³ Our God is coming;
he won’t keep quiet.
A devouring fire is before him;
a storm rages all around him. (Ps. 50:6, CEB)

This is not a happy time. In this Psalm he is coming out of justice.

He doesn’t want another sacrifice. He doesn’t want another worship song. No more fake offerings. This isn’t about appeasing a god because he’s hungry and needs another bull on the altar.

This is about obedience. Israel was stuck in a rut, thinking they could play their own games and give God a bull sacrifice every so often to keep him happy.

Happy is not the word. “Devouring fire” doesn’t really communicate “happy.”

And then there’s this:

²² So consider this carefully, all you who forget God,
or I’ll rip you to pieces with no one to deliver you.

Not happy thoughts.

What has God in this “mood?”

¹⁷ You hate discipline, and
you toss my words behind your back.

What’s worse is we often take the silence of God for the approval of God. Big mistake.

²¹ You’ve done these things and I’ve kept quiet.
You thought I was just like you!
But now I’m punishing you;
I’m laying it all out, right in front of your face.

“You thought I was just like you.”

This may be one of the more grievous accusations we may need to face up to in our day. Like every generation, we are always in danger of creating God in our own image. We think he’s just like us. He thinks like us. He “loves” like us. He is okay with what is going on in our lives.

And then he has the audacity to show up in one of these “moods!” How rude!

God is NOT just like us.

Why Lent? Because we need our lives examined.

A storm is raging and we think it’s just time for an umbrella for a slight afternoon sprinkle.