Psalm 40:6

Psalm 40:6

Ritual religion You did not desire

The startling revelation that the Lord God does not desire sacrifice and offering seems to create a conflict with all that has gone before in Israel’s history! Surely it was God who introduced the sacrificial system and commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the Altar of Sacrifice. Why did God command all of this if it is not what He wanted? 

In 1 Samuel 15 we have the account of the Lord’s rejection of Saul as King over Israel. Saul was a mighty soldier; a leader of men, and he had been appointed by the Lord to attack and completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belonged to them. Saul was successful in this task except that he and his army spared the best of the Amalekite’s flocks and herds. To celebrate his success Saul set up a monument to himself at Carmel. Samuel, God’s prophet at that time, went to Saul and demanded to know why he had kept back the best of the flocks and the herds. “Ah,” said Saul smugly, “But I kept all the best of the Amalekite flocks so that they could be sacrificed to the Lord your God!” Samuel tells Saul that he was guilty of disobedience in that he did not fulfil, to the letter, all that God had told him to do. Saul pleads innocence and argues that his men were thinking only of the sacrifices that the Lord God commanded when they kept back the Amalekite sheep and cattle for plunder. Samuel makes this pronouncement to Saul, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” Because of his arrogant disobedience, Saul was rejected by God as King of Israel.

I think this incident was fresh in David’s mind as he penned these words in Psalm 40. “My ears are open Lord. I have heard what you have commanded and realise that what you ask of me, above all else, is obedience.” You see, all of our religious observances and pious living and sacrificial lifestyle means nothing if, in our hearts, there is arrogance and disobedience of God’s Word. Above all else, He commands faith and obedience and the rituals of religion are just a means to that end. 

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