March 9, 2013 Worship, Be Faithful

Read Psalms 95-96 Worship, Be Faithful Psalms 95:6-11 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “hey are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “hey shall never enter my rest.” IMMEDIATELY after I read these psalms I was listening to praise music while I was walking on my treadmill. As the songs, some with the words of other psalms, proclaimed the Lord’s beauty and offered praise and worship to God, I thought of the amazing opportunity we have, as the psalmist did so many hundreds of years ago, to praise God. But you’ll notice verses 8-11 speak of God’s people turning from him, even cursing him. As the Hebrews were in their desert journey out of Egypt, the psalmist records the history of their lack of trust in God to give them water, and so (Exodus 17:7 the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?") and God judged them. God’s people repeatedly cursed God when God promised his presence and safety to them. As a result God cursed them, and none of that generation entered the Promised Land. What’s your response to God’s promises? Do you curse him as the Hebrews in the desert? Or do you praise him as the psalmist of the past and the songwriters through the generations? Sing in your heart words of praise. Worship him, and you will see God’s care for you. It’s True! Praise God, and you will see his blessings flow to you.