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The Ear of God
Brian Mashburn
July 19, 2009
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The Ear of God
We don't know who penned it, but we would do well to consider deeply the answer to the question the author posed in Psalm 94...
"Does He who implanted the ear not hear?'
If the answer is no, then we need not pray. We need not speak to Him as if He cares. We need not say anything specific at all to Him about any subject whatsoever.
Seriously, if the answer is no, then we must question if He cares. We must question if He loves. Wow...we must question if He even exists.
It reminds me of the old philosophical question: "If a tree falls in the wild and no one hears it, did it make a sound?"
The question posed, of course, by this anonymous author isn't a question at all but a proposed answer to it. How could an ear even be conceived of, let alone created into us, unless that Creator himself has them?
If the Bible is to be believed, then the answer to the question is an emphatic "Yes."
And if the answer is yes, then should we make noise for it? For Him? If He who implanted the ear can hear, then clearly they are designed for hearing. What does He want to hear?
Our praise and petitions. Our awe and our anger. Our convictions and our confessions. Our denials and our desires. Our refusals and our requests. Our gratitude and our gladness.
He wants to hear our hearts.
But there are certain things He does not want to hear, too. He tests our words like the tongue tastes food to judge whether it is worthy of consumption (Job 12:11).
It's amazing what we allow to be heard from our mouths. We gossip. We lie. We twist. We misrepresent. We fill space with mindless words. We try to feel powerful by employing powerless words. We are sarcastic. We are indignant. We expose our prejudice and judgmentalism. We shoot flaming arrows into the hearts of men with our cruel words for a laugh and excuse it with more words, saying "I was just joking." (Pr 26:19).
If God hears you, friend, then you should be bold enough to both speak and not speak.