Heart Protecting Exhortation
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the highest grossing tour in history and the first to surpass $1 billion dollars in revenue, and it’s not over yet. With millions of tickets sold in a single day for tour dates across the globe that have fans flocking to stadiums and arenas to gladly congregate for the chance to see, hear, and sing along with Taylor Swift live and in person, it’d be hard to argue that humanity does not know how to worship.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
The opening verses of Psalm 95 are not a call to instruct us in something new, but to focus what we were made to do on the only one who is worthy of it.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
I don’t mean to imply anything about Taylor Swift. She’s not the problem. Even if you don’t know who Taylor Swift is (really?), we all have something that moves us more than anything else. My point in making the comparison is to confront the reality of how easy and natural it is for thanksgiving and joyful noises to spontaneously erupt from us for what excites us in this world yet the best response we sometimes have to the call of Psalm 95 is a suppressed yawn. How can this be?
Through some combination of the work of Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4), our love of our own glory (John 5:44), our love for this world (Luke 14:26), our deceitful desires (Ephesians 4:22), our worldly cravings (1 Timothy 6:10), our weakness (Romans 15:1), and more, we do not see God as we ought. Yet, by the miracle of God’s work in us, God opens our eyes to see him (2 Corinthians 4:6) and to continue to see more of him (Ephesians 1:18), which elicits inexpressible joy (1 Peter 1:8).
This side of eternity, we know we will not attain the measure of joy producing sight we will one day have when we are with God (1 Corinthians 13:12) but we can always strive to see more, and we must always be vigilant against the hardening of our hearts that weakens our sight of him. How can we do this?
Many answers could be given but it’s probably best to start with the one God has given us in his word. The author of Hebrews quotes the warning of Psalm 95:7-11 and then offers this as protection against the hardening of your own hearts:
Hebrews 3:12–13 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
In order to exhort one another, we must know one another. We must be a part of one another’s lives. In an increasingly virtual world that has us more connected than ever yet more isolated than ever, Christians must increasingly recognize our need for one another. An isolated Christian is a Christian in danger of a hardened heart.
If you don’t have anyone in your life that is able to exhort you and that you are able to exhort, heed the warning of Hebrews 3. Let the invitation of Psalm 95 and the measure of your own heart’s capacity for songs, joy, and thanksgiving to the Lord be a gauge of your need for some heart protecting exhortation!
~ Andy Barker grew up in Boston, Ma. and relocated to Charlotte in 2008. He currently serves as an elder at LIFE Fellowship. He and his wife Melanie have five children and have attended LIFE Fellowship for ten years.