Meribah was the place that the children of Israel got thirsty and began to complain to Moses.  In Exodus 17 we see the people “quarreled with Moses” demanding water.  They “grumbled against Moses” and challenged his motives in leading them out of Egypt only to die of thirst.  So Moses cried out to God and God provided water for the people and their livestock.  Moses named the place Massah, which means “test” because that’s where they tested God, and he named it Meribah, which means “to quarrel.”

Although that wasn’t the last time the people of Israel complained, that particular episode is important as we read Psalm 94.  In this psalm the writer reveals a sobering reality of how God felt about His people.  In the middle of this challenge not to harden our hearts, we see that God “loathed that generation” of Israelites who complained about their thirst.  He said they “err in their heart.”   He said, “they do not know My ways.” We read that God “swore in [His] anger” because of the attitude of their hearts.

Here are a few quick observations:

(1)    Complaining Christians receive the contempt of God.  God despised that generation.

(2)    Complaining Christians do not go away quickly.  We read that God loathed them for “forty years.”

(3)    Complaining Christians infect others.  In Psalm 94 we see that an entire generation adopted this “Meribah condition.”

(4)    Complaining Christians have a heart problem.  They “err in their heart.”  The problem was not the circumstances around them, but the attitude within them.

(5)    Complaining Christians miss God’s ways.  Although they were God’s people, they never knew His ways.

Through His grace and in His patience, God provided a fountain of cool, clear water to quench the people’s thirst.  But while God opened the waters of Meribah, He closed the way to the Promised Land.  God decided to quench their thirst and yet let them die in the wilderness…with the dream of the land of milk and honey in their hearts.

Sometimes God answers our prayers without ever giving us His best.  Our complaints can be heard in the heavens, yet despised in the heart of God.  Our thirst can be quenched without the blessings of God upon our lives.

“Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker…Today, if you would hear His voice…”—Psalm 94: 6-7.

Question: Has God ever answered a prayer that you later wished He would have ignored?