“for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,”
– Psalm 95:7
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you think that a guy, gal or kid will suffer a consequence for always responding with tasteless retorts, for always entertaining inappropriate thoughts and/or for always participating in illicit acts? Do you think that a guy, gal or kid will suffer a consequence for not always using affirming, approving words, for not always refraining from doing something that compromises an established moral or ethical norm and/or for not always making it a mindset to meditate on Biblical truths? A guy who is in the growth group that your grandmaa and grandpaa joined about a year and a half ago recently asked “why do good things happen to bad people while good people have bad things happen to them” during the Bible study that the group is having on the Ephesians Epistle? Larry had his first wife divorce him. Your grandpaa does not remember ever hearing Larry mention something fond about his first wife. Larry very recently celebrated his 70th birthday. Larry’s only kid died over thirty years ago. Larry’s kid per what your grandpaa has heard Larry say – when Larry has talked about his kid, is that his kid was a really decent, caring guy. There is a sense that Larry is still haunted by his kid’s untimely death from an illness. Larry’s second wife’s daughter recently had to battle through everything that could be thrown at her to beat back a cancer that was trying to take over her body. The gal and her husband are dynamic Christ-followers. The gal used the efforts to conquer her cancer to communicate through daily blog postings her undying, ever optimistic Christ-follower faith. Even though the cancer has purportedly been beaten back, the gal now cannot have kids. How would you have answered Larry’s question without mentioning the divine sovereignty of God – as God the Father?
How many guys, gals and kids do you know who you would call good? How many guys, gals and kids do you know who you would call evil? Because sin is embedded in each guy, gal and kid who is born on planet Earth, just maybe the best answer to the question that Larry asked which was “why do good things happen to bad people while good people have bad things happen to them”, is to simply admit to the clear-cut reality that there are only evil guys, gals and kids living on planet Earth. The sin curse – that was immediately initiated when Adam cavalierly disobeyed a specific directive from God to not do something, instantly began causing all guys, gals and kids to be born evil to do all kinds of sinful disobedience during their life tenure on planet Earth. Every guy, gal and kid has the choice to succumb to sin’s wiles through adopting a lifestyle that continually ignores God-driven ethical and moral mores and standards and by surrendering to sin’s ruse’s by accepting an acquiescing mindset that continuously discounts the victory that God – as God the Son, through his death while He was hung on and nailed to a cross accomplished and gave to every guy, gals and kid who is living on planet Earth. Every guy, gal and kid can overcome sin’s abject evil by adopting a faith that continually accepts God-driven ethical and moral mores and standards and by accepting an acquiescing mindset that constantly claims the victory that God – as God the Son, already has given every guy, gal and kid over sin through His death after He was hung on and nailed to a cross. A guy, gal or kid arbitrarily putting a lifestyle, mindset, experience and/or event into a good column or into a bad column should never ever be the way to determine if a sin blackened heart has God – as God the Spirit, doing sanctifying in it in a personalized way.
Psalm 95 may help explain what your grandpaa is trying to say. God – as God the Father, gave to Moses and to His specially chosen guy and gals – who are the Israelite people group guys and gals, a heart check early on in their desert wanderings at a Horeb site that Moses would call Massah-Meribah. The names Massah-Meribah mean being tempted-quarreling. Massah-Meribah is the desert site where God’s specially chosen guys and gals griped irritably against God because there was no water anywhere nearby for them to drink and where Moses – after God had asked Moses to simply speak to a rock, angrily rattled his rod against the rock. Because tempted-quarreling – which is an attitude-action that is not driven by God, Moses and his Israelite people group guys and gals had to spend forty years doing desert meandering. God used these forty years as a timeframe – starting with the Mount Sinai fiasco, to have every guy and gal who was twenty years old and older – except for Caleb and Joshua, when the Massah-Meribah debacle happened, die. Even Moses – because of his disobedience to a direct command from God, was not allowed to go into the land that God was giving to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land. A psalm song writer may have scribed this psalm song to remember God as Who God is because of what God did at Massah-Meribah. This psalm song writer uses his psalm song as a dire warning of what happened when his compatriots hardened their hearts against God causing God to become angry at them. This psalm song writer uses his psalm song to articulate what happens when songs of joy are sung to God, when God is praised for what He has done, when there is a thanksgiving mindset towards God and when God is accredited to be God over all. The psalm song writer uses the Massah-Meribah episode to scribe in verse 7, “for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,” How are you hearing the voice of God?
Psalm 95 (1042)