Reflections
“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 praising 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?
What a beautiful reminder for us to open our hearts to our Holy Father & enjoy His love & devotion to us, as sheep in His flock...a reminder to disallow the noise of everyday life (anxiety, etc.) & the world we live in, to interfere with the opening of our hearts to our Lord. This rings so true & does indeed set us free to humble ourselves to God..
ReplyDeleteThank you for being such a great messenger of our Savior!
Hardened hearts can be a scary thing -- we can become callous and insensitive to the needs and sad plights of others. Even if we are gifted to be of help.
ReplyDeleteI know that I am called to be a peacemaker in my extended family. It is easy enough for me to cook meals for, or offer encouraging words to those in my family who might need a boost. However, the enemy likes to remind me of the times that I have been slighted by these very same people and my heart can instantly harden. In the moment, I don't wish to do anything nice for them, much less humble myself to serve them.
Why is it so hard to imitate Christ? Sometimes, I feel like Paul does when he describes in Romans 7:15,19-20 that "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do...it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me."
Hardness of heart is sin. We have allowed negative, self-centered thoughts and patterns to take root. If we are to be of any use to the Lord, we must ask him for a new heart. As we hear his voice, we must ask for another Biblical promise, found in Psalm 51:10. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." When we claim these promises as our own, the Lord delights in fulfilling them.