“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.”

Why walk prudently?

Why show restraint when our love of God is so overwhelming?
We need to take care in leading others to rely on our promises we may not be able to keep. Verse 4 says, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it”. We may wish to be generous with our time, treasure, and wisdom, but we need to take care that we can fulfil those commitments, and that the wisdom we share is true and appropriate.

What is the sacrifice of fools?

The meaning is given by the contrasting approach of “drawing near to hear”, and amplified in verse 2, “Do not be rash with your mouth”, and 3, “a fool’s voice is known by his many words”.
And verse 2 says, “we are on earth”, so our reason is flawed and sinful, calling for quiet humility before God.
Worship is not about us and our ideas, it’s about hearing all that God wants us to receive, to refresh our thinking and equip us to follow his path as we step into the world.

They do evil

It’s easy to see a tendency to proclaim our own ideas instead of listening to God is foolish, but it’s worse, this states it is evil.
James 3:1 says, “teachers shall receive a stricter judgment”, because when we presume to lead others we bear a heavy responsibility, it needs great caution.
Adam and Eve thought they acted on their own brilliant ideas in disobeying God in the Garden of Eden, but they were only parroting what Satan had told them to think.
And we see a similar pattern today, when people think their ideas about social issues and politics are brilliant, but they may be merely parroting what their chosen sensationalist news channel has fed them. And as most of that is lies, it comes from Satan as the father of lies (John 8:44).

Personal Application

This means we are meant to quietly hear the word of God, and then apply that in our world, and when correctly applied to politics it can have a wonderful outcome.
But the reverse is disastrous. When people bring the lies and political idols of various ideologies we see on sensationalist TV, into church worship, it becomes the sacrifice of fools. I experienced that recently at my church, when the church prayer time was used for partisan US politics. I have had other concerns about the church in recent times, but this was the deciding factor in causing me to leave.

May God protect us from doing evil when we go to the house of God.