Psalm 81:8

Psalm 81:8

If you only would listen

If this isn’t a divine heart cry, down through the ages, then I don’t know what is! “Hear me, my people – if you would only listen to me. Israel.” What is obvious is that God listened to His people, He heard their cries for help, He was not deaf to their distress in Egypt and on their travels. What He longed for was a corresponding response from them that He might warn them and guide them. Too often the conversation was one-sided, He heard their pleading, but they never listened to His response. 

Here is a mighty lesson for us for little has changed. How often we offer our rambling prayers to heaven, usually heartfelt and full of pleading. We set apart hours in our weekly calendars to meet and pray with others and we constantly pour out our requests and remind the Lord of His responsibilities. But do we listen? The earlier verses of this Psalm reveal a God who speaks, who is always communicating, whose actions are His words. He speaks through circumstances, He talks to us through creation, He communicates through conversations and 

advice from others. He speaks most powerfully through The Bible – His written Word and, of course, through His Son Jesus Christ, by the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. You might say that God is speaking 24/7. If only we took more time to listen and to discern His voice! 

 

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