Thursday, 4th Week of Easter

Psalm 50

This is a setup. First God calls before him his “loyal followers, those who have made a covenant and sealed it with sacrifice” (v.5). And then he accuses them! But not because of their “sacrifices” of calves, goats, and birds. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the whole world is mine and all that is in it” (v.12).

The problem is not so much the sacrifices themselves, but the spirit in which they are done. “Appeasement” became a four letter word, thanks to its British practitioners in 1the 1930s, who kept saying, “if we give the Germans this piece of land, then surely that should be enough for Hitler.” God is not a maniacal dictator. But he is the sovereign of the entire universe. And it is equally foolish to think that anything we do could manipulate him into doing what we want.

What does God ask of us? “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving…keep in my way.” Can you see God as the one who loves you, who doesn’t want the pretty face you show to the world, but the hurt, and hurting person that each of us is? God is not to be appeased, because God does not need to be appeased.