Is The Lord With Us Or Not

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Psalm 95 is a very familiar psalm that is used regularly for the invitatory prayer of the breviary and often as the responsorial psalm for Mass. In Miles Jesu, we used it for years as the beginning of our community morning prayers, but do we really get the import of its main exhortation – “Harden not your hearts as at Meriba as in the day of Massa”? Context is everything so let’s look at Exodus 17 where this bitter event takes place and see why the Church recommends this reflection for us so often. 

The Israelites are thirsty and their patience was worn out by the journey and, grumbling bitterly with rocks in their hands, are demanding water for themselves and their livestock. Moses complains to the Lord that they are about stone him and he is instructed by the Lord to strike the rock in front of all the people with his staff and water flowed forth for them from the Rock! Hence the psalm proclaims that the “Lord is the Rock of our Salvation” – since from it flowed saving water! Yet the bitterness of this episode for Moses is felt when he names the place not the “Rock of our Salvation”, but “Meriba” (contention) and “Massa” (testing) where the Israelites put the Lord to the test saying: “Is the Lord in our midst or not.” Cf Ex 7:7 

Furthermore, the “waters of Meriba” episode where the Israelites hardened their hearts and put the Lord to the test comes shortly after the account of the Lord feeding the whole community in the desert with quail in the evening and the miraculous “Manna” in the morning in Exodus 16. And these events are not far removed from the prodigies the Lord worked to get the Israelites released from slavery in Egypt and the spectacular parting of the Red Sea to allow Israel to escape for good from Pharoah’s army! So, while the Israelites were indeed going through hardships and depravations, they let the hardships blind them to seeing the Lord acting on their behalf and making His presence and gifts among them felt. They hardened their hearts in a lack of faith and trust overwhelmed
by the hardships around them! 

This is what Moses and the Church want us to remember from this event: not to harden our hearts in the face of difficulties and trials of our days and times, but recalling all the times that the Lord has come through for His people throughout the ages, and so especially enduring in the hope, faith, and trust that the Lord is indeed in our midst with His rod and His staff to save those who hope in Him!