Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Your Way or Yahweh? | The Writings | Psalm 95

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Do you have a Burger King faith? Are you living as if God is reigning? Are you furthering God's kingdom or your own?  In today's episode, Jeff shares how Psalm 95 encourages us to submit our lives to God's way instead of our own. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 95

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Have it your way. Back in the 1970s, this phrase was cemented as the marketing slogan for Burger King. And telling customers to have it their way, Burger King appealed to its customizable menu options that set it apart from the competition. Yet, in a funny turn of events, the fast food franchise eventually tried to get away from the slogan, because when customers really did get it their way,

it happened to slow down the line to get food for everyone else. But despite Burger King's efforts to pivot with the slogan, it wouldn't go away in the popular imagination. So instead of changing the famous marketing line entirely, they adapted it and refocused it. Now, have it your way, isn't as much of a slogan for the Burger King menu, as much it's the slogan for our cultural moment today.

In addition to have it your way, the new consumer messages be your way and you rule serve as reminders to embrace human autonomy and individualistic freedom. Just be sure to be your way and rule while getting a whopper with fries. The shift in Burger King's focus from fast food to personal freedom gives us a little window into the human heart. We all want to reign over our own lives. with ourselves as the sovereign and others as our subjects. The modern machine of consumerism calls this rejection of any other sovereignty, freedom.

But when this version of freedom involves the rejection of God's reign in favor of our own, the Bible calls it rebellion. We think that we're ruling, but we're actually rebelling in a way that steers us away from a real love for God and love for other people. Psalm 95 unpacks this tendency to reject the reign of God by revisiting two landmark moments of rebellion for God's people in the Old Testament. And while exposing our propensity to seize sovereignty for ourselves, Psalm 95 also describes why and how we can surrender that sovereignty and be free to love God and love others in a meaningful way. As we approach God's word together, let's pause and ask for His grace to move through our time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath.

Thank you for your word. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage and grapple with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 95. As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us under your reign. In Jesus' name. Amen. To really dig into the message of Psalm 95, we're actually going to start near the end of the Psalm. Starting at the end of verse 7, the psalmist travels back in time to two moments of rebellion in the Old Testament. And by referencing these two tragic ways that God's people rejected his reign in favor of

their own, he gives us a lesson for today. So let's pick up at the second half of verse 7. Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your heart. as you did at Maraba, as you did that day at Masa in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me. They tried me, though they had seen what I did. These verses take us back to the events of Exodus 17. Shortly after being saved from generations of slavery in Egypt, the people of God begin fighting with their leader, Moses, because they are worried about having enough water. But this complaint about water isn't just about the water itself. It's about not trusting God. It's about wanting control. It's about wanting to rain. There's a key question that God's people ask in Exodus 17 verse 7 that really

helps us understand what's going on here. They ask this, is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us or not? Now, that's an especially tragic question given the events that they just experienced and their freedom from Egypt. It's a way of saying, God was good and powerful enough to rescue us from slavery, but we don't know if he's good and powerful enough to provide for us now.

This is a challenge to his power and a challenge to his presence. Now, in that event in Exodus, God did eventually provide water for his people, but the Israelites' lack of trust there became a painful memory that would seep into future generations. God's people would continue to wrestle

with that question, is the Lord among us or not? Is he the good king over all things? Does he really reign? Or are we better off seizing sovereignty for ourselves, ruling on our own terms? After referencing these events from Exodus 17, Psalm 95 revisits another past event of rebellion in the Old Testament.

Versus 10 through 11 are a shout out to the events in Numbers 14, as God's newly freed people are preparing to enter the promised land. But instead of going into the promised land, trusting in the reign of God, they rebel and they refuse to go in. As they're about to kill two of their leaders, the glory of the Lord appears, and God says this in verse 11. How long will this people despise me, and how long will they not believe in me,

in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? These words from the Lord indicate that the problem of our rebellion isn't surface level. It's about not trusting in what God has done. It's about rejecting his reign. It's not believing that he's really powerful and really present in our lives. These events from Numbers 14 are just another way of falling for the lie of that question from Exodus 17. Is the Lord among us or not? Let's pause and reflect on how this question may be.

be corroding parts of our loyalty to God. Where and how do I see myself facing this question? Is the Lord among us or not? Where do I wonder if the Lord is with me or not? Am I living like God really is powerful? Like he really is present? Am I living like he reigns? Or am I trying to seize sovereignty for myself. Psalm 95 uses these lessons from the past to interrogate our hearts today. Verse 7 has a command that brings us from the past to the present moment. We read this, today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. This is God's word to us today. Don't be like those former generations. Don't harden your heart, hear his voice. And so Psalm 95 gives us a compelling reason to hear God's voice, to open our hearts to him.

Let's look at the beginning of the Psalm, starting in verse 1 of Psalm 95. Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth. and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land. Here, Psalm 95 is telling us why God's reign is far better and far more real than any other attempt at ruling. The living God is the king who saves us and made us. He's the rock of our salvation. He's the creator of all things, all creation is in his hands. These verses give us a picture of God's absolute and comparable power. Theologians call this God's transcendence.

As the king, he is worthy of our trust because he is above all things. And yet, according to Psalm 95, this transcendent power doesn't mean that God is removed from us. We read on in verses 6 and 7. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our moment. maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Think about that for a moment. The Creator King, who is far beyond us, is also the maker who is with us. He is intimately connected to our lives. We are the people of his pasture and the flock under his

care. The phrase that theologians use to describe this is God's imminence. He is God's with us. He is near to us. God is far more powerful than we could possibly imagine, yet he's also far more present than we tends to believe. Psalm 95 gives us these two monumental truths about the king over all things. God is absolutely beyond us, yet he is absolutely with us. Such as begs a question, so what? So what? Are these just facts for us to catalog in our brains? No, far from it. The reign of God is meant to create a response in his people, a response that reverses the pattern played out in our ancestors,

a response that turns our tendency for self-rule and to surrender to the rule of God. Remember the words of verse 7. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Don't fall for the trap that your ancestors fell for in the Old Testament of thinking that God is ruling, of thinking that he isn't among you. Open your ears to his voice and open your heart to his reign. Here's the thing that the Burger King marketing slogan gets right. You and I are meant to rule, to use our influence and presence to make a difference in the world as image bearers of God. But we're not meant to rule our way. We're meant to extend God's rule, his way. When we live like

God is the powerful and present Creator King, his goodness, his love, truth, and beauty move through us. Every area, location, and moment of life becomes an opportunity for God's kingdom to move. Right there, right where we are. But to do that, we have to open our hearts to him. We have to hear him. We have to stop pretending like we're the sovereign ones and believe that he is. So how do you need to surrender your sense of sovereignty to God today? Where do you wonder if God really is with you? How can your life be an extension of his good and loving rule and whatever he has on your calendar today?

God, you reign over all things. You are far more powerful than we can imagine and you are far more present than we tend to believe. God help us live like you reign so that your kingdom can run through our lives. Amen.