100 Days with David 2025 Day 90: A hardened heart will never enter into God’s rest.

“For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ “

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭95:7-11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Have you ever heard someone referenced as being “bent on” doing something? Even if you haven’t heard the phrase, I imagine we have all interacted with people who are bent on doing something. Perhaps, sometimes, we are among those people.

Now, to be bent on doing something, means that the person has determined what they will do, and are not likely to be dissuaded from it.

Additionally, I have observed the phenomenon that once a person is bent on doing something, or bent on thinking a particular way concerning something, they will selectively interpret all future information, to further confirm the “bent.”

In other words, if you have decided to do something, and you hear negative comments about it, you are less likely to give that contrary information credence.

On the other hand, information affirming the “bent” is given great weight and deemed further support for what has been decided.

People who have allowed walls to be built up around their opinions, have basically been self-exiled to an echo chamber of their own making. That is, all they “hear” is what they want to hear; all they will “know” is what they want to know.

Now, as bad as having a closed mind or heart is in the general practice of life, having a closed mind (or in biblical terms, a hardened heart) against the Holy Spirit of God, can be disastrous to our eternal soul.

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:17-18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

In this passage from Ephesians, the Apostle Paul speaks of people being alienated from God because of the condition of their hearts and minds. As a matter of fact, we see the Lord speaking of the hardness of His people’s hearts, all the way through the Bible. As well, Jesus spoke of the hardness of people’s hearts when they failed to believe, or when they couldn’t understand what He was saying.

In today’s portion from David’s psalms, we see the Lord speaking through David, warning the people not to harden their hearts, as those who were in the wilderness had hardened their hearts, perishing because of it. Interestingly, this passage is quoted three times in the book of Hebrews!

It’s a very serious thing to allow your heart to be hardened when the Lord brings correction, or when things don’t go the way you want them to go. Indeed, if we allow our hearts to stay hardened, we have no hope of being able to enter into the rest of the Lord. That’s why it’s so important that we allow the Lord to search us and help us identify areas where we have closed ourself off from His voice, closed ourself off from His direction and/or correction.

Through Jesus Christ, we have rest from the labor of our trying to earn our own salvation. But, there is yet a greater rest to be entered. God forbid that we should allow hardness of heart—or anything else—keep us from following His voice all the way home.

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

A hardened heart will never enter into God’s rest.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!