Ps. 50.8 (God can instruct an open ear)

“I will not / reprove you / because of you sacrifices – or your burnt offerings / that are constantly / before me.” When it comes to the righteous, God’s devotees (vs. 5) gathered around him, God’s address centers solely and entirely on the nature of sacrifice. We must recall that it is through sacrifice that the covenant will be entered into and sealed (vs. 5). It is imperative, therefore, that when one approaches God with the animal, that one understands exactly what one is doing. Importantly, what follows is framed almost exclusively in the negative. God will, of the eight verses directed to the righteous, spend six of them on what the sacrifice is not. Indeed, in only one half verse does he say what sacrifice actually is. God is not, however, rebuking his gathered ones. He “will not reprove them because of their sacrifices.” Rather, to prepare them adequately to enter into covenant with him he will offer them instruction. This lack of ‘reproof’ is important because when God addresses the wicked he will “reprove them” (vs. 21). Importantly, when God does reprove the wicked, it will be, in part because “they thought I was like you” (vs. 21). It may be that, in this, we begin to see something important in how God communicates to the righteous and the wicked—the following teaching on sacrifice will be an exercise in showing how unlike God is to man. Indeed, it is because of this difference that the nature of sacrifice itself will need to be re-oriented. This reorientation, however, takes the form of a “not reproof” and a teaching. As to the wicked, however, they fail to recognize this difference between God and his creation. In so doing, they regard God “as like them” and attempt to take advantage of this similarity by devolving into wickedness and, more particularly, exploitation. Unlike the righteous, they are ‘reproved’ and do not experience the patient teaching of God. When the ear is open God can instruct; when it closed, he must shout.