Psalm 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: The psalmist assumes that they wish to hear God's voice, and yet there is danger of their hardening their heart. That double feeling is constantly to be found in men. They are forever putting stumbling blocks in their own way. The head will often hinder the heart, and the heart will often hinder the head. Man is a single being, and he is his own true self only when all the forces of his nature act in harmony together. But man can make himself into a dual being, and start a strife within himself that will prove morally destructive. Illustrate by the devil possessed in the time of Christ. There was strife in the men. Their will pulled one way, the mastering will that was upon them pulled the other. Or take the modern case of delirium tremens. Here in our text we have the power which lies in man to hinder himself. He may "harden his heart," and so silence every high and noble desire he may feel. This hardening of the heart is always a man's own act to begin with, and God's act to finish with. A man sets himself upon resisting right impressions and persuasions; he finds it easier a second time and a third; he is hardening so that the persuasions have little effect, and God at last puts his seal on the hardening, and the persuasions roll off altogether. I. WHEN A MAN WANTS TO WORSHIP GOD, HE CAN HARDEN HIS HEART BY ENCOURAGING DOUBTS. Some one is ever ready to whisper, "Is there a God at all? If there is, is he really a good God? If he is good, might he not have done a great deal more for you?" Give room to such doubts, and all interest in worship will soon take to itself wings and flee away. II. WHEN A MAN WANTS TO WORSHIP GOD, HE CAN HARDEN HIS HEART BY MURMURINGS. Illustrate from the historical allusion to Meribah (Exodus 17:1-7). If anybody wants to murmur, he can easily find something to murmur about. There is a sunny side and a dark side to almost everything; and, if a man chooses, he can see only the dark side; and, if he does, he will surely spoil all desire for worship, all grounds for thanksgiving. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:WEB: Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, |
    |