Listening to God

Psalm 81, evoking the famous "Shema" ["hear!"] passage of Deuteronomy 6, forcefully reminds God's people that what the Lord desires above all else is our listening.  The kind of listening that not merely hears, but that goes on to obey. Listening is not an incidental, peripheral agenda item within God's kingdom.  Much in God's purposes for the world and our flourishing as human beings depends on the quality of our hearing.