Thursday, March 13, 2014

Thursday, March 13, 2014

PSALM 50: a reflection…

Psalm 50 opens with God exploding into the scene in a roaring blaze of fire, storm and light.  This is not how most Anglican services start, as I recall.  In fact, it’s not anyone’s liturgy at all: it’s a Trial!  In the first 6 verses, God arrives and calls the entire Heavens and earth into court.  He summons His faithful people who have made a covenant with Him.  He is there to judge them.  

Let the Trial begin.

God acknowledges His people’s sacrifices, but He reminds them (and us) that all the creatures – the birds and animals (and treasure) they are giving up for sacrifice, are His to begin with.  Ironically He says He will “accept no bull from your house”.  Surely, that is the theme of the psalm.  I hear God speaking out of love for humankind, but let us continue….

God declares that offering these items for sacrifice do Him no good.  He doesn’t eat them or need their blood.  It’s the attitude of THANKFULNESS that He wants – the GRATITUTE for all He has given.  For us then, I imagine the challenge is the thoughts in our minds as we write those weekly cheques… It’s the attitudes in our Hearts as we recite the words in the book, or stand or kneel or sing.  To each his or her own, but in the courtroom of Psalm 50, God calls for a spirit of thankfulness driving all our worship – not mere recital of forms.

When I was a child, I used to think God did not hear my prayer if my hands were not folded and my eyes were not closed.  I should have discovered this psalm earlier.  I could have avoided years of guilt.

It’s not the forms, kid, it’s the attitude…!

Some of us offer time and skills as well as treasure.  Again, in God’s court, it’s the attitude of mind that counts.  Do we conduct our ministries with gratitude and joy – and a sense of thankfulness?  Or do we get trapped in a pit of complaint about the long hours or the lack of thanks or recognition?  The story of Jesus’ temptation in the Wilderness really helps us focus on avoiding the need for glory and recognition.  But it’s hard to muster His strength at times.

I know many of us call upon God in our hour of need, as stated in verse 15.  God says this glorifies Him.  But in verse 16, God the Prosecutor argues that even the wicked can rattle off all the words of familiar prayers and promises (the Covenant).  He points out that their lives betray their so-called sincerity.  They keep company with thieves and adulterers.  He says they have no discipline.  The Psalm says “you cast my words behind you”.  What a great image for abandoning God’s ways as soon as we walk out of the church door!

17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you

Modern newspapers are filled with stories of those who have abandoned God’s ways.  I suppose they are today’s ‘thieves and adulterers’. We can’t avoid such people in society, but I assume we can avoid their attitudes of heart.  Perhaps that is what is meant by “keep company” in verse 18.  

Jesus spoke of being in the world but not of it.

God accuses the wicked of talking evil and deceit.  He gets specific – accusing the people of slandering their brothers.  This is gossip – and trash talk inside families.  These accusations from the Lord are hard to take!  Which of us hasn’t done this from time to time.  Ouch!

In verse 21, God says: “You thought I was one like yourself.”  What a compelling statement!  We forget that God does not think like us, reason like us - and more especially compartmentalize our lives like we do from Sunday to Monday.  As God calls all of Nature from Day unto Night into court to speak for Him, so He does not see Worship, Gratitude and Thankfulness as Sunday-only activities.  God sees these things as a way of Being, a way of Thinking, a way of Living.

21 These things you have done and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

Verses 22 and 23 sum up the court case against humankind – It has both a lethal warning and a hope - if we do not want to be rent asunder*, do not forget God from day to day.  Bring Thanksgiving as our sacrifice, bring meaning to the words of the Covenant as we speak it, and God will show that person the Way of Salvation.

It’s hard to read Psalm 50 without finding something that mirrors our faulty relationship with God.  Fortunately, in this courtroom, the Judge and Prosecutor is also the Redeemer.  He points out the way to avoid the fate that awaits us, should we stand accused.  We are called into court, but let off with a warning.  The wise person will Heed that warning, and change his or her ways, not out of fear, but out of Gratitude and Thankfulness – and ultimately, out of Love.

*(God can destroy us all as a lion would tear an animal into pieces. And, as He says in verse 22, there would be none to deliver.)

-Peter Mansell, Lent, 2014