This is the first blog I have done that has not been completed like a week ahead of time. I am as lazy as anyone I know (which isn’t very many people). I find that I am less likely to read the Psalm of the Day if the blog isn’t up for it, which is not a good thing, especially with all the slackers who wait until the day after to start writing… (I used to do that all the time in school, somehow I got by). The main reason I wrote them early was because I figured I wouldn’t know what to write. Also I feel like I should actually be responsible and on time with this, to make up for all the times I walk in Sunday School with five minutes left (though it’s mostly Bryan’s fault). This one should be shorter, but I make no guarantees.
The first thing I want to get into is verse 2. I like the ESV translation of this verse: “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.” Just glancing over the verse as we often do, it reveals little. Just think about it for a few seconds. God is the “PERFECTION OF BEAUTY”! We often look to earthly things for beauty. I am reminded of a phrase in 1 John 2:16, “the lust of the eyes.” As visually appealing as all of God’s creation and everything in the world seems to be, He is infinitely better. The beauty of earthly items is marred by the sinfulness of man. I am not one to sit and marvel at nature for its beauty to be honest. I see it and go that’s nice, and move on. I often do that to God too. I just rush on by and miss the amazing sight of His perfection. If we focus our eyes on the one true beauty, they will be satisfied.
The next portion of the psalm focuses on His judgment. Now we should all know by now that the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. Verses 9 and 10 say “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” God is saying that our sacrifices are not enough. We can give away all our money (because I don’t think any of us have cattle or anything, but then again most of us don’t have money either… but it’s more relatable) but it is not enough. God already owns your money (or your cattle and goats). Nothing you can give is enough, because it is already His. We have nothing to give to sufficiently cover our ever compounding sins… not even our lives, because they are also His.
Inevitably will come the fact that Jesus’ sacrifice is the only way to sufficiently cover our sins from God. We just can’t get away from Jesus, no matter how hard we try, and I know we try pretty hard sometimes. What I find funny about this is that the sacrifices to make up for our mistakes aren’t even our own. In the Old Testament, the people were offering the cattle and goats (which God owned) as atonement for their transgressions. The sacrifice of Jesus was also not of our own, but from God. So what exactly does God what from us? Verses 14 and 15 say “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." We should praise and thank the Perfection of Beauty for our life and all He does and is.
The next thing I want to point out comes from verses 16-20: “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.” This reminds me so much of the world, all of the people who claim Christianity and don’t live like it at all. They only want to use God as a means of getting to Heaven. The words of God they just ignore, and they don’t want to be punished or disciplined for their sins in order to become godlier. They are just fine living an unchanged life, because the spirit has not filled them with a desire to do so. If they truly believed and wanted to live for Christ, even as a concept, the Spirit would fill them with the desire to work towards that objective.
But wait! I might have a Seinfeld reference… only I could fail at failing.
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