SCRIPTURE: Psalm 50
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
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. [Psalms 50:13-14]
Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you. But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honours me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.” [Psalms 50:22-23]
In this psalm, God is described as coming as Judge to reveal the hearts of His followers and expose their religious and moral hypocrisy.
For the most part, the old testament believers at this time were living a lie; they went through all the religious motions but in their hearts they did not acknowledge or appreciate God.
They were not motivated by love or thankfulness, they were putting on a religious show.
They acted as if so long as they made their sacrifices, God had to accept and bless them; but God does not need the sacrifices, He desires the sacrifice of love and gratitude, He wants our hearts!
The call to repent is an appeal to stop being religious and start being sincere, loving, thankful.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum? ” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” [Matthew 9:11-13]
Jesus was being challenged by the religious leaders for associating with ‘sinners’.
Jesus affirms that they are sinners, that they are sick, but then He adds that at least they know they are sinners.
Unlike the religious leaders, who pretended to be holy because they practiced all the religious sacrifices and rules.
The religious leaders in Jesus day were just like the old testament believers addressed in this psalm; they made the sacrifices, but did not reflect the heart of such sacrifices – in this case mercy.
In Psalm 50, God says that He does not want sacrifices, He wants gratitude; in Jesus words He says that God does not want sacrifices, He wants mercy.
In both cases, God desires what the symbols represent, not just the symbols.

For today, we could say the same thing about our religious practices:

• God doesn’t just want us to read the bible, He wants us to love and obey the truth it communicates
• God doesn’t just want us to attend church, He wants us to love the people and join with them in doing the work of the church
• God doesn’t just want us to sing worship songs, He wants us to sincerely love, worship and honour Him
• God doesn’t just want us to put money in the collection plate, He wants us to genuinely desire to help those in need and commit ourselves and our resources to God’s mission through the church
• God doesn’t want religious people, He wants genuine God and neighbour lovers.

Only those who realize this, and who see how incomplete their love for God and people is, will repent.
Once we admit our sin-sick souls, more committed to self than God or others, then we are in a place to receive God’s mercy and help – and this in turn will make us grateful and merciful ourselves.

PRAYER:
Lord, You want me to be honest about my limited love for You and people; You want me to repent, so that You can forgive me and help me to change. Help me to stop just going through the religious motions. Help me to strive, with Your help, to be loving, thankful and merciful.