Verse of the Day for November 11

Psalm 95 opens like the start of a festival. O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Everyone is invited, and the noise is meant to be loud.

Keep reading past verse 3 and the mood changes sharply. By verse 8 the psalm is warning, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, remembering the wilderness where Israel quarrelled with Moses about water.

Those were the same people who had sung on the far side of the Red Sea. The excitement of that day faded within weeks, and thirst replaced thanks. The psalm puts the joy and the warning side by side because it knows how quickly one turns into the other.

Notice the name chosen for God here: the rock. In the wilderness, water came out of a rock. The very thing they complained about was where God provided. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving is an invitation to remember that before the grumbling starts.

The new job, the new church, the new marriage, the new baby. The excitement does fade, and that is not a failure. What matters is what fills the space. Next time you catch a complaint forming on the way to work, turn it into one sentence of thanks to the rock.

When the thrill wears off, thanksgiving keeps the heart from hardening.

The place you are tempted to complain about may be the place he is providing.