Psalm Meditation 1129 ¶Fifth Sunday After Epiphany ¶February 6, 2022 ¶Psalm 50 1 The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 3 Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him. 4 He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5 “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” 6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah 7 “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 wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. 15 Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” 16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? 17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. 18 You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers. 19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother’s child. 21 These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. 22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver. 23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.” (NRSV) ¶“What do you say?” This question is asked of children in every generation when they are given some gift or treat. The correct answer is, “Thank you.” It begins as a rote response, what we say because we are expected to say it. For some, it never goes beyond that. There is no accompanying gratitude, just words that are a social convention. For many, being taught the words is the beginning of an awareness that we do not deserve much of the good that we receive. Along with that comes a deep sense of gratitude for the generosity of those around us, including God. ¶The psalmist lets us know that we don’t owe God anything except thanksgiving. When our gifts and sacrifices are given as expressions of our gratitude, God accepts the thanks more warmly than the gifts. When we go through the motions, as if our gifts will buy us favor and earn us a place in the presence of God for eternity, God asks that we keep our gifts. God does not need the smell of cooking meat or baking bread, God wants the pleasant aroma of our thankfulness that is carried up to God more readily than any aroma of grilling and baking. ¶‘Thank you’ is almost as difficult to say in a heartfelt way as ‘I’m sorry.’ It takes a vulnerability, an acknowledgment of our interdependence, to say, and mean, that we are grateful for the investment someone has made in us. God will continue to love and care for us whether we are grateful or not because that is the nature of God. Throughout Scripture we are told and reminded that God does enjoy our thankfulness in word and deed. “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.” ¶January 31, 2022 ¶LCM