Psalm 50 •
Deuteronomy 9:23–10:5 • Hebrews 4:1-10 •
John 3:16-21
Deuteronomy tells about the
persistent God who shows love for the people by refashioning the tablets of the
law after the first set is destroyed. Psalm 50 encourages us to think about
listening to God’s word and letting it shape our own utterances. God always has
a word for us: “The mighty one, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth. . . . Our
God comes and does not keep silent. . . . The heavens declare his
righteousness. . . . Hear, O my people, and I will speak.”
A passage that is both humorous and lyrical
even tells us what God does not say: “If
I were hungry, I would not tell you . . . ,” for “every wild animal of the
forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.”
Instead, God calls for expressions
of gratitude (“a sacrifice of thanksgiving”), prayerful trust (“call on me in
the day of trouble”), and heartfelt praise (“you shall glorify me”). The last
seven verses of the psalm are a critique of human speech, first for our
unfitness to speak for God (“. . . to the wicked God says: “What right have you
to recite my statutes, or take my covenant upon your lips?”) and then for the
harm we do to ourselves and each other through deceitful and slanderous speech. “You give your mouth free rein for evil. . . . I have been silent; you thought
I was one just like yourself. But now I
rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.”
Even as we fall short, God reaches out with a fruitful word. The message is echoed in the reading from Hebrews, which quotes Psalm 95 (a familiar part of our Anglican liturgy of Morning Prayer): “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Even as we fall short, God reaches out with a fruitful word. The message is echoed in the reading from Hebrews, which quotes Psalm 95 (a familiar part of our Anglican liturgy of Morning Prayer): “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
— Vickie Gottlob
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