A psalm of Asaph.
The Mighty One, God, the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
Our God comes and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
and around him a tempest rages.
He summons the heavens above,
and the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my consecrated ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for God himself is judge.
Selah
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
But to the wicked, God says:
“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
You speak continually against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have done and I kept silent;
you thought I was altogether like you.
But I will rebuke you
and accuse you to your face.
“Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue:
He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me,
and he prepares the way
so that I may show him the salvation of God.”.”
My Understanding: God made a covenant with his people of old, and he made a covenant with his people again (the new covenant), after he had sent his Son to the earth to die on the cross for our sins, and to be resurrected back to life in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin. Under the new covenant, we come into relationship with God the Father by God’s grace and through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. This faith has two main components: 1) Repentance – turning from sin - and 2) Obedience to Christ’s commands. Yet, even the faith to believe and the ability to repent and to obey God are gifts from God, and are the working of the Holy Spirit within our lives in transforming us into new creatures in Christ Jesus, as we choose to willingly cooperate with his work of grace in our hearts and lives. So, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior are now God’s consecrated ones.
We read in the book of Revelation, and in other books in the Bible, that a time is coming when God will judge the earth and the people on the earth. Revelation 2-3 contains letters to seven churches, which I believe represent the church as a whole, in which God has either words of praise or words of rebuke, or both, for his church. Where there are words of rebuke, there is also always a call for repentance and obedience to Christ’s commands, in order to have a restored relationship with God the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And, where repentance is not evident by changed lives, the Lord promises judgment. So, it is not difficult here to apply, Biblically, this passage in Ps. 50 to the church today. God still requires, of his covenant people, repentance and obedience to his commands. And, he still brings judgment, and not just during the time of tribulation to come upon the earth, either.
God Speaks
Here, in Psalm 50, God Almighty speaks and summons the earth. God shines forth in all his beauty and majesty and holiness. And, he comes to speak to his people and to confront them with their sins. God has been silent a long time, because he is a gracious and loving God, slow to anger, patient, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Yet, many mistook his silence as a free license to continue in sin. Now God is summoning the heavens above and the earth, that he may judge his people. And, so he gathers his consecrated ones, who entered into a covenant relationship with him by faith, so that he may speak to them.
God is speaking to his people, and he is testifying against them and is rebuking them. He says he is not rebuking them for their sacrifices, which at that time had to do with animal sacrifices. Applied to today, sacrifices have to do with things we do for God out of some sense of religious duty, and oftentimes in place of true obedience. Many people go through forms of worship or they are involved in various church activities thinking that their “sacrifices” are pleasing to God, all the while they do not honor God, they do not repent of their sins, and they do not obey him in all things. God is not in need of our religious rituals, our forms of worship, or the things we choose to give up or do for him.
His rebuke of his people has to do with them not sacrificing thank offerings to God, not honoring God as holy, and not fulfilling their vows to God. When I think of this in New Testament terms, the main passage of scripture that comes to mind is Rom. 12:1-2 (NIV):
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is the sacrifice that God requires of his new covenant people – to offer our entire beings to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. He doesn’t want the things we can do for him out of our own choosing. He wants us unreservedly given over to him in full obedience to his will for our lives. He desires that we no longer be conformed to the pattern of this world of sin, but that we allow him to transform us in our thinking, attitudes and behavior. Jesus said that if we are to follow him, we must die daily to ourselves and to our own selfish wills, and we must follow Christ Jesus in all that we do. He said that if we want to save our own lives, i.e. if we want to hold on to the lives we have chosen for ourselves, we will lose our lives for eternity. Yet, if we are willing to die to our own flesh and our own selfish desires for his sake, then we will live for eternity with him.
He is also calling for his new covenant people to fulfill their vows to him. When we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ by God’s grace and through faith, we are entering into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, not unlike our marriage covenants to our spouses, especially that covenant relationship of a bride to her groom. When we get married, we promise to be faithful to one person – our marriage partner. We promise to love, cherish, submit to one another out of love, and to accept the Biblical guidelines God has set forth for a marriage relationship between a husband and a wife. The Bible, as well, compares our relationship to Jesus Christ as that of a bride to her husband. So, just as we take marriage vows in a wedding ceremony where we promise faithfulness, etc., when we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ we take vows of faithfulness, too. We promise to leave our old lives of “singleness” behind us, and we promise to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, to obey him, and to go wherever he leads us. Yet, many of his covenant people have broken faith.
Yet, God is still giving his covenant people the opportunity to repent, to call upon him in their day of trouble (hardship; divine discipline; difficulty), to fulfill their vows to him, and to become the living sacrifices that God requires and desires of his covenant people. He says that if we do this, he will deliver us, and we will honor him. 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 says this on this subject:
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place…”
To the Wicked
Then, God addresses the wicked, yet the wicked here appear to be those who claim to have a relationship with him, yet in form only. They speak as though they know God, yet they hate God’s instructions and they cast his words behind them. Not only that, but they are easily led into sin for when they see someone else sinning, they join in with him. The Lord singles out several sins here – theft (cheating or stealing); adultery; speaking evil; deceit; and slander. The Lord says that these sins have not escaped his notice, even though he has been silent a long time. Because of his silence, though, the wicked hypocrites decided that God was like them, and that, because of his grace, he would just ignore their sins. But God is not like us. He does not think like we do. He is a holy, righteous and just God, and he will not let the guilty go unpunished forever. He has a day of judgment planned for us when he will rebuke the guilty and accuse them to their faces.
Yet, he is still appealing to his covenant people, who have forgotten their God, to consider everything he is saying here and for them to acknowledge him and honor him as God, to repent of their sins, and to turn to him in faith and obedience, or else he will come in judgment with none to rescue. And, he is still appealing to the wicked who are Christians in name only and who are only believers in Jesus in pretense, but not in reality, to repent of their sins before God comes in judgment and accuses them to their faces. He is appealing to them to consider that the ones who sacrifice “thank offerings” to him are the ones who honor him and they are the ones who will receive the salvation of God. So, if you know that you are living in sin and/or that you are being hypocritical in your relationship with Jesus Christ, I appeal to you on the basis of God’s holy word to get your heart right with God today while you still have today, because judgment will most certainly come, and we don’t know when it will come, either. Repent of your sins and choose to follow Jesus today.
Lord, Move Me / An Original Work / October 16, 2011
Be my desire, my heart set on fire,
Lord, move me to worship You only, I pray.
Fill with Your Spirit, my heart overflow.
Lord, may I long for You; Your word to know.
Teach me to walk with You, Lord, in Your power,
And may I serve You, Lord, right now in this hour.
Lord, how I want to obey You forever.
Help me to hear You, Lord, so I will not stray.
Teach me to love You; adore You always.
Envelope me, Lord, with Your grace today.
Meet me in my need, and show me Your mercy.
Forgive me for all things, as I humbly pray.
Counsel me, lead me, direct me, and guide me,
So I follow You, Lord, where’er You lead now.
I love to hear You speak Your words to me.
I am so grateful that You set me free.
Wash me, and cleanse me, and make me like You, Lord,
And I will live with You for eternity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-0kezkuEg
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