Back to the Future Again and Again

[HKHaugan]

Remember the movie “Back to the Future?” It raised the ‘if’ question. Well, the Psalms and all the Psalms for that matter, get us to consider alternatives, either-or, this or that, there’s another way. Take Psalm 95:7-8 as an example. It calls us to go back to the future. “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”

If you trace God’s main concern in both the Old and New Testaments you will find it is the condition of the human heart, its self-centeredness because of sin, its emotional defensiveness, its judgmental nature and, as a result, the hardness it has developed. David in this Psalm is quite aware of the heart’s problem because of his own heart. His self-awareness is an honest and open sharing of how he approaches the need for healing. When you read the Psalms you are immediately struck by the candor of the author. Unlike religious figures in other spiritual systems that are framed in the prose of heroic perfection, David is flawed, knows he is sinful and unashamedly admits his need for God. In fact all the great figures in the Bible, Noah clear through to Peter, are heart-conscious, heart-needy and heart-yearning which is why Jesus came because every human being is reflected in their inner struggle.

Knowing the heart is God’s personal treasure we can see why Jesus tells the story of finding a treasure hidden in a field and a pearl in another (Matt.13:44-46). The finder goes and sells everything he had to buy the field and the merchant sells everything he had to buy the pearl. This is exactly what Jesus did. He gave everything He had, His total mind, heart and Spirit, on the Cross. Why? That He could regain the treasure each of us was given at birth, our heart. He found us lost, covered with mud, betrayed, beaten and bruised by the devil and sin. To Him we each are treasures. He came to recover, restore and renew our hearts.

If we look at the first part, is the general description of a treasure hidden in a field. We can see that the heart was put in a human body on a planet with marvelous resources in an expanding universe to experience both the beauty and reality of God’s Creation and our relationship with Him and one another. But the devil, in his self-deluded arrogance, tried to hide it from God and filled the heart with the hardening substance of sin to make it self-anxious and indulgent.

In the second part is a specific description of the treasure. It is specifically a pearl. A pearl is formed when a piece of grit is introduced next to the tender muscle of the oyster. As the oyster grows a smooth material develops that both hardens and protects the soft tissue. This is the process of growing in the Lord. When we recognize what sin has done we go to Him to repent, develop and mature. In this world we remain sinners but now sinners with a Lord and the One who covers us with His Spirit, redeems us so that our sins become white as snow (Is.1:18), the testimony about what He does moment by moment as we are Spirit led. He will see us as He has developed us and return to bring us home.

So what does the Psalm 95 passage tell the heart? Three things, come to Him, worship Him and bow down before Him.

First, we hear Jesus say to the disciples, “Come, follow me…” Then, to everyone “Come unto me all who travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you…” Jesus calls our hearts into a relationship with His heart. It is a relationship of choice by faith. Faith is a reality He has built into us to handle every next moment. If our faith has been misplaced by sin, which is true of all people, He doesn’t condemn us, He invites us to journey with Him.

Second, in the moments of the devil’s tempting offer to take control of the world by worshiping him, He replies “Worship the Lord God and Him alone” and closes His life by saying to His Father, “Not my will by Thy will be done.”

The call to worship does three things. It gets us out of our mind, heart and spirit and into God’s mind, heart and Spirit. We learn from a mind greater than ours, trust with a heart more loving and caring than ours and step out in action with a faith given to us that is greater than ours.

Third, bowing down before Him is to acknowledge that we are created in His image and that without Him we cannot function as we were intended. This is a moment-by-moment dependence on His wisdom and counsel as He has given us in His Word. Bowing before Him is bending our eyes down to His Word that we can lift our eyes up to Him.

So, He is our God and we are each sheep in His pasture and together, His flock. Today, today and every day, “if only you do not harden your hearts” is the Lord’s plea to us personally. Recognize the areas where we do allow our hearts to be hardened and think about our heart being a pearl, a treasure, an object of the Lord’s relational desire. Be open, alert and conscious of what is going on in the unseen dimension of life. Ponder it, consider what God has to say in His Word and take the opportunity to respond. It’s all about the heart, isn’t it?