This title comes from our psalmist for today: “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Oh, that today you world hearken to his voice!” The dictionary says hearken means: “to give careful attention, listen carefully; to heed.” Before we can hearken then, we have to hear the voice of God, to recognize that God speaks to us in the here and now, to perceive the voice we hear as God’s, to discern that it is God’s voice coming to us and not some distracting, competing voice.

God speaks to us in many ways—certainly in scripture as we open ourselves to hear what God may need us to hear right where we are this particular day. Lectio divina is a helpful tool we can use for hearing the voice of God in scripture. It helps open our eyes to see scripture in a new way, a dynamic, living way, to open our hearts to God’s revelation of the Divine Word with our name on it here and now.

God’s voice is most often subtle, quiet. If we want to hear it, we have to listen, to be quiet and pay attention, to let go of the siren calls of the world around us, as Elijah on Mt. Horeb (I Kgs.19:11-13). And having heard, the psalmist cautions us to “Harden not your hearts” as the Israelites did in our lesson today from the Hebrew scriptures. Rather we are called to pay heed, to be obedient, to go forth in joy trusting God to be with us as we incarnate God’s love today, to equip us with whatever we may need for the opportunities that open before us.