I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:9-10)Israel had this recurring, basic flaw in their worship in the Old Testament. It may be the same basic flaw we have in our worship today. Sometimes they worshiped the wrong gods (a flaw our culture shares), but that isn't the flaw I'm talking about. The flaw was that They misunderstood WHY it was they were to worship God. They thought that worship somehow gave God something that God needed, and thus they were doing God something of a service in worship. (Is this why we call our worship time "the service?") In the Babylonian flood myth The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods rush to devour the sacrifices offered after the great flood because they were starving. Without humans around to offer sacrifices, the gods had nothing to eat! Evidently, there was some of that thinking going on in Israel.
In Psalm 50, the psalmist Asaph dramatically makes the point that worship does not give God anything. We don’t supply something that is lacking in God when we give acceptable worship. Asaph drives home that point in three ways--
- Everything Israel could give already belonged to God (9-11)
- If God were truly hungry, He would not tell them (12)
- God didn't need their sacrifices or anything else (13)
Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”Like the child who gives Daddy a tie on Christmas morning, the gift of worship shows our love for our Father and deepens the relationship we enjoy with Him. God does not benefit from our worship; we do. And ultimately the gift we receive is the gift of God himself. The Psalm concludes in verse 23--
He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.Our sacrifice of worship gives God nothing, but it gives us something crucial. Our gift of worship allows us to better know God, and He takes pleasure in our feeble offering. And that opens the way for us to better see the salvation of God.
3 comments:
Do you ever feel compelled to worship and give thanks for all you have been given?
We have a need to worship and it is through that sacrifice of the offering of praise that we receive what we need. As we offer something of little or no value, with a truly thankful heart, great full we receive something much greater than we could ever give.
It is life we have been given and we give thanks for that as we live for Him when we store up good things in order too help others. Marking and remove the stumbling blocks laid by the evil one, make the paths straight and point to a better way. Why not do so for all that will follow.
Don’t blame God for your success;. . . those who spend too much time taking care of all your “stuff” that you have stored up and hoarded for yourselves and give away and write off the junk you don’t want as it does little good to those who can’t afford to repair and maintain it. There are so many who appear so poor in the eyes of the world, yet most have what they need and are so blessed and are blessing others around them sharing the love. We have so much to be thankful for and are given many things. . . it is up to us to decide what to do with them.
Are we here too let things pile up around us to get in the way? Why not sell what we don’t need for a fraction of what it is worth to those who can use it. See too it that they go to those who need them and that they are not stolen away to make the greedy richer and more powerful as they exploit the weak and the poor.
What are we too with those most valuable precious talents that can’t be sold for money and isn’t worth a dime in the eyes of those who love and live for the world?
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