Telescopes or Microscopes - Pt 4

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. (Psalm 69:30-31 ESV).

There is an interesting connection between our reading and Psalm 50 and 51. One of the reasons God was not pleased with the offering of an ox or bull or goat was that the giver often thought that his gift was enriching God, was supplying some deficiency in God. But what seems like an act of love among men (ie.: meeting someone's needs) is an insult to God. "Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). God is declaring that we can't give Him a bull or an ox because they are already His. Here is man's self-exaltation again. Even in the practice of religion, sinful man finds a way to preserve his status as giver. Our heart’s desire is to be the self-sufficient benefactor. In the very act of worship, we often belittle God by refusing to assume the part of a receiver, an undeserving and helpless beneficiary of mercy and grace. As an antidote to this arrogance in worship, God prescribes the opposite: "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanks!" Acknowledge God as the giver and accept the lowly status of receiver. This is what magnifies God. That's why the last verse of Psalm 50 says, "He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me." So when David says, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17), he is simply describing the only sort of heart from which the sacrifice of genuine thanksgiving can flow. Until the stiffness of man's arrogant neck is broken and the hardness of his self-sufficient heart is softened, he will never be able to offer genuine thanks to the true God, and therefore will not magnify God but only himself. That kind of humble thanksgiving, in good times and bad, produces an amazing result. David says, "Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God let your hearts revive" (v. 32). These two things are joined, thanksgiving and renewal. It may seem like I am declaring bad news. Perhaps to those intent on maintaining their pride, their love for their own glory, and their commitment to their own self-sufficiency it is. However, they are not bad news to the oppressed. To those who have come to the end of their rope, who have fallen exhausted from pulling at their own bootstraps, our text is good news!