Psalm 50:5

Psalm 50:5

Covenant sacrifices

The existence of the nation of Israel was never a coincidence. God had promised one individual, who had travelled many miles from a city near Babylon, that one day, he would be the father of a great nation. Abraham was the recipient of that promise and from the miraculous birth of Isaac onwards, God had been building on His covenant promises. The nation grew abundantly in Egypt before they were delivered from the slavery of the Pharaohs. They organised themselves during the wilderness journeys, and eventually they took root in the Promised Land. These were consecrated people because the Lord God had set them apart for Himself, to be a light to the world and a kingdom of priests of the one true deity. 

All of the covenant promises were accompanied by sacrifice. When God first confirmed that Abraham would dwell, with his people, in the land of Canaan, he was instructed to sacrifice a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Genesis 15. When God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, it was immediately following the aborted offering of Isaac and the sacrifice of a ram. Those offerings were superseded, of course, by the ritual sacrifices that became part of the nation’s culture and its worship in both Tabernacle and Temple. 

This verse teaches us that God made unbreakable promises by virtue of His word; Israel responded by making sacrifices so that the deal cut both ways. How do we make sacrifices to God? Our sacrifice is described by David in the very next Psalm, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” Psalm 51:17. A broken spirit is when we submit our pride, wilfulness and selfishness to the glory of Almighty God and humbly seek to serve and follow His ways. That is a hard and difficult journey to take but it confirms that we are keeping our side of the Covenant.

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