“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, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put Me to the test and put Me to the proof, though they had seen My work. 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.’ Therefore I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” Psalm 95:7-11
Devotional Thought For The Day
The difficulty that many people have with God is that they really don’t want Him to exist – that is, they do not want Him to be as He is. The principle issue is what they want to do, how they want to be, what they think ought to be right and wrong, and who gets to decide all of this, whether or not God will allow them to self-determine. It is part of the powerful intelligence and mental acuity that God has given to human beings that we are able to make strong and powerful cases for the various evils that entice us. We then present our case to God – or to those who remain in agreement with God’s Word, the Bible – and expect Him to capitulate to our higher reasoning and intelligence. When He doesn’t budge, we first reject Him and then begin to attack Him. This is done not only with atheism, agnosticism, and secularism, but also with the panorama of “religions” out there in the world, including many that claim to be “Christian” and devoted to the “true” God.
Since we are also intelligent, rational, and sentient beings, the arguments also have effect on us, and we may be tempted to acquiesce to some of them. After all, the person in front of us who is insulting God and attacking Him is also attacking our faithfulness to His Word and our loyalty to God; he is really attacking us as well. We don’t like this – and we are fearful of this, afraid we will not be able to defend God, to defend our position, to maintain the real connection between God as He really is, how His Word portrays Him, and love. It seems too difficult, complex, and daunting a task to engage in; it is better to just let people do what they want to do, so long as they don’t really seem to be hurting me or others, forcing themselves on others.
If you have ever been in such a conversation, then you understand what God was up against with the children of Israel in the wilderness [after His spectacular and miraculous deliverance of them from slavery], and also God’s continued frustration with all human beings who refuse to allow Him to be God [in their hearts and minds] and who believe they are bigger, better, and wiser than God. Should He not loathe them after sending His Son to be our Savior, after all of the tender care He has showered upon humanity, after all that He has provided for us in His Word to enable us to know the magnificence of His love, to humble ourselves in repentance, and to rejoice in His gracious forgiveness, mercy, and salvation? Sadly, very few human beings truly seek to even know God’s ways – even within the churches, and the defense of His ways produces much conflict even within the churches.
As we end meditation upon this psalm, we note that it has come full circle. We are called to repent, to rejoice in His merciful love, to learn His ways, so that we may give Him our worship, praise, and adoration. We are urged and warned not to harden our hearts, not to be stubborn in rebelling against His ways, to allow Him to be our God, our Savior, and our Lord. Then the great King above all gods will be Our God, and all will be well with us in His gracious mercy until we are healed fully and completely in the next life. Faith, knowledge of God, and proper reverence for God really is not an “intellectual” issue, it is at heart a moral issue – whether a human being will have God, the only True and Living God, Who has created all things, and redeemed all human beings, and Who calls all people back to Himself. The issue is whether we will have God as our God, or will rebel and reject God.
Let us pray that as the world once again becomes aware of the celebration of Christmas, that hearts and minds might be turned back to God, to His glorious Son Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. Perhaps we can invite someone – O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord, the great King above all gods – the One Who humbled Himself in love in order to save us!
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, humble and soften our hearts so that we know Your work and Your ways. Keep us in repentance and faith, that we may praise Your glorious Name. Strengthen us in Your Word that we never capitulate to those who rebel against You, but continue to offer winsome witness to Your love. Amen.