Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…
Upon first read of this psalm, I was caught off guard by the drastic tonal shift that takes place. The psalmist starts by praising the Lord, commenting on his majesty, creation, and worthiness to be praised. Then in the middle, he changes to a warning, reminding us of a time when Israel hardened their hearts and rebelled against God (see Numbers 14). Therefore God states due to Israel’s disbelief, “they shall not enter my rest”. And then it just ends - no redemptive arc, no encouraging word. We are left with a statement of judgement, a call to those listening to consider what lesson is to be learned from Israel’s story of rebellion. In my experience, this juxtaposition is not typical in the worship songs I am accustomed to singing.
The psalmist does not hold back when describing the rebellion of the Israelites and the consequences of their actions. For me, it is very easy to remove myself from this story and judge Israel’s behavior. I bet for most of us, we don’t have many stories of receiving a clear message from God on what to do and then outright refusing him. But I can think of plenty of times I chose to act out of fear and disbelief, instead of trusting in the Lord. As we learn more about hearing God in this current series, we know developing a loving, personal, and conversational relationship with God is vital to aligning our hearts with Him. It seems the psalmist is saying there is value in reflecting and remembering the past, despite any discomfort it may bring. We, like the Israelites, are a forgetful people and need to be reminded not only of God’s greatness, but also our shortcomings. I can’t help but think of this current moment where we are again being reminded of the prevalent racial injustice in our nation. We as a church need to be willing to see how rebellion against true restorative justice is a part of our American church history. [Side note: Jemar Tisby’s book The Color of Compromise is a great resource on how the Christian church specifically has been complicit to racial injustice for over 400 years].
Sorry if I have made your Monday feel a little bit more uncomfortable, but also I am not sorry. This is exactly what the psalmist is doing when he reminds this people of their ancestor’s faithlessness! While I know he ends his psalm with a warning, I am going to end this with a message of hope. Because we do have hope in Jesus, always. There is a reason Psalm 95 appears among other psalms of praise, because just like what the psalmist does at the start, we need to praise God first. This doesn’t mean we ignore evil or injustice, but if we fix our eyes and hearts on our Creator, we start to trust in his goodness and power over evil. Then we are able to reflect on our times of disbelief, and humble ourselves. So how does this psalm help us learn to hear God today? It starts with being grateful, singing songs of praise and love to God. It includes the humility that only comes with being able to recognize where we have fallen short, and maturity to grow and learn from those mistakes. As we know, the Lord did eventually deliver his people to the promised land. In the same way, we are being redeemed to enjoy God’s presence forever, to enter in His rest.
- Christine Luter