Psa. 81:0         To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

Psa. 81:1         Sing aloud to God our strength;

                        shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

²           Raise a song; sound the tambourine,

                        the sweet lyre with the harp.

³           Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

                        at the full moon, on our feast day.

Psa. 81:4         For it is a statute for Israel,

                        a rule of the God of Jacob.

⁵           He made it a decree in Joseph

                        when he went out over the land of Egypt.

             I hear a language I had not known:

⁶           “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

                        your hands were freed from the basket.

⁷           In distress you called, and I delivered you;

                        I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

                        I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

⁸           Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!

                        O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

⁹           There shall be no strange god among you;

                        you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

¹⁰         I am the LORD your God,

                        who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

                        Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Psa. 81:11       “But my people did not listen to my voice;

                        Israel would not submit to me.

¹²         So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

                        to follow their own counsels.

¹³         Oh, that my people would listen to me,

                        that Israel would walk in my ways!

¹⁴         I would soon subdue their enemies

                        and turn my hand against their foes.

¹⁵         Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,

                        and their fate would last forever.

¹⁶         But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

                        and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81, English Standard Version)

In my Bible readings this morning, I had a fresh encounter with Psalm 81. It was not altogether a pleasant meeting.

The part that especially got to me was the following:

“‘But my people did not listen to my voice;

                        Israel would not submit to me.

¹²         So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

                        to follow their own counsels.’”

Did you catch that? Because God’s people—God’s own people—refused to listen to God, God gave them over to their own stubborn hearts, to do whatever they had decided to do.

Does that sound like freedom to you? Doing whatever my heart wants frequently does sound like freedom to me. And I have often done whatever my heart told me to do. “Follow your heart!” is a very modern mindset. It is also very ancient.

But what if there is something terribly wrong with our hearts? I believe that there is. This is not because the Bible tells me so, even though the Bible does tell me so. The reason I know that my heart is evil is repeated experience with following my own heart. I’ve done a lot of damage to myself and others by following my own heart. I doubt very seriously that I am alone in this.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Following my own heart does feel like freedom initially. However, sooner or later (and usually sooner), there comes a reckoning. Perhaps I should spell reckoning “wreckoning”, since I have often wrecked my own life and caused great pain to those I was supposed to be loving.

Yes, there is forgiveness. Yes, there is transformation. Yes, God still loves me. And a few very brave people have loved and forgiven me too. They are participants in my transformation. However, my stubborn heart is still a stubborn heart. Daily, I need to listen to God and not my stubborn heart.

And really listening means living differently. Only so am I free in any sense that truly merits being called “freedom”.