“I am obligated by vows to you, God; I will make my thanksgiving sacrifices to you. For you rescued me from death, even my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life.” – Psalm 56.12-13 (CSB)
“If I do this, what will I get out of it?”
Doesn’t it seem like we live in a constant barter system where we are looking to see how our doing anything will benefit us? We look out for ourselves and those closest to us. But do we live this way with God?
My fear is that we, God’s people, have heard too many messages from pastors and read too many books from “experts” who share what we can get from God if we simply obey God. And while there are blessings that come with our obeying God, should we be the focus of our obedience to the Lord? Should what I “get out of it” even be part of the motivation behind why I do anything that God says to do?
I believe that David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals to us what our motivation should be.
I am obligated by vows to you, God. The ESV says, “I must perform my vows to you, O God.” There was no other option for David when it came to fulfilling the vows that he had made to God. He wasn’t looking for a loophole to get out of doing what he had promised God he would do. Rather, he HAD to fulfill them.
I will make my thanksgiving sacrifices to you. Again, we see what David decided to do. He was obligated to perform his vows. He would, no matter what, make his thanksgiving sacrifices to the Lord.
But what drove him to do so?
For you rescued me from death, even my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life.
He was not motivated by “What will I get out of it.” That was not even part of his thinking. Rather, he was obligated to fulfill his vows and to present his sacrifices of thanksgiving simply because of this:
Because of what God did for him so that he could walk before God in the light of life.
It had nothing to do with another blessing from the Lord. Rather, it was because he already knew and cherished and valued and appreciated what God had done in saving him in order that David could be with him.
“Why should I forgive him?”
Because we have been forgiven a great deal.
“Why should I love her? She hates me.”
Because while we were still enemies of the cross and sinners against our God, Christ died for us.
“Why should I help others or share Jesus with people?”
Because God so loved the world that he gave… We follow a generous God.
We need to get out of the mindset of justified hedonism or “Christian” narcissism, where we believe that everything that God does is for us or that everything that we do for God is for our benefit. Rather, what we should be doing is simply obeying God because of what he’s done for us. He rescued us from death and made it possible for us to walk before him in the light of life. And that, alone, should drive us to live out the faith of Jesus as our worshipful response to the beautiful and extreme love of God. That should compel us to celebrate God in obedience to him simply because he is worthy. And should we receive nothing else besides our rescued souls and our ability to walk before God, so be it. Having a relationship with God through Jesus is EVERYTHING. Nothing else is needed outside of that.
So let’s go ahead and put to death the phrase, “What will I get out of it?” Let’s go ahead and rip that away from clutching our souls and feeding our denied sense of entitlement. Rather, let us fall into the loving and merciful hands of our loving Heavenly Father, fulfilling our vows and presenting our sacrifices of thanksgiving because he saved us so that we could be with him.
Brian J Holland 
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