Learning to Listen #14

Psalm 81 begins with a call for God's people to sing out to Him, even shout to Him, playing instruments with passion and praise. The Psalmist reminds them that God had heard His people when they cried out to Him from Eqypt, and He delivered them. After a Selah, a time to reflect on that, he then says in verse

8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes.

God says: "If only you would listen to me, how different things would be."  He is the same God who delivered them from Egypt. He is the same God who fed them in the wilderness. He is the same God who led them into the promised land.  But they did not learn to listen, and they had consequences.  As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, these things were written for our instruction. May we listen better.