“O that today you would listen to his voice!
Do not harden your hearts,
As at Meribah,
As on the day at Massah
In the wilderness.
Your ancestors tested me.
They put me to the proof,
Even though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation.
I said.
‘They are a people whose hearts go astray.
They do not regard my ways.’
Therefore in my anger
I swore.
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
This psalm concludes with an oracle from God, via the Temple prophet. Yahweh warns them against disobedience. The example of disobedience is from the time in the wilderness at Meribah and Massah in Exodus, chapter 17, when they complained about no water in the desert. The same story can be found in Numbers, chapter 20. Their ancestors had tested him even though they had seen his work in Egypt. Yahweh then said to them that their hearts had gone astray. Therefore they would not enter into the place of rest, the Promised Land.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 