Focus Chapters:
- Psalms 50
- Psalms 73-74
Standout Verse(s):
Psalms 50:7-14 NLT
“O my people, listen as I speak.
Here are my charges against you, O Israel:
I am God, your God!
I have no complaint about your sacrifices
or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need the bulls from your barns
or the goats from your pens.
For all the animals of the forest are mine,
and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains,
and all the animals of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for all the world is mine and everything in it.
Do I eat the meat of bulls?
Do I drink the blood of goats?
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Observation (s):
- The Israelites constantly offered sacrifices and burnt offerings per Israel’s stipulated laws.
“O my people, listen as I speak.
Here are my charges against you, O Israel:
I am God, your God!
I have no complaint about your sacrifices
or the burnt offerings you constantly offer. - While God had no complaints about them following the law, He indicated that He wanted something more from them, that surpassed the routine of religion.
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
and keep the vows you made to the Most High. - Application:
We attend to our religious duties on autopilot, without mech thought or feeling. The religiosity of our sacrifices and offerings have become ingrained within us. We give our tithes. We go to church every Sunday or Saturday and as needed during the weekdays. We donate, when we are called to. We attend Bible study. We make time to read our Bibles and pray. We make the pilgrims. We make the physical spiritual sacrifices that are expected of us because they are what are expected. We have no emotional connection or rationale to the religious acts that we partake in on a daily basis.
God doesn’t need your acts of religion. He doesn’t need acts that are fostered by religious duty. He doesn’t need you to do something because it is what is expected of you. He owns the world and everything in it, thus He doesn’t need you to offer sacrifices to Him. What God wants is simple. He desires the emotional connection that inspires your acts of religion. Acts inspired by a recognition and thankfulness of who He is. He desires you to keep the vows you made to Him.
Only then does your offerings and sacrifices, with new personal meaning, become worthy of being ingrained into your subconsciousness and integral to your lifestyle.
