Bible in 90, Day 41: That’s a lotta cows!

Psalms 45-69

*image courtesy of Thoursie at stock.xchng

We were driving home from a youth event in Charlottesville, VA.  It was one of those stretches of road that winds through rolling pasture land, dotted by the occasional barn, silo, or farmhouse.  As we rounded one bend, we saw a green hill with several black cows roaming about on it.  My buddy Daniel, who was the youth pastor at the time, said, “Hey look!  My dad owns those cows!”  The youth were incredulous.  “No way!” they shouted.  “Yeah, right!”  But Daniel insisted, “Yes he does!  My father owns those cows, and a lot more!”  I caught the reference right away, but he strung the youth along for about 15 more minutes before he broke into a small Bible study in the van.  It was a great teaching moment.

“…for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).

God speaks to two people in this psalm, the righteous and the wicked.  To the righteous He commends their sacrifices.  But with the commendation He adds a reminder of His independence.  He reminds them that He doesn’t need their sacrifices.  God asks rhetorically, “Do I eat the flesh of bulls?”  (v. 13)  He is reminding the readers that He is not a man and does not require food.  Unlike the religions of the nations, the sacrifices the Israelites offered were not food for God.  The righteous are to continue in their sacrifices (v. 14-15), but not because God is reliant upon them.

Here comes some of that God humor I love.

God says, roughly, “If I were hungry, you’d be the last one I’d go to!  I own it all!  I could eat whatever I want to.”  God created everything, and therefore He owns everything.  Not only does He not require food, but if He did, He has access to all He could need without us!  The fancy theological term for this is God’s aseity.  That is, His self-being.  God has no cause or creator, He just is.  He is not sustained by anything (food, water, air, some other force), He simply is.  We, on the other hand, are contingent beings.  Our existence is contingent on something else (food, water, air, God’s sustaining power).  The fact is, we need – God does not.

However, this does not diminish our standing.  In fact, it almost elevates it.  In religions where the god needs sacrifices sets up a different kind of relationship.  The god needs the people, so he must put up with them.  The truth of the Scriptures is that God doesn’t need us, He chooses us.  He doesn’t put up with us because He needs our worship, He chooses to be in relationship with Him out of love.  Think about that – God chose you.  But, let’s remember that this choice is by grace, and not anything wonderful we’ve done (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Let’s live in light of this truth. We have nothing God needs from us.  He is not, nor will He ever be, obligated to us.  We owe everything, our very existence and its continuation, to Him.  Let’s honor God with our sacrifices of praise so that we might see the salvation of God (Psalm 50:23; Hebrews 13:15).

*originally at Words of Reason