If Today You Hear God’s Voice,
Harden Not Your Hearts
For more than 2500 years, Psalm 95 has invited God’s people to worship at the beginning of the day. This psalm is the first psalm sung each morning in the Liturgy of the Hours. Today’s psalm challenges us each day not to harden our hearts if we hear God’s voice. That voice may come through events in our life or a unique situation or even in the weekday readings. In the first verses, we praise God for the divine saving actions in our midst. But, the final verses remind us what happened to the Israelites when they revolted against God. So, we are invited to sit in silence, keeping our eyes and ears open to God, pray to God, and give God time to respond.
O come, let us sing to our God;
let us make a joyful noises to the rock of our salvation!
We bow down before you and worship,
kneeling before you, our Maker!
For you are our God, and we are your people,
the flock that you shepherd.
Today let us hearken to your voice:
“Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the desert,
when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the test, though they had seen my works.”
[verses adapted from People’s Companion to the Breviary © 1997 by the Carmelites of Indianapolis]