God's Will For You "Today"
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness.”
This is the great invitation of the Psalmist, spoken to the people of Israel halfway through the 95th Psalm. It’s a phrase I find my mind drifting too often, and it never fails to convict me. Today, I want to explain why.
The Psalmist spends the first half of the song calling Israel to sing to Yahweh, the Rock of their salvation, with praise and thanksgiving (vv.1-2), describing Yahweh as the King of all gods, the Creator of all things in whose hands belong with the mountains and the deeps, the lands and the seas (vv.3-4). Because they “are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (v.7), they should bow and worship before their Maker and their God (v.6).
A LONG, LONG TIME AGO: A Brief History Lesson
It’s at this point that the Psalmist offers his great invitation: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” as at Meribah and Massah (vv.7-8). He’s referring to an event that took place back when Israel was still an infant nation fresh out of Egyptian bondage. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm Yahweh had sent plagues upon Egypt, delivering His people through parted waters into the wilderness, where He sweetened bitter water and fed them with bread from heaven along their journey to Mount Sinai. Yet when water ran short, the people began to “contend” (Hebrew rib) against Moses and “test” (Hebrew nasah) Yahweh by asking, “Is Yahweh among us or not?” (Ex 17:7). God had proven Himself time and time again, but it still was not enough for them—their fear overcame their faith, their grumbling overtook their gratitude, and contention replaced their contentment. God graciously submitted to their request—miraculously providing water from a rock—but as a result, the location was named Meribah (“Contention”) and Massah (“Testing”).
As the saying goes, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it… which brings us back to Psalm 95. The Psalmist suggests that the failure of past generations should affect how his current generation responds to God “today.” For forty years that first generation of Israelites tested and tried God in the wilderness—wandering in their hearts and refusing to know His ways—and as a result, God swore in His anger that they would never enter into His rest (Ps 95:9-11). These were the people who saw God cripple the most powerful nation on earth; they walked between parted waters as an army was drowned in their wake; they saw God descend on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke; they heard the Ten Commandments spoken from His booming voice and received Torah from the very hands of Moses.
Yet in the end, it profited them nothing. Instead of trusting God, they constantly tested Him. Instead of resting in His provision, they wrestled against His promise. As a result, they died in the wilderness, leaving future generations to inherit the land God had promised to their ancestors. They saw and heard God on display in ways that no generation since has seen or heard, yet in the end it amounted to nothing. They lived in the dusty desert until their own bodies were buried in that dust.
This is why the Psalmist, writing centuries later, tells his audience to respond “Today.” They might not have seen or heard the things those first-generation Israelites had seen or heard, but they had centuries of history further attesting to God’s faithfulness. As a result, they shouldn’t test God as did their forefathers; instead, they should hear God’s voice and obey it—trust in His provision, walk in His commands, draw near to His presence. This was the great invitation of the Psalmist.
A LONG TIME AGO: Rinse, Recycle, Repeat
But if you know Israel’s history, you’ll know they didn’t listen to the Psalmist either. Despite his warnings, they abandoned God’s commands and listened to the voices of other gods. “Today” passed by without out repentance. So too did tomorrow. Eventually, centuries and centuries passed, and they refused to hear God’s voice. In response, God stopped speaking—the prophets went silent.
But God, ever faithful, wasn’t done with Israel. He chose to speak again, this time not through the words of any regular man, but through the Word Made Flesh—through Jesus Christ, the King promised in millennia past. Instead of destroying them with plagues, he healed them with miracles; instead of leading them through parted waters, he called them to pass through waters and be born again; instead of appearing in fire and smoke on Sinai, the Word became flesh and dwelt among them, revealing the glory which had been hidden even from the eyes of Moses. That generation beheld things for which the Exodus generation could only long.
Yet when their King came to them, did they hear His voice? No. Instead, “He came to what was His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11). As at Massah and Meribah, they tested Him, tried Him, and put Him to death. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
The leaders of the early church, then, found themselves in a similar situation to the author of Psalm 95. In the recent past, their own people had been eyewitnesses to a mighty work of God—a greater Moses (Jesus) had come to deliver them from a greater bondage (to sin) and bring them into a greater Promised Land (the kingdom of God). Yet, like that generation in the wilderness, a good portion of the people had failed to hear His voice and enter into His rest. They saw and heard things no one else had ever seen or heard, yet they saw with blind eyes and heard with deaf ears. Rinse, recycle, repeat—it was the same story all over again.
This is why the author of Hebrews, writing a few decades after the time of Jesus, calls his audience to turn their attention to—you guessed it—the words of Psalm 95. He points out that now Jesus has been revealed, the stakes are higher than they were for that generation of Israelites in the wilderness: Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God, but Jesus is the Son who inherits the house and all in it (Heb 3:4-6). For this reason, he quotes the words of the Psalmist and tells them to
“See to it brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end…”
Hebrews 3:12-14
The author makes a remarkable point. Sure, the Psalmist’s generation—like the Exodus generation and the Jesus generation—failed to hear God’s voice “today.” They tried and tested God and refused to trust in Him. But so long as the sun continues to rise, every day yields a new “today,” and with it comes the opportunity for repentance.
NOT SO LONG AGO: The Convicting Part
The good news, my friends, is that—even 2,000 years after the author of Hebrews put his pen to the parchment—the sun continues to rise. This means that, glory to God, we have been granted another “today” on which we can choose to hear God’s voice.
But with that good news comes a sober calling. It means we, like all previous generations, must daily choose to do the very thing with which God’s people have so often struggled: We must choose to trust in Him. And keep in mind that I’m not just talking about trusting in Him for salvation, nor can “trust” be watered down to good theology or cognitive assent. Instead, when the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews call us to “hear God’s voice,” they’re calling us to do what the Exodus and Jesus generations did not: Trusting God rather than testing Him.
This is where the convicting part comes in. There are times when, metaphorically speaking, our water might run dry and we might be tempted to ask, “Is Yahweh among us or not?” Finances might get low. Doctor visits might yield dreaded results. Grief might threaten to cripple us. Tragedy might strike. Our temptation will be to test God, to try Him, to demand that He prove Himself to us. God, if you’re there, prove it!
The authors of Scripture challenge us to respond differently. Instead of testing God in the present, see how God has already proved Himself in the past. See the doorway through the waters opening to provide Israelites safe passage out of Egypt. See the stone rolled away to reveal an empty tomb where a body once lay. See all the times in your own life when things looked hopeless, yet God provided. Today, hear His voice and trust Him. Not just for your eternity, but for your daily bread. After all, if He is faithful to tend the grass which is alive today and withers tomorrow, will He not much more take care of you?
O Lord, fill us with faith, gratitude, and contentment. Give us ears to hear, and so long as it is called “Today,” may we daily choose to hear Your voice! Make us part of the solution. Maranatha.
