 3:8; Heb. 9:8; 10:15). The cited portion of the psalm is an admonition not to imitate the wilderness generation in its faithlessness, only on…