Have you ever received a warning? Either a casual warning or a formal one? Perhaps you heard of a "winter storm warning" on television, or maybe tornado sirens rang out. Perhaps you were given a "formal warning" at a work place. Or, perhaps someone said to you... "I'm warning you." Well, often in our lives we are warned about our behavior or about an impending disaster or problem. We are told... "do this, or else." We are shown that if we do not change our ways, there will be "dire consequences." Well, today's Psalm is both a mandate and a warning. It is a mandate for the people of God to bring praise, but it is also a warning against a hardened heart. It is this warning that I'd like to focus on today.
When I was a child, my favorite Christmas special on television was "How the Grinch stole Christmas." Now, I'm not talking about the recent movie version with Jim Carrey...I'm talking about the good old-fashioned animated version that was narrated by Boris Karloff. Do you remember how the story started? With the narrator saying:
Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot,
but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not.
The Grinch hated Christmas - the whole Christmas season.
Oh please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
Or maybe his head wasn't screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
A hard heart is characterized by the inability to perceive spiritual things.
When I think of someone who has a hard heart, the first thing that comes to mind is this story. The Grinch with his heart two sizes too small…the ugly green thing who wants to destroy Christmas…the one who was so mean even a seasick crocodile would be a better option. A hardened heart is an ugly dangerous thing, and while we laugh at the image of the Grinch, the unfortunate truth is, that a true hardened heart is worse than any Grinch in Whoville.
Today's Psalm uses the image of the hardened heart to warn the people of Israel against the whining and complaining that happened during the 40 years of wandering in the desert. The psalmist knows that the people should be praising God and warns them that if they complain instead of praise, there will be dire consequences. Listen to the warning again:
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways." Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."
This is some very strong wording...to say that God LOATHED a whole generation because they were hard-hearted. So, we should take heed and beware of being hard-hearted.
So what IS a hard heart? And how do we avoid getting one? Well, the phrase "hardened heart" appears quite often in the Bible...and we are probably most familiar with it from the Exodus story and Pharoah. A hard heart is obviously not a literal thing, but instead it is a statement of relationship between a person and God. A hard heart is characterized by an inability to perceive spiritual things. This describes a person who just doesn't have an aptitude for spiritual things. Others seem to perceive things that a person with a hard heart can't. A hard heart will also keep a person from understanding the few things they can perceive. They might see what the Lord is trying to show them, but they can't get a hold of it in a way that they can apply it to their life.
Well, it's really quite simple.
When a person is hardhearted toward God, it's like they are spiritually blind and deaf; they just can't see spiritual truth or hear the Lord speak to them. A person with a hard heart has shut off themselves to God in such a way that nothing will soften them - God's word and light cannot get through. A person with a hard heart doesn't listen to the needs or feelings of others - and what's worse they don't care. A person with a hard heart is focused on themselves and their own needs...they aren't concerned with anything else. A hard hearted person is unable to see past their own self interest to a greater goal or cause. Just like the Grinch who...
On their walls he left nothing but books and some wire.
And the one speck of food that he left in the house,
Was a crumb that was even to small for a mouse.
Then he did the same thing to the other Whos' houses
Leaving crumbs much to small for the other Whos' mouses!
Worse than the effects on others one's hardened heart might have, is the effects it has on oneself. A person with a hardened heart begins to live like our Grinchly friend...they separate from the community, they hole up in a cave and plto against others, they are so miserable that they want everyone else to be miserable too. They aren't happy and they don't want anyone else to be happy either. They shut off love from every source. They shut out people who care. They refuse to believe in the possibilities of good things happening. They instead sit miserably up on a hill, looking down with disdain upon the possibilities that lie below them.
We don't want to be the Grinch! We don't want to be hard hearted and green and mean! But what is the cure for the hard heart? Well it's really quite simple and it's prescribed in today's Psalm.
O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noice to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
Nothing we can do can ultimately dampen the true joy of belief and faith.
We must find joy. We must find a way to enter God's presence with praise and thanksgiving. We must find a way to enter God's presence with praise and thanksgiving. We must worship and praise in spite of the Grinches...in spite of our own hardened hearts...in spite of ourselves. We must not be afraid to sing...we must not be afraid to try something new...we must live with such joy and thanksgiving that not a heart in our presence could stand the chance of remaining hardened.
But we are in Lent. We aren't supposed to be joyful. SURE WE ARE! Yes, this is a time of penitence and spiritual depth and study, but it is also a time to prepare of Easter. To let the joy of the coming Easter begin to infuse our hearts. But more than that, this time before Easter is a time to go through the slow process of un-hardening our hearts...of doing the spiritual spring cleaning necessary so that we can be fully prepared to greet that Easter morning with full joy and happiness. We must un-harden our hearts by getting rid of all the things that keep us out of relationship with God - we must lose the things that keep us from joy. We just get rid of the fear, the selfishness, and everything else that is holding us back. We must come out of our Grinchly caves and hear the singing that no hard-heart could prevent. We must realize that nothing we can do can ultimately dampen the true joy of belief and faith. We must find the joy...so just like the Grinch we can find the happy ending that we know is coming.
And what happened then?
Well, in Whoville they say
that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day.
May it be the same for us during this Lenten season.