So, today I was in the middle of writing a series on Proverbs 3:5-6, in which I was expounding on various ways we trust the L-rd and do not lean on our own understanding.
One of those ways is the way we trust the L-rd and allow him to direct our paths when it comes to our rest in him.
As I was in Psalm 95:7-9, the passage that begins:
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…
I had always read this passage independent of the rest of the Psalm, and even the second half of verse 7 apart from the first half. The whole of verse 7 alone reads,
For he is our G-d,
And we are the people of his pasture
And the sheep of his hand
Today, if you hear his voice
The rest of the passage finishes the rest of the familiar segment “do not harden your hearts”
As I was reading this passage, John 10:27 came into memory. Specifically the following phrase
My sheep hear my voice.
Psalm 95 says we are his flock and sheep. John 10 says we hear his voice.
Hearing the Father’s voice is critical to entering his rest. And as his sheep we can hear that clvoice, but we often harden our hearts against obeying that voice,
So there is an connection between Psalm 95:7-9 and John 10:27-30.
If we are his sheep, then we hear his voice. If we obey that voice then we enter the rest that he has for us, and it is not just a one-day-a-week rest. If we refuse to obey, then we refuse his rest.
Are you hardening your heart, or are you obeying what you hear?
Be doers of the word [of the voice that you hear] and not merely hearers, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:22
