Do not harden your hearts!
The Isrealites followed Moses into the wilderness and saw the mighty acts of a kind and gentle God. They were rescued from slavery, and defended from Pharaoh’s chariots. Yet in the wilderness they hardened their hearts to these lessons. The Isrealites were in panic, worry and fear over the lack of water! When their children cried out in thirst they formed a mob and to stone Moses. Indeed, lacking the means for life would be a terrifying ordeal. What the people forgot was that God is the source of all life not water. This Psalm celebrates the fact that God is the creator of life. He is our maker and sustainer. When we lack what we need our hearts should cry out to Him for our essentials. He is our Shepherd and we are the “people of His pasture”. His pasture is abundant and eternal! Hardened hearts are closed off to this great source of life.
This week as we journey through our own wilderness: perhaps isolation, sickness, fear, or financial insecurity let us not harden our hearts but turn our hearts to the Lord who loves us and will provide for us!
Psalm 95
Venite, exultemus
1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God *
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are all the depths of the earth *
and the heights of the hills are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands prepared the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and fall down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For he is our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
8 Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts *
as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested me, *
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my works.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said, *
“It is a people that err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways,”
11 Of whom I swore in my wrath *
that they should not enter into my rest.
The Isrealites followed Moses into the wilderness and saw the mighty acts of a kind and gentle God. They were rescued from slavery, and defended from Pharaoh’s chariots. Yet in the wilderness they hardened their hearts to these lessons. The Isrealites were in panic, worry and fear over the lack of water! When their children cried out in thirst they formed a mob and to stone Moses. Indeed, lacking the means for life would be a terrifying ordeal. What the people forgot was that God is the source of all life not water. This Psalm celebrates the fact that God is the creator of life. He is our maker and sustainer. When we lack what we need our hearts should cry out to Him for our essentials. He is our Shepherd and we are the “people of His pasture”. His pasture is abundant and eternal! Hardened hearts are closed off to this great source of life.
This week as we journey through our own wilderness: perhaps isolation, sickness, fear, or financial insecurity let us not harden our hearts but turn our hearts to the Lord who loves us and will provide for us!
Psalm 95
Venite, exultemus
1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God *
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are all the depths of the earth *
and the heights of the hills are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands prepared the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and fall down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For he is our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
8 Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts *
as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested me, *
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my works.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said, *
“It is a people that err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways,”
11 Of whom I swore in my wrath *
that they should not enter into my rest.
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