Today
By Anthony Casperson
5-11-24

With last week being a blog with a number that’s divisible by 50—and since I write 50 blogs per year—I had expected this week to be the anniversary blog. But much to my surprise, a tiny bit of research on my part revealed that the first blog of this website was eight years ago on May 21st.

Therefore, next week would be the closest Saturday to the anniversary. And we’ll talk about that then.

Once I came to this realization, a connected thought hit me. I had to figure out something else to write about this week. Scrambling around to think about what to say, several options came to mind. All of which revolved around the idea of an unexpected extra. Because that’s what today’s blog is.

But each one fell flat. I’d have to shoehorn in the biblical text to the idea of the day—which no one should ever do. Or, make my point without any real application other than, “Look with me at how interesting this idea is,” because the passage’s point is somewhere totally different.

The thought then came that we should take today to praise God. Worship him during this day that has been unexpectedly been gifted to the year of these blogs. I’m not suggesting that we praise him because life is going great and all of our problems have been resolved. In fact, quite the opposite. I want to praise him despite the difficulties and trials and troubles. And I hope that you all join me today in singing his praise.

The very same day that I decided to take today’s blog to specifically praise God, my morning devotion time affirmed my choice.

Psalm 95 calls us to join the psalmist in singing to the Lord, making a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. He is the great God in whose hand are both the deepest depths and the highest mountains, because he made them all. No matter where we are in all of this creation, we are in his hand. Cared for and loved. Totally praiseworthy things, right?

And when my eyes came to verse 6 and the beginning of verse 7, the melody of a certain praise chorus played in my head. Because that song, which I’ve sung hundreds of times, found some of its lyrics from this specific psalm.

“Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker. For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture.”

But right when I was feeling the moment of praise, I was struck with the end of verse 7 and the rest of the psalm.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Psalm 95:7b-11)

The words almost feel out of place. We’re called to worship and sing praise at the beginning. And right when it seems like many are getting into the rhythm of the song, we’re smacked with a call to not harden our hearts like certain people from Israelite history did. I mean, this song of praise ends with a statement of God’s wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

I don’t think I’ve ever sung a song in church that ended in God’s just judgement. Let alone, stated so directly. It kinda feels wrong.

At first.

That is, of course, if we continue to lean in for understanding, instead of just bouncing off of the strange conclusion.

With a second glance, that ending kinda makes sense to me. Particularly, when I think about the fact that not everybody hearing that song of God’s praise would want to sing along in the moment. Some might scoff at the call to worship God’s greatness. Their raw feelings—brought about by the many troubles in their lives—might make them want to have other words with God.

And I wonder how many reading this blog might’ve scoffed at my decision to praise God with this unexpected week’s blog. I know that we can have those less-than-worshipful thoughts. I’ve written about my own moments like that in these very blogs. Recently.

Life hasn’t turned out the way that we expected it to. The situation that we’re experiencing in the moment feels so difficult. It seems that all we’re doing is trudging through a desert, without any clue of where we’re going, or how long it’ll take to reach the destination—a place that we’re starting to think we might not ever get.

And so praise is the furthest thing from our minds.

But that’s the point of the songwriter in Psalm 95. He takes us back to the Israelites who were freed from slavery, but had yet to reach the Promised Land. Those people who had expected to find God’s promised rest long ago. People who had to pack up and move everything they owned time after time. Through desert land with enemies on every side. People who were tired of sand and manna and quail and walking for years that turned to decades.

A people for whom praise of God is the furthest thing from their minds. Even though he was right there with them. Literally, a pillar or cloud by day and fire by night. In their presence day after day.

The difficulties of life led those Israelites to harden their hearts to the praise of God. And it cost everyone in that generation—except for Joshua and Caleb—to never set foot in the promised rest of the land of Canaan.

Thus, it seems that the point of the psalmist’s conclusion to his song is to encourage even those who scoff at the call of praising God to join in. As long as it’s called “today” let’s praise God, despite the many reasons why we might want to harden our hearts to that call. We’ll miss out on the promised rest that comes as we praise him.

Some who have a little bit more biblical knowledge might be aware that the author of the book of Hebrews also quotes this psalm several times throughout Hebrews 3-4. And there, the author emphasizes the point of missing the promised rest, which they relate to our ultimate rest in the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

Debates among scholars abound concerning the direness of the situation for those hardening their hearts. But at the very least, we all agree that every person who finds themselves among the people of God should take a serious moment of introspection concerning the hardness of our hearts. That we don’t miss out on the promised rest.

So today, if you hear his voice call, don’t harden your heart like the Israelites did during the wilderness wanderings. If the difficulties of this life are causing you to question the joining of praise to God, let him soften your heart to join in song.

And if any number of things have made you scoff for your whole life at the “idiocy” of those who worship God, then witness the goodness and greatness of the only true God. Realize the softening of your heart that God is doing. Hear the voice of your calling Shepherd. And come to him.

In every case, let us join in singing praise to our great God. As long as it is called “today.”