Arrested Development: Psalm 95

Intro

every once in a while you run into a psalm that makes you really uncomfortable. is such a psalm. For something that starts so beautifully, so passionatley, it escalates quickly into a scathing indictment of those who have broken the covenant relationship with God.

Problem

the problem in Israel

Psalm 95:8–9 ESV

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Psalm 95:7–9 ESV

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

These place names point us to places in story of the Exodus, where in spite of the miraculous things the people had seen God do for them, they still grumbled, particularly about the need for water. And of course, we have the famous stories of God instructing Moses to command water from the rock, in one instance by strking it, the second instance by speaking to it. And it’s in the final story where we finally see how much the people’s grumbling had affected Moses.

But what about us?

the problem in our hearts

Psalm 95:10 ESV

10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”

Psalm 95:

how do you hear, and to whose voice do you listen? Maybe you’ve shut off all the voices, like so many moderns, but then the scenario becomes another desperate attempt to listen to one voice . . . and it’s yours.

The unfortunate truth is that we’re far more like those ancient Israelites in the desert than we dare to imagine.

And the stakes are high:

Psalm 95:11 ESV

11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

How then do we check our hearts? How do we treat our hearts so that they are soft, malleable, and responsive to the voice of God?

The

The Gospel Solution

The bad news is that on our own, we can’t do anything to recondition to state of our hearts. The good news is that we don’t need to do it ourselves.

The story of our own lives, yours and mine, when we’re honest with ourselves, reveals the great need that problematizes our praise. How

See, the story of Jesus Christ, when we take time to listen to it, to reflect on how he so beautifully and constantly responded to the will of His father with a soft heart, even though it led him to the cross, that story changes us. When we realize that his obedience, though it cost him more pain and suffering than we can imagine, was for us, for me, for you, then we stand ready to have our hearts broken and made soft, and then we’re ready to listen for the voice of God.

You see, in the wilderness, God provides salvation to his people through water from a rock. On the cross of Calvary, like that rock in the wilderness, Jesus becomes the rock that is struck, and his blood flowed down like water so that you and I could be forgiven.

The writer of Hebrews, quoting , makes this connection, and notes after quoting these final lines of the psalm

Hebrews 4:12–14 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

As musicians, as a band, we want our music to always lead hearts into that space at the foot of the cross, to speak candidly about how the story of Jesus has changed us and is shaping us, and how it invites you even now, to be asking God to soften and work in your heart, so that you might be able to listen closely, and respond when we speaks to you.