Psalm Meditation 684
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 28, 2013

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)

There are times for each of us in which we simply go through the motions of worship or some other act of service. Our hearts are not in it. A part of us wants to join in this act of worship with the whole congregation and another part wants to be doing something else. Even as we resent having to make this particular sacrifice at this particular time, we find ourselves drawn in to be with the people of God. In addition to times of worship we may feel the dual pull to perform an act of ministry, service or mission even as we wonder if we are actually helping this person or group by our activity. This psalm is not about those times.

This psalm is about the people who go through the motions with no intention of being touched or changed by having done these things. It is for show and nothing more. It is going through the motions to give them license to do what they would rather be doing the rest of the week. There probably aren’t as many of this kind of people as we want to believe. Yes, there are those who compartmentalize their lives, who believe that faith and worship are one thing and the rest of life is separate from worship and faith practices. They are sincere in their worship, it simply doesn’t touch the rest of their daily activity.

We are invited to bring thankful hearts into the presence of God. Yes, God is present in all of life, however there are places and times in which we are more attuned to God’s presence. God invites us to bring thankfulness into those times as an acknowledgment of the salvation God offers and gives.

July 22, 2013