Ritual + Relationship

I don’t know why it’s so easy to wake up in the morning and follow this exact regimen of thought:

• Turn off that awful alarm on my wonderful iPhone...
• I should lay down for 3 more minutes of sleep, then I’ll feel more awake...yup, that makes sense...good call, Hanzo...you smrt...
• How many times do I have to hit snooze on this stupid thing?!...
• Sleepy eyes, makapiapia, Listerine, bedhead...I’m handsome...
• Who’s drinking all coffee? I thought we had more than this...
• Now that I’m all set, I think God is ready for me. Time for some time in the Word...should I check my email first?

Although it’s pretty funny (to me, at least), after writing it all out I’m pretty sure it’s not that entertaining to the Lord. Or, it might be, a little. But probably in a way similar to me watching my toddler son balance on the couch armrest like a tightrope, trying not to look at me because he knows I’m watching because he knows he’s not supposed to do that because that’s how he lost one of his teeth not long ago.

Anyhow, a walk through Psalm 50 will fix all of this.

[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; he does not keep silence;
                before him is a devouring fire,
                around him a mighty tempest.
        [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!”

In “Crazy Love,” Francis Chan talks about trying to visualize himself standing before God as he prays. This God, who by his word summons the earth; whom before him is a devouring fire with a tempest around him; who alone calls to the heavens and the earth; seeks to judge his people, those he has chosen by covenant. When I see that this is the God who inspired the Bible on my shelf and on my iPhone and creates and summons all things, I feel ashamed at my daily morning ritual. I don’t give one thought to this awesome Creator until after I’ve brushed my hair (while he knows all the hairs on my head and how many of them fall out), after I use my voice to groan about sleepiness (and he formed the very tone of my voice). And what is God concerned with? Not the sacrifices or rituals I do, but the condition of my heart, and how close my heart is to his.

[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 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.”

Verse 7 echoes the Shema, the greatest verse for every good Jew. In Deuteronomy 6, following the Shema is a call to love God and obey him and to keep his Law and write it on their hearts and teach it to their children and fix their entire lives according to the Lord and his covenant. Here, God recalls this famous verse but what follows is a warning on ritual vs. relationship.

God has set his covenant before his people. But he doesn’t need sacrifices; it isn’t something he requires for his existence or purpose. He doesn’t hunger for steak or goat blood. What he does desire is “a sacrifice of thanksgiving.” This is found throughout the entire Bible (Psalm 107:22, Psalm 116:17, Jonah 2:9); that God doesn’t want mindless ritual, he wants his people to have his heart and love the things he loves (Micah 6:8).

This contrasts other gods of the time. Sacrifices were offered to other gods (like Baal, Asherah, Molech) because those gods needed flesh and blood to sustain themselves. If they received enough offerings they would bless their people; so worshipers of these false gods lead a life of fear, always wondering if their god would be pleased or angered, always hoping that their god would bless them, but it was dependent on whether enough sacrifices had been made. God Almighty is not like that. Blood is required for sin, yet God makes promises based on his own character and glory. What he desires are hearts of thanksgiving and praise, because God has crafted the hearts of humanity, and his desire is that they function as they are meant to--in worship to him. Since other gods did not craft a single human heart, what do they know what the heart needs?

Then, God flips it and talks about “the wicked.”

[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] If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
                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 brother;
                you slander your own mother's son.
        [21] These things you have done, and I have been silent;
                you thought that I was one like yourself.
        But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

At first read, I thought the wicked people were those who weren’t Israelites. But the context tells it all. The wicked, in this psalm, are those who have heard the covenant and recited his statutes and repeated them with their own lips, but have cast them behind. They do not offer thanksgiving to God, rather, they use their mouths for evil and deceit and slander. In doing so, they have not received any divine punishment from God, so they assume that his silence shows his approval (or his weakness). But God is not like man (v.21: “you thought that [the] I [AM] was one like yourself”). God rebukes those who allegedly know him; who are allegedly his people yet don’t live like people who are glad that God Almighty dwells with them as a holy nation.

[22] “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
                lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
        [23] The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
                to one who orders his way rightly
                I will show the salvation of God!”

This sums it all up. God’s people aren’t mindless, ritualistic, religious people. God is glorified when his people offer thanksgiving to him; when his people delight in his presence and name. This is what it means to “order our way rightly.”

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Lord, may I live the rest of this day as a true act of worship and thanksgiving to you. I pray that my eyes be opened to true reality, that I may see as you see. Most importantly, that I act upon what is true and good. This will no doubt require me to do things I am uncomfortable with, like loving and forgiving and rejoicing in all things. Nevertheless, for your glory, amen.