DTEB, “The Most Important Day of Your Life: a Day Called ‘Today’”
“Psa. 95:1 ¶ Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Psa. 95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Psa. 95:3 For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
Psa. 95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
Psa. 95:5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Psa. 95:6 ¶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
Psa. 95:7 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,
Psa. 95:8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
Psa. 95:9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
Psa. 95:10 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.”
Psa. 95:11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”(Psalm 95, English Standard Version)
“Like Jesus, Today is often crucified between two thieves: Yesterday and Tomorrow.” (Source unknown)
The Bible talks a lot about today. Psalm 95 is a command to sing to the LORD. Ample reasons are given to do so. However, in verse 7, there is this crucial word “today”. “Today, if you hear his voice . . . .” Then the psalmist turns to history, an incident that happened on the way from Egypt to the promised land. After seeing many miracles in Egypt and along the way, the Israelites still didn’t really trust God. The problem wasn’t God. The problem was the human heart. Specifically, the Israelites “hardened their hearts” and grieved God.
The upshot of all this was that they put God to the test. They wanted to see even more miracles. They went astray, not geographically, but in their hearts. God got royally ticked off and swore an oath. “No rest for you!” he said.
How can a psalm that begins so positively end so negatively? Well, I guess that’s what happens when we willfully harden our hearts and go astray. Ancient Israel had no monopoly on such hardness and heart-straying. It can happen to any of us. Keeping a tender and grateful heart toward God is not easy, but if we want to enter into the rest that God gives, it is absolutely essential. It is a daily task. Why? Because our hearts can get hard and go astray in a day—or even a small part of the day. The most important day of our lives is always Today.
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