Psalm 50:16-23
“But to the wicked God says: “What right have
you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For
you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If
you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with
adulterers. “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and
your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your
brother; you slander your own mother's son. 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. “Mark
this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none
to deliver! The one who offers thanksgiving as his
sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly, I will
show the salvation of God!”
Lip service, but not true worship, God is speaking
to His people called by His name, that is whom God is addressing in the
Scripture above, and this thought came into my mind, have I not been that way
with my Lord? The Scripture above should bring to mind what the
apostle Paul instructed us in 2 Corinthian 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see
whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize
this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? –unless indeed, you fail to
meet the test!”
Could it be you and I need many reminders of who
God is and 1 Samuel 16:7, is such a Scripture? God is talking with
His prophet Samuel about picking a king for Israel, and these are God’s
words. “ But
the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees
not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looks on the heart.”
It somehow you think your performance for God is
like teaching fourth graders in Awana or teaching youth that have no desire to
listen or being a pastor, is earning points with God, think
again. These Jewish people were into performance, and they could
have put to shame the religious person of our day. In Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not
despise.” And back to 1 Samuel 15:2, “But Samuel declared: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, obedience
is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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