Saturday, September 3, 2011

If Today You Hear God's Voice, harden not your hearts

The verse: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts," comes from Psalm 95 in the Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

This evening as the cantor chanted the psalm and we sang the response, I couldn't help but wonder how often we miss hearing the voice of the Lord due to our noisy and chaotic culture.

So many people constantly have the radio on, talk radio, or the television, 24/7 news (usually bad), or our ears are plugged with ear-buds and nothing can get through except what we want to hear.

Each one of us needs to take time out - even if only 10 minutes a day - and sit in the silence and listen. In times past we called this prayer or placing ourselves in the presence of God. If we foster this silence in our lives we may enter into contemplative prayer. But for now, let us embrace the silence. And let the silence embrace us.

We may well be surprised by what we hear or experience - or don't hear or experience.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

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