Sacrifice and Thanksgiving

Psalm 50 verse 23 says:
   The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
   to one who orders his way rightly
   I will show the salvation of God 

Psalm 50 is all about worship and living out worship. The psalmist starts by focusing on God's glory and declaring His beauty and might. The psalmist calls the people to listen and to remember the greatness of God and especially the sacrifices associated with being in covenant with God (verse 5). Verse 5 is a key verse in the psalm as is sets up audience and introduces the main topic, sacrifice. God speaks to his people through the psalmist that it is not for lack of sacrifice and offerings that he is rebuking them. It is clear that the people are offering many sacrifices, but their hearts were not in the right place. It appears that they were offering sacrifices with the mindset of the pagans, that the bulls and goats were food offerings to feed and provide for a weak or needy god (verses 8 to 13). They had a low view of God and were not keeping His commandments. Verses 16 to 22 lay out the sins of the people, from hating discipline and loving theft and adultery to slandering and making themselves equal with God. These are dangerous sins that entangle all men. Discipline is hard, and the easy path is to avoid it and go with what is comfortable or available. As we try to justify ourselves, we tend to try and make God's law void, or think of Him as no greater than ourselves.

In my life, I have fallen into this. Over the past few weeks, I have not kept a disciplined habit about what entertainment I watch. I have just watched what I wanted to, and fallen into watching more and more things that degrade morality and pull at my convictions. I have justified it in my mind thinking that it's not that bad and that I wont fall into temptation. What a warning this psalm is! I have made myself equal with God by thinking I can withstand temptation on my own. I have spurned a disciplined life. I have kept an outward appearance and have done duties in keeping with God's law, but I it has functionally been a means to earn my salvation. Praise God for this opening my eyes more and more to this, and giving Psalm 50 to rebuke and correct this!

What is the corrective action? I see it in verse 23, quoted above: offer thanksgiving to God. Verses 14 and 15 along with 23 speak to what God calls us to:

   Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
   and perform your vows to the Most High,
   and call upon me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me
   ...
   The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
   to one who orders his way rightly
   I will show the salvation of God 

We are to glorify God by calling upon Him to be our strength. We are to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. This is what first caught my eye in the psalm. How is thanking God a sacrifice? The first thing that came to mind is that by thanking others, especially God, for the things in our lives, we are giving away our glory. Any pride we may have in a job well done, or in a success is given up when we thank God for giving us all things and especially the specific thing we are returning thanks for. By thanking God, we admit that we are the weak and needy ones. It is a sacrifice of pride. Though it is a sacrifice, it is not humiliating or shaming. We give the glory to God for He has given us freely salvation, eyes to see the glory and hearts to respond. Verses 3 through 6 depict God as the all powerful God who has made himself known to his people. Verse 3 reminds me of the refining nature of God, how He is a devouring fire that burns up the dross and is used to purify. Verses 4 and 6 remind us that God alone is judge over all. Verse 5 reminds us of the covenant. Remember the covenant? The covenant that God made with Adam and Abraham and Israel? God's covenant is his promise to bring salvation, to restore our relationship with Him. God alone is the one who keeps the covenant for us and gives us His righteousness. We are called to respond to this great love by sacrificial thanksgiving, giving our lives as living sacrifices (Rom 12:1), following in God's ways. These actions are thanksgiving, not atonement. Christ is the atonement, we are to be thankful.


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