Psalm 40
"I delight to do your will"
There's a squabble between the Psalms and the book of Leviticus. You see the fight break out here in Psalm 40: "You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering." Really? Is that so? Then what is the book of Leviticus all about?
This theme comes up repeatedly in the Psalms, this marginalizing, if not outright dismissal, of the sacrificial system detailed in Leviticus.
The historical backdrop here is Israel's experience of exile. How was Israel to be faithful to Torah without the temple? Either because it was far away or had been destroyed? As we know, during the exile the synagogue system emerged to step into the void left by the loss of the temple. Given this, we can see how a shift of emphasis away from the rites and rituals of Leviticus would emerge.
But this historical context noted, the deeper concern of the Psalms, the timeless truth that was true even when temple existed, concerns the inner life of the person, our heart. Rites and rituals describe external behaviors, but they fail to capture the inner drama of our relationship to God. True devotion isn't dutiful compliance to a list of regulations. True devotion is an open, responsive, and faithful heart. Consequently, throughout the Old Testament, Israel's failures are blamed upon stoney, calloused, hard, and unresponsive hearts. What God wants is a heart that sings "I delight to do your will." And the key word here is "delight," the joy and pleasure of life with God.
Mr. Beck,
As always, I appreciate your writings each morning, in particularly your thoughts on and through the psalms.
I whole heartedly agree that heart and intention are fundamental to a relationship to a relational God. I'm curious why in the closing paragraph you undermined the role of behavior. Doesn't right behavior (inline with the well intended heart) also transform the intention of the heart to righteousness as well? Perhaps, this is what is happening in Leviticus sacred sacrifice for the sins of the individual, community, and creation to align behavior with the righteousness of God.?
This is something I have been working through. I'd appreciate your thoughts on the role of religious action that is used by God to transform the heart. If this premise is true, are we guilty (as I indicated above) in the modern church of undermining sacred activity?
Looking fwd to hearing your thoughts. sincerely.
Reminded me of this interchange:
21“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”