Today I will reflect on the words in Psalm 95. “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether God’s people just do not hear his voice, or if they do hear it and they hardened their hearts. There are multitudes of competing messages out there that drown out the Word of the Lord. But there are also legions of hard-hearted people who refuse to listen. There always have been. This concept is found twenty times in the Bible. It was used in the Old Testament in relation to the resistance of the children of Israel at Meribah to the promises God made to them. In the New Testament, Jesus rebukes the disciples for their hardness of heart in failing to understand his message. In general hardness of heart not only describes resistance to God by refusing to listen, but a lack of understanding and unwillingness to accept truth or change one’s outlook based on what one hears.
Where are each of us on this spectrum? Are we just not listening? Or are we listening but not hearing? Or are we hearing but not understanding? And are we understanding but not willing to accept the truth of what we hear? What are we willing to do in response?The Psalmist says one way to demonstrate that we hear the Lord’s voice is to joyfully sing psalms as we bow down in worship to the Lord, acclaiming the Rock of our salvation. Jesus says he will build his church on our faith in this Rock of our salvation, where evil shall not prevail. This is where listening is important. We have heard of the works of the Lord since ancient times written in the Scriptures.There is enough there for us to understand how God works. It should give us great confidence in clear directions for our lives. Still, we often refuse to accept God’s truths as we hear the Word of God and to align our lives with them. We so easily speculate that they might not pertain to our times or to us. But if we are waiting for specific instructions, we are hardening our hearts. I pray today that we are all challenged to take the words of Psalm 95 very personally.
Barbara Dilly
I came to Creighton in 2000 and retired in 2020. My twenty years of teaching, research and service in the Jesuit tradition enhanced my own life. It was an exciting time of celebration. I loved teaching and interacting with Creighton students because they responded so eagerly to the Ignatian pedagogical emphasis on the development of the whole person. It is this spirit of whole person development and celebration of life that I hope to infuse in my reflection writings.
My academic background is eclectic, preparing me well for the Liberal Arts academic environment at Creighton. I earned my BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA in 1988 and my Ph.D. in Comparative Cultures from the University of California, Irvine in 1994. My research focused on rural communities in the American Midwest, Latin America, and Australia. I taught Environmental Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Social and Cultural Theory, and Food Studies courses.
I retired to Shell Rock, a small rural community in Northeast Iowa where I enjoy gardening, cooking, quilting, driving my 65 Impala convertible an my 49 Willys Jeepster. I have lots of fun playing my guitars with friends from the Cedar Valley Acoustic Guitar Association. But most importantly, I am still working to make my community and rural America a better place. I host a community quilt studio and serve on the Mission Board of my church. I also serve as the Climate Committee Chair and on the Executive Board of the Center for Rural Affairs.
