Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
I didn't make a note of it, but last week ended the first year ('first' year...ha ha ha!) of the current Friday series (Facepalm; I just realized today is Saturday. I worked from home all day yesterday and it didn't even register that it was Friday...). We are looking at the word 'desert' through the entire Bible. Starting year two with the biggest topical grouping of 'desert' verses in the Psalms...those that reflect on Israel's history.
The largest concentration of these is in Ps. 78:
He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; (v. 15)
But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. (v. 17)
They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?" (v. 19-20)
How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! (v. 40)
But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert. (v. 52)
I highly recommend going back and reading through the whole psalm; it is a full discussion of all the ways Israel rebelled...and what happened. I am skipping 95:8 for now...it fits better at the end of the discussion...and the next cluster of verses is in Ps. 105 - 106:
He opened the rock and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert. (105:41)
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert. (106:9)
In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. (106:14)
So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them through out the lands. (106:26-27)
Again, to get the full scope of the confession of Israel's rebellion and God's faithfulness, both Psalms need to be read in full. The distilled version of the Exodus...and what happened, with the repeated rebellion and complaining of the people and God's repeated visitation of consequences upon the people while still maintaining his promise to bring the nation out of the desert...is sobering. There are three roots of rebellion that are laid to view in those Psalms...1) they craved stuff from their former life 2) they were jealous of their leaders and 3) they didn't trust God to do what he said he would do.
Appetite, jealousy and lack of faith....any one of those three can wreak havoc in one's spiritual walk; taken as a combo, well, there's not much spiritual walk happening at that point. And here's what hit me afresh as I read through it...God's plan and God's purpose are not thwarted by man's disobedience. God will do what he said he would do...but the ones who choose rebellion risk being culled from those who see the promise. God did not disqualify them...they disqualified themselves.
Ps. 136 starts off with a declaration: 'Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords; His love endures forever' (vs 1 - 3). The rest of the psalm is a litany of different descriptions of the God to whom they are giving thanks, and verse 16 is the one that mentions the desert:
to him who led his people through the desert; His love endures forever.
The Psalm ends with verse 24: 'Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever'.
We tend to forget sometimes that the Psalms really are poems and songs. 136 is clearly poetic, with the repeated phrase. A good reminder.
But the verse I saved for last in the Psalms seems to reflect so much from this set, especially. Ps. 95:8 (with context):
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did." (Ps. 95: 7b - 9).
God woos the hearts of mankind, calling us to himself. Such a wooing provokes a response...and the response is either to turn to him and draw ever closer, or to reject the invitation. Oh, we tell ourselves we're not rejecting him...we're just...putting it off to a more convenient season. Or maybe we convince ourselves that what we felt wasn't really God. Maybe like the rich young ruler, we perceive the cost as too high...whatever. Resisting the heart-pull to come to God is the very definition of hardening one's heart. And every time that hardening happens...it gets harder to hear and respond differently to that call.
God calls each of us to Him. Each of us responds...in one way or another. Choose wisely.
No comments:
Post a Comment