If Today You Hear God’s Voice,
Harden Not Your Hearts
This week’s psalm response is taken from Ps. 95. However, the psalm verses upon which we reflect are from Psalm 90 – a human lifetime is only a moment. The psalmist helps us recognize the passing nature of our days on earth. We will return to the dust out of which God created us. Through the verses, we are to pray for the grace to respond to the voice of God when it should be heard. We are called to focus on the things that matter to God, not what the world values. Where do we find wealth in our lives – relationships? Satisfying work? Appreciating the gifts of nature? Serving others? May God “prosper the work of our hands.”
You return us to dust, children of earth back to earth.
For in your eyes a thousand years are like a single day:
they pass with the swiftness of sleep.
You sweep away the years as sleep passes at dawn,
like grass that springs up in the day and is withered by evening.
Teach us to make use of our days and bring wisdom to our hearts.
How long, O God, before you return? Have pity on your servants.
Shine your love on us each dawn and gladden all our days.
Let your loveliness shine on us, and bless the work we do,
bless the work of our hands.
[verses adapted from The Psalter © 1995, Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications.]