Psalm 95                                                                       

 

WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM – To take the psalm at its face value is to offer unhindered, spontaneous and joyful praise to God as our Maker and Source. That seems to be at the core of what goes on in churches around the world during their worship services. Yet in the middle of the worship, we are confronted with a solemn “prophetic admonition,” to borrow the commentators’ phrase. Suddenly, the writer juxtaposes a serious warning against faithlessness and the testing of God. Meribah and Massah refer to specific locations and events where Israel mistrusted and thus broke covenant trust with God. Apparently, this sudden shift of temperature from gentle zephyrs to thunderstorms suggests, according to one commentator, that “in the very midst of Israel’s worship, prophets would occasionally interrupt the proceedings and call the people to repentance and amendment of life.” [1]

TODAY – Henri Nouwen retells a rabbinic story that has a questioner asking Elijah when the Messiah would come. Elijah sends the rabbi to the Messiah. “So when is the master coming?” he asks. “Today,” the Messiah responds. The rabbi returns to Elijah crestfallen. “He indeed has deceived me, for he said, ‘Today I am coming’ and he has not come.” To which Elijah retorts, “This is what he told you: Today if you would listen to my voice.” The reign of God is experienced as a decision made today. While the eschatological character of God’s reign means that we await its full manifestation, it also means that we enter and live in God’s realm right now, as Jesus proclaimed (Mark 1:14-15). [2]
 

 

The biblical metaphor of “hardening one’s heart” describes the gradual process that takes place in a relationship when we stop listening, turn away or become self-absorbed. This may happen in our relationship with God, as it did for the Hebrew people. Quakers use the word tender to describe the opposite spiritual process of becoming more sensitive to God’s voice. How do you keep your heart tender before God? Find an object from nature, perhaps a stone or a feather, that you can put on your desk or nightstand as a reminder to remain open to God.

 

Continue the journey theme this week by introducing the episode of Massah and Meribah that Israel experienced in their journey. Explore the story for details—draw on other lessons (Exodus 17), for example.

Make connections between their hardness of hearts and the process we too, encounter that begins when we stop listening, get too busy, or become self-absorbed.

Shift to Good News—The woman at the well; she may well have begun the conversation from a position of dull hearing, but she quickly shows the capacity for a malleable heart and a listening ear.

Draw from your experience or from something you’ve read that underscores that ability to listen and thus to be transformed.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), page 840.
[2] New Interpreter’s Bible IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 1063.