Psalm 53:8

I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise, O God, to thy name: because it is good: (Psalm 53:8 DR)

As this Psalm approaches its conclusion, the Psalmist uses this penultimate passage to—as it were—correct a misunderstanding which may have crept in. For in the previous passages he has been describing his confidence in the Lord’s salvation, his supreme trust that God will not abandon him to the machinations of his enemies. This has been couched in the language of God saving him, judging him, hearing him, helping him, protecting him, and turning the evils his enemies intended against him back onto their own heads.

All these actions of the Lord in mercy and kindness towards the Psalmist could give the impression that his trust in the Lord is predicated on what God might do for him. That is, perhaps he hopes in the Lord and loves His name because the Lord has always helped and protected him and blessed him and given him victory over his enemies.

We find a similar thought process in the story of Job, who is described as an upright man who fears the Lord and serves him wholeheartedly, but Satan just doesn’t buy it:

And the Lord said to [Satan]: “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil?” And Satan answering, said: “Doth Job fear God in vain? Hast not thou made a fence for him, and his house, and all his substance round about, blessed the works of his hands, and his possession hath increased on the earth? But stretch forth thy hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and see if he blesseth thee not to thy face.” (Job 1:8-11 DR)

As a quick aside, the phrase “bless Thee not to Thy face” is a Hebraic circumlocution to avoid using the word “curse” in reference to God.

At any rate, Satan cannot believe that Job loves and fears and serves God for any other reason that what he gets out of it, which in this case is prosperity and health and all the good things of this world. He essentially dares the Lord to allow him to afflict Job so as to see where Job’s love truly lies, and the Lord consents. Job is famously afflicted by losing all his wealth and most of his family, and even though he grieved, rather than cursing God he actually blesses God to His face, contrary to what Satan assumed.

Satan then ups the ante:

And the Lord said to Satan: “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man simple, and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil, and still keeping his innocence? But thou hast moved me against him, that I should afflict him without cause.” And Satan answered, and said: “Skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life: But put forth thy hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and then thou shalt see that he will bless thee to thy face.” (Job 2:3-5 DR)

Job is then afflicted severely in health and loses everything, and even his wife counsels him to “bless God and die.” But in his uprightness of heart he refuses, and instead receives both evil and good from the Lord without wavering in his faith or love.

In this manner Job demonstrated that his trust and hope and fear and love of the Lord was not conditioned on what he had or what God had given him, but was rather for the sake of God alone. That is, he loved God for God’s own sake.

The Psalmist speaks the same language as Job, for even though God had blessed him and delivered him from his enemies, this is decidedly not why he loved the Lord or served and feared him. Instead, it is the sheer goodness of God that he delights in, which is to love God for His own sake.

The language he uses here is important, in that he says he will freely sacrifice to the Lord. That is, his sacrifice is one that arises from the love within his soul, that offers to God of his own substance simply because of Who God is, rather than as some sort of pagan exchange of favors. He did not make a deal with God that if God delivered him from his enemies he would then sacrifice to Him; rather, such a sacrifice would be offered irrespective of the circumstances, because it arises from the depths of his affections and will.

St. Augustine notes that we praise that which we love, and the quality of that praise indicates the extent and depth of such love. In many cases we praise things that we like, such as our favorite athlete, sports team, etc. These are real loves, but they are conditioned on performance; we love them as far as they please us:

For He is not praised in the same manner as by those who love the theatrical follies is praised either by a charioteer, or a hunter, or actor of any kind, and by their praisers, other praisers are invited, are exhorted, to shout together: and when all have shouted, ofttimes, if their favourite is overcome, they are all put to the blush. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 3, 10.)

However, if we love God in the same manner as we love the things we like, it is not really God that we love but rather the blessings that God gives us or that we think He will give us. We can create a purely transactional relationship with God that is no better than the pagans, and perhaps worse, as we reduce the Almighty Who is worthy of all love to a cosmic vending machine:

Not so is our God: be He praised with the will, loved with charity: let it be gratuitous (or voluntary) that He is loved and that He is praised. What is gratuitous? Himself for the sake of Himself, not for the sake of something else. For if you praise God in order that He may give you something else, no longer freely do you love God. You would blush, if your wife for the sake of riches were to love you, and perchance if poverty should befall you, should begin to think of adultery. Seeing that therefore you would be loved by your partner freely, will you for anything else love God? (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 3, 10.)

This gratuitous love also excludes loving out of necessity; that is, that we render to God love because we have received what we have desired and thus owe Him such thanks or sacrifice. God is truly owed our love, but not because He gives us what we want, but rather because of Who He is. For the moment that we put our trust and love in the Lord because we have gotten what we desired, in that moment we start to love the thing we desired more than we love God:

Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee: do it not of necessity. For if for the sake of anything else thou praisest God, out of necessity thou praisest. If there were present to thee that which thou lovest, thou wouldest not praise God. See what I say: thou praisest God, for example, in order that He may give thee abundant money: if thou wert to have from any other quarter abundant money, not from God, wouldest thou praise God? If, therefore, because of money thou praisest God, not voluntarily thou sacrificest to God, but out of necessity thou sacrificest: because, beside Him, something else has thy love. Thence hath it been said, Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 3, 10.)

The reason we are not to trust in the things that we possess or desire or to place our loves or affections in them is ultimately because they are all gifts from God. When someone gives you a gift, they are bestowing a token of their love upon you, a tangible way of expressing their love. To receive the gift with gratitude is praiseworthy, for in doing so we accept the love they wish to bestow and reciprocate it.

It would be a complete overturning of the gratuitousness of the gift and the gratitude with which it should be received, however, if we loved the gift more than the giver, and if we only loved the giver because of the gift. We would in fact stop loving the giver altogether and only love them—so to speak—because they give us things. The moment they stop giving us things, they stopped being loved, which is no love at all worthy of the name.

God is the giver of all good things and all good gifts (cf. James 1:17), but the gifts He gives are not be loved, but rather Himself. It is because He gives so gratuitously that He is worthy of gratuitous love. Like Job we may find times of blessing or times of poverty and struggle, but our love cannot be conditioned on the things we receive from God’s hand. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, but it is the same Lord Who is worthy of our freely given and gratuitous love:

Despise all things, to Himself give heed. These things also which He hath given, because of the Giver are good things. For He giveth entirely, He giveth these temporal things: and to certain men to their good, to certain men to their harm, after the height and depth of His judgments. At the abyss of which judgments an Apostle stood in awe, saying, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who shall find out His ways, or who shall comprehend His counsels? He knoweth when He giveth, to whom He giveth; when He taketh away, and from whom He taketh away. Ask thou in this present time that which may profit thee hereafter, ask that which may help thee for eternity. But Himself without price love thou: because from Him thou findest not any thing that He may give better than Himself; or if thou findest a better thing, this ask thou. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 3, 10.)

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I thought there would be nothing more apropos for this animation than imagery depicting the paradigmatic example of loving God for His own sake that occurred in our Lord’s offering of Himself as a sacrifice to the Father. I found this great image and used Fractal Noise to create the fog effects, and then used Optical Flares to create some of the lighting effects. I kept this one pretty simple, but I think it’s best that way.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: