Reflections
Psalm 95: 1-2, 6-7, 7-9 (Read)
“If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
Today's Psalm is about obeying and worshiping God.
We are urged to bow down in worship before our God,
whose sheep we are (remember we are His
well-tended flock). We are instructed to be alert
for His voice and to be receptive to His teachings
(we need to be good listeners).
We are not to harden our hearts or test the Lord
(as the Israelites did at Meribah). We are to humble
ourselves and open our hearts to the Lord
(having done so we are set free).
Then we are no longer constrained by the
things of this world, and we can be open to His
love and His teachings.
Moses prophesied that the Lord would speak to us
through one of our own kind (Deuteronomy 18:18).
So we had better listen to God’s son, Jesus, who
became one of us so that we could be more like Him.
His works should be sufficient to convince us of His
saving power and grace.
St Paul tells us we need to be free from anxiety and
distractions (1 Corinthians 7:32). This is not an easy
thing to do when we are caught up in the things of
the world. We would all benefit from an authoritative
cleansing of our hearts, and a removal of unclean
forces that distract us from hearing the voice of
the Lord. Then we can make room for Jesus
to fill our hearts and remain in us.
Amen
Discussion Questions for Reflection
1. Our psalmist encourages us not to harden our hearts if we hear
God's voice. Do you find it difficult sometimes to carry out God's will
in your life even if you believe He is speaking to you? Give an example.
2. The psalm reminds us that we are like sheep and the Lord is our shepherd.
Are you willing to be just an ordinary sheep among His flock? If so, what
does it mean to you to be shepherded by the Lord?
If you harden your heart, you become like a lump of clay or a hardened loaf of bread which is useless and worthless. God may toss you aside and throw you away like a hardened loaf of bread. Nothing can restore it and make it useful.
ReplyDeleteBut we are precious in the eyes of God. He wants to bless us and give us Salvation.
And so our Psalmist warns us to not harden our hearts. Even so we lose faith in God by testing, stubbornly resisting, and disregarding His will.
Lately my heart went astray, I became ungrateful, not humble, stubborn, and not worshiping God. In addition, my faith is lukewarm. And my compulsive shopping habits are bothering me a great deal. The Holy Spirit has been nudging me and convicting me that what I have been doing is not quite right. I bow down in worship and plead with Him to forgive my wicked ways. From now on, I have to think more about my neighbors who have less than I have. God's saving power and grace intervene so that I must listen to his voice. I am under His care. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and sing for joy to the Lord!
With daily prayer time, weekly prayer groups and Bible Study, and Mass at least once a week, should my heart not be open to the Lord? I read, study, and pray with great sincerity, and yet, there it is. In some corner of my heart, I am unmoved.
ReplyDeleteKnowing the truth is not always enough to goad me into action -- to help, to feed, to clothe, to be more holy. Sometimes, what I need is my own personal meltdown. A session of weeping... feeling alone... at wits' end. I need to deconstruct my learning, my knowing. Break myself. Before I can be rebuilt in His image.
The first building block for me needs to be unshakeable faith in God's provision -- belief in his goodness, that his plans for my family, for me, are good. (Jeremiah 29:11) From there, I can extend that goodness outward. I can love because He loves me. And my heart becomes moldable, useful, once again, to do God's will.