Morning Prayer: Meriba and Masah
From Morning Prayer: “ Today, listen to the voice of the Lord; do not grow stubborn as your fathers did in the wilderness when at Meriba and Masah they challenged me and provoked me although they had seen all of my works. ” [Psalm 95] There’s something about those two names — Meribah and Massah — that always feels like a sigh rising up from the page. Not a scolding sigh, but the kind that comes when someone remembers a hard moment and says, “We’ve been here before.” They’re wilderness words. Dry words. Words from a place where people were tired and frightened and not at their best. And maybe that’s why they still echo. Because we know those places too. Meribah: the place of quarreling. Massah: the place of testing. Two names for one moment when fear got the upper hand and trust slipped through the fingers. What moves me is that the psalm doesn’t say, “Don’t be like them.” It simply says, “Don’t let your heart harden the way theirs did.” As if the real danger isn’t thirst or fear ...