Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Psalm 95:8-11 NASB

Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.  For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.  Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness; "when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work.  For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways.  Therefore I swore in My anger, 'Truly they shall not enter in My rest.'"

There is one thing that comes across conclusively in Scripture, and that is that God's "default", if you will, or where His heart leans, both easily and abundantly, is His incredible care for His people.  The evidence is enormous on the side of watchful love.  This is not a God we have to appease.  He is already so open and receptive to us that we immediately bump into Him as soon as we turn to head His direction.  He's right there!  This heart pours out in constant presence, provision and protection; as a shepherd cares for his sheep--"For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand."  It's in this light that it's difficult for some to grasp the "anger" of God; that, "if God so loves this way, how could He ever be angry with us?"  But we must understand something about this love;  it isn't stupid love.  To be "stupid" is to be dull in feeling or sensation and, as a result, to act intelligently or unreasonably. God is too passionate to be dull in feeling or sensation, and too bright to let anything get by Him.  We can only try to understand, but He is infinite in passion and knowledge.  From this heart flows passionate and knowing love.  His love is like a fire that will warm us or burn us, depending on how we treat it. When John Wesley turned His heart toward God, he said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed".  When the children of Israel turned against this same "fire" of God's presence in the wilderness, they felt His burning anger.  This was the God who, with full control and full understanding, could say, "For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways.  Therefore I swore in My anger, 'Truly they shall not enter in My rest.'"  Without even a hint of talk of trying to appease an angry God, for that would be stupid, the Psalmist warns us to wise up and know who we're dealing with.  "Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness; when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work."  Rather, "(1) Come, let us (2) worship and (3) bow down; Let us (4) kneel before the LORD our Maker.  For He is our God...   Do you see the difference?  Do you know the difference?  Oh, what a glorious difference!

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