Scripture Daily

Context No. 1480 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 50:17-23: in context

17since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? 18When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. 19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. 20You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. 21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. 22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver. 23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

In this psalm God brings a case against those who keep up religious appearances while living wickedly. You hate my instruction, he charges, and cast my words behind you; you befriend thieves, keep company with adulterers, give your mouth to evil, and slander your own brother. And then a piercing line: these things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But I will rebuke you and lay the charge before your eyes. Consider this, you who forget God. The psalm ends with a turn: the one who offers thanksgiving glorifies God and prepares the way to see his salvation.

The piercing sentence is God's: you thought that I was one like yourself. Because God had kept silent, not immediately punishing the sin, these people had drawn a false conclusion: that God did not mind, that he was indifferent to their wrongdoing as they were, that he shared their own easy tolerance of evil. They had remade God in their own image, imagining that his silence was agreement and that he was, at bottom, like them. It is a subtle and common error. When we sin and no judgment falls, when God seems to let it pass, we quietly conclude that he must not really mind, that he is more permissive than the scriptures make him out to be, that our comfortable tolerance of our own sins is shared by God himself. We fashion a God in our own likeness, easygoing about the things we are easygoing about, and mistake his patience for approval. And God's answer is blunt: you thought I was like you, but I am not; I will set the record straight. His silence was not agreement but patience, giving time to repent; and it is a mistake to presume upon it. The God who is not like us does not share our tolerance of evil, and his forbearance is not endorsement. To mistake his patience for approval, to remake him in the image of our own laxity, is to be badly, dangerously wrong about who he is.

Have I mistaken God's silence or patience for approval, quietly remaking him in the image of my own tolerance of my sins, imagining he is one like myself, when he is not, and his forbearance is a call to repent rather than a sign that he does not mind?

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