Ellie Light explores the challenging tension in Psalm 95 between God's tender care and His call to obedience. Through honest reflection on her own struggles with control and the Israelites' "cucumber problem" of forgetting God's provision, she reveals how grace and personal responsibility aren't opposing forces but complementary aspects of a relationship with God. Discover why obedience matters without falling into fear-based faith.
01**When God's Love Meets Our Stubbornness**
How quickly do we forget the good things God does for us? One minute we're celebrating his provision, the next we're grumbling about what we don't have. It's the cucumber problem all over again.
Ellie Light tackles Psalm 95, admitting that she initially tried to skip the challenging bits of this Psalm, but the Lord kept bringing her back to it. What emerges is a nuanced look at how God's tender care and his call to obedience aren't opposing forces - they're two sides of the same loving relationship.
02**The Cucumber Problem**
Before we delve into the tension between grace and obedience, we need to understand what Ellie refers to as "the cucumber problem." It's a reference to the Israelites in the wilderness who, despite experiencing miracle after miracle, still complained about their food.
God had freed them from slavery in Egypt. He'd parted the Red Sea. He was providing miraculous bread (manna) that appeared overnight. And their response? "Remember those cucumbers back in Egypt? Those were nice. This bread is boring."
They were so quick to forget they'd been slaves. So quick to dismiss the miracles. So quick to trust their own memory of Egypt over God's present provision.
Sound familiar? Ellie asks how often we do the same thing - forgetting what God has done, focusing on what we no longer have, and missing the miracles right in front of us because we're too busy looking backwards or sideways.
03**Two Halves, One Psalm**
Psalm 95 divides neatly into two parts, and that's where it gets interesting (and a bit uncomfortable).
The first half is all warmth and invitation: "Come, let's sing to the Lord! Let's shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let's come to him with thanksgiving." It's tender, describing God as the one who "holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest of mountains." Ellie notes how this makes her think of God holding both our deepest sorrows and our greatest strengths.
Then comes this lovely bit: "We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care." It feels fatherly, gentle, safe.
But the second half lands with a thud: "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did... for forty years I was angry with them... They will never enter my place of rest."
It's harsh. It's confronting. And Ellie admits it makes her uncomfortable - particularly given her anxious disposition that wants to either lean fully into grace (everything's fine) or fully into fear (nothing's fine).
04**The Areas We Keep God Out Of**
Here's where Ellie gets brutally honest. She acknowledges there are areas of her life where she actively keeps God out. Places where she thinks she's clever enough to handle things on her own. Situations where she'd rather trust her own plan because at least she can see how it might work out.
"I can see my own plan in my head," she explains. "I can see well if I do that then it might do this and this and this. But you can't do that with God."
When she's in those moments of active disobedience, Ellie finds herself quick to recall God's grace. "Oh but it's okay, you know, because Jesus has died for me and it's all going to be fine."
The Psalm challenges that. It's a reminder that whilst grace is honest and generous, there are still consequences to consistently pulling away from God. Not necessarily in a punitive sense, but in the simple reality that if you're pulling away from God's good plans, you're pulling yourself away from the fruits of those plans.
"If we're pulling ourselves away from God's plan for us which is good, then we're going to be pulling ourselves away from the fruits of the Spirit and the environment of the kingdom of God."
05**Not Black and White**
Ellie's instinct when reading something like this is to go to extremes. The first half of the Psalm feels like complete grace - everything's fine, come as you are. The second half feels like harsh judgment - nothing's fine, you must obey perfectly.
But she reminds us (and herself) that God doesn't work in such stark terms. We have a relational, intimate God who knows us deeply. He knows exactly which areas of our lives we're actively disobeying him in. And rather than wanting to punish us, he wants us to invite him into those spaces.
"He wants me to invite him into it and for him to be in the midst of my temptation and my choices to go the wrong way."
God works on a case-by-case basis. He understands what's genuinely hard for each of us and comes alongside us in it. It's not a case of "you're in or you're out" with grace.
06**The Hebrews Connection**
Ellie points to Hebrews, which quotes Psalm 95 and reinforces its significance - but with added layers of encouragement.
The writer of Hebrews warns: "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." But immediately follows with: "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."
There's both a warning and practical help. Don't go it alone. Encourage each other. Do it today, not tomorrow.
Later in Hebrews comes what Ellie calls "a slightly lighter, more encouraging note": "We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence."
This is crucial. Jesus lived our human experience. He faced temptation. He understands that obedience is genuinely difficult. We can approach His throne with confidence, asking for help, because He understands.
07**Four Questions Worth Asking**
Ellie leaves us with four practical reflections:
1. Where might you be being disobedient? What areas are you keeping God out of because you want control? What comes to mind when you honestly ask yourself that question?
2. What can you do about it? Is there something practical you can change? Are there other people you can invite into those situations? The Hebrews passage emphasises encouraging one another - who could you ask for help?
3. What has God already done? Can you make a list of ways God has blessed your life, cared for you, and provided for you? This helps you remember his trustworthiness when tempted to forget (cucumber problem prevention).
4. How rested are you feeling? Ellie's been exploring Sabbath rest with her small group. She hadn't considered how her day-to-day obedience and trust in God might be linked to the success of her rest. "My obedience to God in the rest of the week might impact how my rest is experienced on the Sabbath."
08**Held in His Hands**
Perhaps the most tender image from Psalm 95 is that God "holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest of mountains."
He holds the depths - our sadnesses, worries, weaknesses, the places we struggle.
He also holds the mighty mountains - our strengths, our victories, our resilience.
All of it. In his hands. The God who calls us to obedience is the same God who understands when we fail. The God who warns us about hardening our hearts is the same God who sent Jesus to live our experience and empathise with our struggles.
Yes, obedience matters. Yes, there are consequences to consistently turning away from God's good plans. But we approach this with confidence, not fear. Because we have a high priest who understands that being human is hard, and his throne is one of grace.
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(420) Psalm 95 | Embracing God’s Care and Call to Obedience - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R13rs1KRg0
Transcript: (00:04) [Music] welcome to crowd Church a digital space where faith is explored hearts are inspired and everyone is welcome to discover the meaningful life that Jesus offers my name is Matt Edmonson and I am one of the pastors here at crowd church and I just wanted to extend a very very warm welcome to you today uh we are going to be looking at Psalm 95 with Ellie like one of my favorite people on the planet she is just lovely uh Ellie is going to offer a candid and relatable perspective uh on this Psalm and on the challenges of (00:46) faith and obedience Ellie as always will be refreshingly honest and she's going to dive into the tension between God's love and our human tendency to stray uh we've all done it providing providing us hopefully with a nuanced understanding of what Grace means but also what personal responsibility means so it's going to be thought-provoking no doubt as Ellie unpacks the Psalms sort of this dual message of Joyful worship and sobering warning uh so you're going to be challenged as always and hopefully inspired and see where you might be (01:22) resisting God's guidance whilst also being reminded that he thinks you're awesome or but that he generally loves you and so whether or struggling with obedience or seeking a deeper connection with God it's going to be fun uh it's going to be interesting uh and we're going to see how we can approach his throne with confidence Even in our weakness and make sure you make sure make sure make sure you stay tuned for Ellie's talk uh that's coming up very shortly but before we get into that let me just say if you are new to crowds a (01:54) very warm welcome to you it's great that you're here a super super warm welcome to to you if you want to know more about crowd church just head over to the website www.c crow. Church there's a whole bunch of information on the site which you can look at and if you are a regular to crowd then you will notice that this live stream is a little different uh if you haven't figured it out yet uh in August we do something called the non-li live stream month um so they're kind of live streams but they're not live live streams as then we (02:24) don't have the normal hosts you know buzzing around with energy and responding to comments and all that sort of stuff uh because August is our sabatical month something that we've done for the last couple of years the members of the crowd Church team just like you or just like many of you from around the world will be taking this time this sort of summer break to rest to recover and to recharge with our loves ones um loves ones our loved ones uh just as God rested on the 7th day we believe massively in the importance of (02:57) Sabbath and taking time off to renew our spirit and regain our strength so I'm going to be doing that the rest of the team's going to be that make sure you pray for us if you're part of the crowd team uh as we want to come back hit in the ground running in September speaking of September there is some really interesting changes coming to crowd Church all good stuff I'm going to be revealing more uh in September what is happening um so make sure you stay tuned for that and of course stay with us during August uh as well even even in (03:30) this sort of non- live stream non live live stream that's what we call it the non live live stream uh even during this period cuz we've just got four great people like Ellie who are just sharing their favorite Psalm it's something that we did last year and we thought actually let's do it again because it was so good last year that I'm I'm really excited to be able to do it again uh and so do stick with us throughout August like I say September's going to get back to normal whatever normal looks like here at crowd Church uh and um we're going to (03:58) you know we'll have the live streams back and we'll have the host back and we'll have some really fascinating stuff to talk about so do stay with us do stay connected obviously still write stuff in the comments still engage with that um because we'll be in there as well because that's just what we do uh so anyway that's enough from me uh as always here is the beautiful and wonderful Ellie hello um my name is Ellie I am a member of Frontline Church I have a occasionally spoken through crowd Church um with the occasional talk and I think (04:33) I hosted co-hosted one of the crowd um crowd church services with Matt um and I've been asked today to share my thoughts and any wisdom um on a Psalm of my choice I found it quite tricky actually to choose a Psalm um I had one that immediately came to mind and I thought oh no too challenging too challenging for myself um and after um flicking through a lot of different Psalms looking for something that was encouraging and affirming and uplifting um I kept coming back to this Psalm um and I think the Lord is is gently challenging me with it (05:16) and so I shall share those gentle challenges with you um I actually shared this at a prayer meeting a couple of weeks ago and I skipped I skipped the challenging bit so um this is perhaps the Lord correcting that um so I'm going to read the NLT version of Psalm 95 um here we go so Psalm 95 come let's sing to the Lord let's shout joyfully to the rock of our Salvation let's come to him with Thanksgiving let's sing Psalms of praises to Him for he is the Lord um he is a great God a great king above Above All Gods he holds in his hands the (06:03) depths of the earth and the mightiest of mountains the sea belongs to him for he made it his hands formed the dry land too come let's worship and bow down let's kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God we are the people he watches over and the flock under his care if only you would listen to his voice today the Lord says don't Harden your hearts as Israel did at maraba and as they did Messa in the wilderness for there your ancestors tested and tried my patience even though they saw everything that I (06:38) did for 40 years I was angry with them and I said they are a people whose Hearts turn away from me and they refus to do what I tell them so in my anger I took an oath they will never enter my place of rest um already just reading that through I felt so moved by little parts of it that I'd not been moved for moved by in my um in my meditations on it before this um just the the wonderfulness of the god that um that we know and love um that he is relational and cares about us and gets hurt when we don't collaborate with him um it's just (07:19) a lovely reminder that he is um personal and cares about us and cares about being in good healthy relationship with us that um that benefits all of us and benefits the kingdom and um yeah he's a good God anyway um so as you can see there's there's two um halves to this um in the first half we've got we've got a lovely palatable narrative going on that's speaking about um joyfully rejoicing to God and declaring that he's the rock of our Salvation let's come to him with Thanksgiving let's sing Psalms of praises to Him let's remember that he (08:00) the God above all other gods and the King above all other kings um and he holds in his hand this this bit I think is so tender that he holds in his hands the depths of the earth and that makes me think of all the the depths of our you know our sadnesses and all of our worries and woes and he's holding them and he's also holding the mightiest of mountains he's he's holding the strongest of the strong um you know both physically and and metaphorically um the sea belongs to him for he made it and His Hands form the dry land too so let's (08:30) worship him let's bow down let's remember that he is above us let's let's lower ourselves so that he is raised up um let's kneel before the Lord our maker um and then so tenderly we are the people he watches over the flock under his care so nice it's really it's gentle it's loving it feels really fatherly um and then the second half um which comes with this really harsh warning um so it's it's speaking to um the story of the Israelites isn't it um so don't Harden your hearts as Israel did at Marb as they did at Messa in the wilderness (09:08) for there your ancestors tested and tried my patience even though they saw everything I did um so this is obviously relating to um the countless stories in the Old Testament where God provided and cared for and loved and saved um the Israelites and and they were there was chosen people he was he was you know they were his precious ones and they just forgot it constantly they forgot what he had done and they chose to mistrust him and disobey him and worship other gods um my dad always uh reminded us as we were growing up with the story (09:45) about cucumbers um when that's referenced in um in the Old Testament where um one of the Miracles one of the many miracles that that God does for the Israelites is he provides food for them in the desert and that's um by way of Mana um which uh kind of miraculously appears overnight um and man is like a kind of a bread-like substance um and there's there's this bit where the Israelites are looking at be like it's not cucumbers there is it back in Egypt back in Egypt where we were where we were slaves um they had (10:21) cucumbers and they had melons and it was lovely and now we've just got Mana miraculous Mana um which is you know a slightly trivial um thing but it's just a really classic example of how quickly um the Israelites forgot that they were slaves and they had cucumber and now they're free and they've got miraculous Manner and um you know there are so many similar things in our lives there are so many times when we are so quick to forget what God has done um and think you know of all the things that we don't have anymore and (10:57) all the injustices of it and actually you God's doing Miracles and we're not even noticing or or or appreciating it um anyway so ultimately this um psalm for me um is a timely reminder um that there are areas of Our Lives or certainly My Life um that I just don't want to let God into that there are things where I'm actively disobeying him or choosing to do my own will because I think I'm smart and clever um and I don't want to trust God and I I don't know that it's all going to work out um whereas I can see my own plan in my head I can see well if (11:39) I do that then it might do this and this and this but you can't do that with God you know sometimes they'll share what he's doing but but not often hey um and there are times when I know that I'm doing things that are actively against what um he is calling me to do what he is um what his best plans are for me and in those moments I'm really quick to recall the grace of God I'm really quick to be like oh but it's okay you know cuz Jesus has died for me and um and it's all going to be fine in the end and God loves me and all of that but (12:10) this Psalm is a um important reminder that there are consequences to our actions and there are consequences to a consistent drawing away from God um and I suppose that's not even in just a um in a punitive way uh from God it's also a the reality of if you're pulling away from the good things that God has for you you'll be pulling away from the good things God has for you so you know the the consequence in in this Psalm that um the Israelites are given is that um they are locked away from entering his place of his place of rest that's that's huge (12:48) um and similarly you know we we are if we're pulling ourselves away from God's plan for us which is good then we're going to be pulling ourselves away from the fruits of the spirit and the you know the environment of the kingdom of God um so sort of just in a logical way it it makes sense um you know aside from the punitive stuff that I don't really want to get into because I don't really understand it um and on on that note um my my disposition in reading something like this I I've have quite an anxious disposition so my instinct is to um go (13:27) with the extremes of it and to look at on the surface this Psalm feels like it's very black and white about like the first half of it lovely God's we're we're A Flock under his care very nice and you know we're um kind of you can you can really see the grace of it and in my head that's okay well that's everything goes in everything's fine um and then you read the second half of it and I jump to oh well nothing's fine and I've got to you know I've got to obey absolutely everything not got got to not get everything um wrong and I've got to (13:59) to the line um and ultimately that isn't um that isn't the way that God works um thankfully and um wonderfully we have a God who is um relational and intimate and knows us um very very well God knows all of the areas of my life where I am actively disobeying him and um he doesn't want to kind of punish me in it he wants me to um invite him into it and for him to be in the midst of my Temptation and my choices to go the wrong way um because we have a good God who loves us um and that's that's the heart of it and it's it is um it's a (14:42) kind of case he works on a caseby Case basis he he he figures out what's hard for us in our lives and he comes alongside Us in it um and it is not a case of you're in or you're out um with with the whole Grace situation um which I'm very grateful for um and also this verse uh this Psalm 95 is referenced in Hebrews as well so after you know after Jesus has been and gone um and it kind of reinforces the significance of this verse the um the threat of it I suppose um so in beginning of Hebrews 313 um it's just sort of um quoted Psalm (15:28) 95 and then says see to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today and that's so nice as long as it's called today encourage one another it's today you ought to encourage one another I think that's lovely um so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness and then uh chapter 4 verse 1 and chapter 4: 11 um therefore since the promise of entering his rest still stand stands let us be careful that none of you um be (16:02) found to have fallen short of it um and then similarly in verse 11 let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will befall um by following their example of Disobedience their example of Disobedience being the Israelites um so it's emphasized Again by the writer of of Hebrews that um this is still important we still need to obey God you know we we may be excluded from his rest if we are disobeying him um so that's again just another another layer of this is still this is something we need to do we need to take this (16:39) seriously um and then just to land on a slightly lighter more encouraging note um I've lost the verse but I'm going to read it off the screen um it says therefore since we have a great high priest who is ascended into heaven Jesus the son of God let us hold firmly to the faith we profess for we do not have a high priest who is unable to to empathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may (17:13) receive mercy and find Grace to help us in our time of need um so th all those verses together the Psalms and the um New Testament um I think for me is just a really a really helpful reminder that yeah yes God is good and and he wants us to be joyful and celebrate and worship him and he wants us to obey him he wants us to you know follow his will for us because it's good and it will lead us to a place of rest um and also an acknowledgement in Hebrews here that it's hard um you know it's hard to hold both of those things (17:50) in place it's hard to trust God sometimes it's hard to obey him and um recognizing that that's why he sent Jesus He sent Jesus to um live our experience of um being a human and to be tempted um and thankfully we have access to Jesus we can we can talk to him about this being really hard and he'll understand um so we can approach approach the throne of grace with confidence and ask for help um is a really encouraging thing um so I've just got a couple of thoughts to leave you with um as you go about your day um where where might you be being (18:30) disobedient are there things that come to mind of actually I'm I'm keeping God out of that bit because I want to be in control of that um is there anything practical you can do about those situations is there other people that you can invite into those um parts of your life um other ways you can encourage one another that's one of the lovely bits um in Hebrews what was it um but encourage one another as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness how can you encourage your brothers and (19:01) sisters in Christ um to uh remember God and be obedient to him um and also that's leads me on to point number three which is are there is there a list you can make of the things that God has done for you the ways that he has blessed your life um the ways he's cared for you and provided for you um so that you're not as quick to forget his trustworthiness um and then finally one one last point which is how rested are you feeling um we've been looking at Sabbath rest um as a small group lately and um I it's not even been in my my (19:46) mind to think about how my obedience and my um trust in God in the kind of day-to-day might be linked to how successful my rest is um um and so I might I might be considering how you know my my obedience to God in the rest of the week might impact how my rest is experienced on the Sabbath um so I shall just end with a quick prayer um and I've gone a little bit over the time so apologies um father I thank you that you sent Jesus to live on this Earth and experience life as we do um thank you that it is not that you understand that (20:26) it's not straightforward for us to um obey you sometimes you understand that we are um we come with strong characters and strong opinions about how things should be um and we thank you for your grace and your understanding um help us not to be proud to let go of the things that we need to let go of and invite people into the areas that we need to invite people into um and I pray you just you help us be obedient you are clear with what you want us to do and you give us the courage to carry it out in Jesus name (21:04) amen well I hope you enjoyed Ellie's exploration of Psalms today I hope you found it insightful and inspiring love how every Psalm is unique every time you read it it feels different a new thing comes out of it it's sort of a distinct voice that speaks to your heart and your soul and your your very being and that's the beautiful thing about Psalms um but you know that's my viewpoint what do you think love to hear your thoughts about what Ellie shared today if you haven't done so already make sure you share it (21:38) uh in the comments any Reflections experiences stories just whatever's on your heart put it in there um especially if you've got questions if you're new to the Christian faith we' love to hear those as well CU just love to hear everyone's different perspectives love to learn from each other uh and uh as we sort of do this Journey of Faith so it is a be beautiful beautiful thing uh if you wish to reach out to us you can find out more information about us or how to contact us whether that's through WhatsApp email social media all of that (22:07) sort of stuff on the website www.cc.edu we would love to meet with you and connect with you and like I said don't forget September we are returning back to our regular live Services whatever that means we've definitely got some funky stuff coming up in September you're not going to want to miss it so do stay connected with us and remember here at crowd Church everyone is welcome everyone is valued no matter where you are on your spiritual journey uh this is a place for you uh even if you wouldn't call yourself a Christ follower and (22:40) you're just figuring it all out still come still engaged uh we love to connect with you so that's it from me thank you so much for joining us today until next time stay blessed stay inspired and keep exploring this beautiful
