Today's Reading: 1 Chronicles 5 & Psalm 81

When God's People Won't Listen

God longs for His people to listen to Him. It breaks His heart when they don’t – or worse, won’t. Here in Psalm 81, we are admonished by the Lord to listen to His voice or face unpleasant consequences if we don’t. It is a sad and tragic thing when the very people whom God has chosen, called, and adopted as His own children refuse to listen to Him.

In Psalm 81, the Psalmist Asaph is speaking during one of Israel’s national festivals. During these times, the people assemble to worship God, offer sacrifices to Him, and hear His word. At the beginning of this Psalm, Asaph calls the people to gather and blow the trumpet and sing praises to Yahweh. He reminds them of the great works the Lord has done on their behalf and exhorts them to remain faithful and devoted to Him. As the Psalm progresses, Asaph turns to a discussion of their failure to listen to the Lord and His commands. He declares that God is speaking but the people are not heeding His voice.

This was the great tragedy. God was ready to fill the listening and open hearts of His people, but they would not listen to or obey Him. They had become complacent in their faith and their ears had turned away from God’s voice. He charges the people of Israel with not listening and not submitting to the very God they claim to worship. Their hearts had grown cold. Their faith had lost it’s vigor.

This is why it is so important to keep our hearts tender towards the Lord and our inner-ear always open to His words. As time goes on for some believers, they begin to drift away from a passionate relationship with the Lord – just a little bit at first. Eventually, a little distance from God becomes greater until the point that life has become so entangled with other pursuits and other priorities that they shut out the Lord’s voice altogether. They become stubborn.

When this happens – watch out! Your God will not force His will upon you. If you choose to drift away from Him and become stubborn and stop listening, He will eventually give you over to your stubborn choices. He is so very patient, but there can come a time when He can be patient no longer. That’s what happened to Israel – God “gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.” It is a tragic moment when someone forsakes the flawless and powerful counsel of God to walk in their own ways and listen to their own counsel.

So make sure that you are diligent to keep your heart tender and open to Him and His voice. He wants to speak words of peace, grace, wisdom, and faith to you. Listen with your heart turned toward Him and you will hear!