OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART
Opening Prayer
Lord, You are greatly to be feared in all Your majesty.
Read PSALM 50
A psalm of Asaph.
1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes
and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
and around him a tempest rages.
4 He summons the heavens above,
and the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather to me this consecrated people,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for he is a God of justice.[a][b]
7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak;
I will testify against you, Israel:
I am God, your God.
8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and the insects in the fields are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the wicked person, God says:
“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
21 When you did these things and I kept silent,
you thought I was exactly[c] like you.
But I now arraign you
and set my accusations before you.
22 “Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blameless[d] I will show my salvation.”
Footnotes:
a Psalm 50:6 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text for God himself is judge
b Psalm 50:6 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.
c Psalm 50:21 Or thought the ‘I am’ was
d Psalm 50:23 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; the meaning of the Masoretic Text for this phrase is uncertain.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you” (Eph. 1:18).
Before Jesus saved me, I stood before a judge. I was homeless and my heart was so hard I didn’t fear the judge, even when he sent me to prison. By stark contrast, an almighty God as Judge is quite sobering as he calls his covenant people before him to account for themselves. So mighty is God that, unlike the proponents of other Near Eastern religions, he doesn’t need to rely on fake gods as witnesses. He is the Mighty One, the Creator. From Zion, with light streaming down, he calls heaven and earth as his witnesses and sits in judgment of his errant people. Rather than destroy, he invites them forward: “Listen, my people, and I will speak” (7).
The wonderful thing about our God is his faithfulness. He truly has our relationship with him at heart, even when we fail: God says, “my people” and “I am God, your God” (7). God is clear: your sacrifice is misdirected when what you bring has cost you nothing. When you bring praise and worship, is it because you are fulfilling your legal obligation? Are you trying to use God to acquire all the things for which your neighbors worship their idols? God says that he sees the wicked in their sin, but he expects his people to be different. He doesn’t want worship and praise that is focused on feelings or has selfish expectations attached. Furthermore, are you worshipping while people in your community remain outcast?
What motivates us to worship God? What God seeks is a true and steadfast heart that longs after him, worshipping him regardless of the circumstances we are in or for what we will get as a result. Those who honor God with their thankfulness and who stay blameless will enter into proper worship of God and in return experience a deeper relationship with him.
Apply
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). In prayerful contemplation, truthfully open your heart to God.
Closing prayer
Lord, never permit me to get into the habit of offering a cheap and shallow level of commitment to You.
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