Harden Not Your Heart

“Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” (Psalm 95:8-11)

The heart is the well from which everything flows. The heart is the first cause that sets every effect into motion. All good or bad emanating from a soul can be backtracked to the heart. The heart is the physical representation of the spirit.

The New Testament meaning of tribulation is pressure. In the Old Testament tribulation is a reference to vexation. Tribulation then, is an adverse life event that forces out and reveals our true spiritual condition. 

The Psalmist says, “your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.” The tribulation, the vexing pressure was the temptation and proving. The result of this pressure was his “work”. Having our heart filled with Jesus (cause) will give us tranquility of spirit (effect), this allows us to act accordingly under any and all tribulation, or life’s vexing pressures. You would never ask, “What Would Jesus Do” if filled with Christ. It would flow as a natural by-product of the Jesus inside you.

The Psalmist warns against a harden heart. It’s a fair warning. The harden heart has an exterior of adamant. It is a shield that protects by warding off almost every blow. It is also a wall that prevents. Nothing penetrates the harden heart, including Jesus. How is this possible? A harden heart is the product of the will. One must choose it, just as one must choose Christ.

The Psalmist writes:

1. “It is a people that do err in their heart”. The mistake was in their spirit.

2. “and they have not known my ways”. The people “knew” in that they were aware of Gods commandments. The problem was that they chose not to adhere to Him or His ways. As the evangelist explains, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2).

Tribulations in life reveal our true inner spiritual condition. Is that spiritual condition worthy of God? The answer is probably not, and it is why God is showing it to us. God made it crystal clear what he wants for us when He said, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23).

For us to repent and live we must understand what we are repenting from, why we are repenting of it and what the life is once we do. We must recognize sin as bad, a thing to be avoided and repented of. We must desire God first and foremost. He must be our “lot”, our desire and utmost choice. Repenting of sin is only the first step. Accepting God as our portion is the completion.

Unfortunately, all too often we are like the “generation” that the Psalmist speaks of. We are aware of our spiritual condition but focus on the immediate gratification of the physical world. We justify our actions by explaining the needs of the situation at hand. We sacrifice self at the altar of the gods, “Here” and “Now”. These two heathen gods will always appear to be the right and logical choice. They are material, physical and present. But there is no faith associated with these false gods. There is no promise to come with them. Here and Now do not offer salvation, only the opportunity to quench a salivating lust. These are the ones that God said, “I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”

But the evangelist tells us, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9).

Chose God. Repent and live.

Bill Hitchcock