Through the Bible in one year - Day 50

Psalm 50:14-15

“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."

This Psalm gives me a very clear understanding of what God desires from us; everything, beast, bird, and hill, all of it is already his; what he wants from us is a relationship. Who else do we thank, and offer our time and efforts for? Who else do we call to when we need something? Who else but a friend, someone we know and trust – this is the relationship God looks for with us; the relationship we saw with Abraham, when he took the time to reason with God and intercede for Lot and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; the same relationship that Jacob had when he struggled to get a blessing. Yes, I can see this in this Psalm.

And the why is also clear:

“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

to one who orders his way rightly

I will show the salvation of God.” (Psalm 50:23)

What a fitting response from Jacob – who says “It is enough; Joseph my son is alive.” (Genesis 45:28) I can see how this reflects what the Psalmist is saying here – this too is about the relationship; this relationship among the brothers who had been estranged, and worse who had tried to kill their own kin, and yet out of that they recognize the Lord’s hand and his provision. How right that they might give praise to God for all that he has done.

I am wondering though, about what comes out of this – if the beginning of this provision is derived out of the treachery of the brothers, what might have happened had they not turned against their brother? Here they are being welcomed into Egypt, but later I know that the Egyptians turn against the Israelites and they are enslaved. Do they too soon forget God’s provision and stop thanking him, is this what happens, and is it because of their dysfunctional beginnings? This isn’t answered here in these readings but I begin to wonder.

There are a couple of similarities I noticed in reading the 2 Chronicles passage and the passage from Acts; and that is the discussion of idol worship. Paul cleverly remarks to the people of Athens I see you are spiritual people for I see you have many idols; and when Joash was crowned King after having been saved from execution as a baby, what they do is tear down the idols so that there are no distractions between them and the worship of God who saves them. This is what Paul said to the people of Athens:

“Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:29-31)

Today’s readings: Psalm 50, Genesis 45, 2 Chronicles 23, Acts 17:16-34