Week 9 Psalm 51
Toward the end of the chapter David talks about sacrifices: you (the Lord) would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. At first it looks like sacrifices are being devalued. But then David ends up saying that the Lord will be pleased with worthy sacrifices.
I try to think through this not-quite-discrepant comment:
A sacrifice – as a stand-alone item – is not necessarily either ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’
A sacrifice attains worthiness by being sacrificed by a penitent sacrifice-offerer.
There’s the intrinsic value – the market value – of a sacrifice. Then there’s the added value – it’s worth – which is the supplemental value that gets attached because of the repentant heart of the sacrifice-offerer.
A sacrifice won’t lose its monetary value. In the marketplace it might be bought or sold for $1000. It retains its asset value. But there’ll be no added worth attached to it.
So a sacrifice can be valuable…but at the same time lack worth. Every sacrifice is conditioned to some degree by the heart of the person giving it.
I tried mapping out a couple of sacrificing combinations:
An evil sacrifice-offerer + a good sacrifice = a worth-less sacrifice
A neutral sacrifice-offerer + a good sacrifice = a worth-less sacrifice
A penitent sacrifice-offerer + a good sacrifice = a worthy sacrifice
There’s other variables so this is a rough guide. But I’ll keep it in mind for when I hear someone dismissing sacrifices.
Note: quotes from Psalm 51:16 19 (NLT)