Day 130.
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Ps 50:7-15)
Often we read in the psalms about bringing an offering into His courts. And yet here, the offering is rejected. We have something to learn about the nature of offerings. It is not for the sake of God that we give as though he needed something from us (the whole world is already his). And yet, we tend to operate this way, as if we are doing God some favor when we obey him or “give up” something for him. We think it somehow puts God in our debt or that He “owes” us some measure of reward and blessing because of our sacrifice. But that is the miss the point altogether. To sacrifice for the Lord is a blessing to us. It is in the sacrifice that that we fall into greater dependence upon the Lord and thus discover that much more the wonders of his grace that are poured out upon us. Putting ourselves into God’s hands (rather than our own provision) allows God’s goodness to be felt and seen, thus glorifying Him.
“God loves a cheerful giver!”
