Today’s reading includes passages from the Psalms that speak directly to those, in every age, who choose not to believe and obey. Blood sacrifices, bulls in the Old Testament, or Christ’s in the New, will not help those who court strange gods.
In every age, the following is true:
Psalm Ps 16:1b-2ab, 4, 5ab and 8, 11
R. (1b) Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are You.”
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
They multiply their sorrows
who court other gods.
Blood libations to them I will not pour out,
nor will I take their names upon my lips.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
O LORD, my allotted portion and cup,
You it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with Him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at Your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are You.”
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
They multiply their sorrows
who court other gods.
Blood libations to them I will not pour out,
nor will I take their names upon my lips.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
O LORD, my allotted portion and cup,
You it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with Him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at Your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; You are my hope.
The passage: “They multiply their sorrows who court other gods. Blood libations to them I will not pour out, nor will I take their names upon my lips.” makes one thing very plain: both before and after Christ, those who court other gods will not be loved nor helped nor thought of nor spoken of by God. Instead, in the Old Testament and the New one truth prevails. Those who court strange gods multiply their sorrows.
