While It is Called Today

The writer of the Psalms gave us this invitation: “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.  For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.  To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (Psalms 95:6-7).  The children of Israel in the wilderness hardened their heart against Moses and the Lord, and because of it they did not enter into the Promised Land as they could have.  I think the message here from this verse is that we must act “today” while we can, for there will come a time when it becomes too late to soften our heart and receive the blessings the Lord has in store for us.  The importance of this passage of scripture is highlighted by how often it is quoted or paraphrased by other scriptures. 

                In the New Testament both Paul and the Savior seemed to allude to these verses from Psalms.  When Jesus was asked about the blind man and who had sinned to cause him to be born blind, He said this, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). This is not the exact language as that of Pslams, but this idea of working “while it is day” is I think essentially the same message.  Paul clearly was speaking of this passage when he wrote to the Hebrews, “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7).  He also paraphrased in the same manner as the Savior saying, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).  The point is that today is the day for us to work and to soften our hearts before the Lord.

                The Lord also used the same kind of language in modern scripture.  He told the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Hearken, O ye people of my church, and ye elders listen together, and hear my voice while it is called today, and harden not your hearts” (D&C 45:6).  Similarly in another revelation He said, Therefore, if ye believe me, ye will labor while it is called today” (D&C 64:25).  In the Book of Mormon Jacob likewise quoted this verse off of the plates of brass, saying to his people, “Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die?” (Jacob 6:6)  Ultimately I think the message boils down to what Amulek—who may have also been hearkening back to Psalms—taught: “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors” (Alma 34:34).   We don’t know how long that “day” will last for us, and the invitation from all these verses is to use that day now while we can and heed the voice of the Lord.