“Quite an indictment”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, May 5, 2023

Psalm 50 - CEV p. 584

Often these days—at least if one listens to the news—our world seems indictment happy. There seems to be lawsuits galore. If it isn’t a former US president, then it’s the head of some Hollywood studio, or some well-known media personality, or some song writer. Some of these seem to be somewhat frivolous and others more serious, but either way, it seems to never end.

God, however, in today’s psalm, has an indictment, and it is not at all frivolous or ill founded. It is against His own people, Israel. And interestingly, it is not because they have ignored their religious duties. No, not in the least. In fact, He says that they are always bringing Him gifts and offering Him sacrifices. However, these are not backed up by the way that they live. Their sacrifices are superficial only and are not matters of the heart. They don’t really ‘mean what they say’. In fact, their lives demonstrate just the opposite.

So, what has God got against them? Here He lays out a scathing list, a terrible and detailed list of His indictments against them:

-they have refused correction and rejected His commands;

-they have made friends with every crook they meet;

-they like people who break their wedding vows;

-their speech is taken up with talk of violence and with telling lies;

-they sit around gossiping and ruining the reputations of their own relatives;

-they have ignored God and have decided that God doesn’t notice or doesn’t care if they do these things. They basically ‘wrote off’ God in terms of His doing anything about this.

So, what does God want instead? Is it just a matter of quitting these things, or, is there something else? Interestingly, twice God mentions that the true sacrifice, the one that He really desires, is the giving of thanks to Him. That, He says, is the sacrifice that truly honours Him.

In many ways, that really hit home, for in this last while I have found that my life has been taken up big time with grumbling, if not about one thing, then about another. Grumbling about big things, like government and the situations nationally or internationally, or grumbling about little things, like the local church or community, or such little things like my aches and pains. Giving thanks to God seems to be woefully absent, and yet, according to this psalm, this is exactly what God wants. That, and a bit of obedience as well. I guess that it’s time to ‘pull up my socks’, at least for myself. Amen.