Face This

"These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face." Psalm 50:21

This Psalm is penned by Asaph, one of David's chief musicians. I'm sure David was pleased with what he wrote. Because like the writings of the sons of Korah in the previous eight Psalms, it reflects some of the same beautiful depictions of God and the revealing pictures of the either insincere or wicked nature of man.

We are now are one-third of our way through the devotions on the Psalms and I am becoming increasingly aware of two things. One, how extremely harsh, matter-of-fact and poignant David's (and other's) words are about people and what they are capable of, and what they do. Secondly, how we tread so softly on the matter of sin and seem to shy away from being bluntly honest about just how far from what God demands from us and hopes for us. The ongoing, growing conviction I feel is real and though Psalms is noted for its encouraging words, as I study through all of them I notice that we kind of pick the nice stuff out and don't really deal with the harsher words. After all, who wants to hear some of this stuff over and over again? I guess if we didn't need it, it wouldn't bear repeating.

So why did I pick out verse 21? Well, God may seem silent when He is not. Sometimes His mercy is amazing and He withholds judgment that is sorely deserved. By His silence, He is not condoning sin, nor is He indifferent to it. Instead, He is giving time for people to repent. This certainly is no indicator that He is more like us than we ought to believe. He is not like us at all and only sometimes are we like Him. When the words “you thought I was altogether like you” are used, they could be translated “you thought the I AM was like you”. These words are used only in cases where the impugning of the holiness of God is indicated.

It is blasphemous to think He is like us. It is equally impugning to His character for us to be so insincere or wicked. Wickedness really is a condition of unbelievers and should never be thought or spoken of us. The first half of the Psalm is dedicated to insincere worship. He is merciful about that too. We bring our sorry selves into His presence and then we offer Him a pitiful prayer, or song, or gift, or confession, or message thinking that it is better than nothing.

God really does merit our best, our most sincere and finest efforts all the time, especially together in worship. It is so easy to just go through the motions or slip out of the room, or "check out" mentally or emotionally or spiritually. But somehow we excuse our lack of focus with weak excuse or attachment to the whole experience as satisfactory and take some kind of partial credit for being part of the overall worship. Needless to say He knows what each heart is doing and why.

How do we escape the guilty conscience or shame this reveals? By His grace we are invited to be honest with ourselves, search our hearts and repent of our shallowness and laziness. He knows all and sees all; He is not like us and does not "check out"...... ever. Let us be more conscientious of what we do and don't do and not be like the wicked, and try to be more sincere. God gives us the glorious opportunity to be part of the most important process in the universe... glorifying Him. We should not take his mercy for granted or presume upon His grace.

Asaph, as a chief musician, saw what people were doing and it convicted him to share these words with David… and us. Let us consider them as if God knows us and as if we understand that He is not like us, but deserves so much more. I hope you are convicted and encouraged by this, I was.

In Him, Pastor Fred

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