“He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me."

Psalm 50 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked.

The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken,
And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shone forth.
³ May our God come and not keep silence;
Fire devours before Him,
And it is very tempestuous around Him.
⁴ He summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:
⁵ “Gather My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
⁶ And the heavens declare His righteousness,
For God Himself is judge. Selah.

⁷ “Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you;
I am God, your God.
⁸ “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
⁹ “I shall take no young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.
¹⁰ “For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ “I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.
¹² “If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
¹³ “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
¹⁴ “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;
¹⁵ Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to tell of My statutes
And to take My covenant in your mouth?
¹⁷ “For you hate discipline,
And you cast My words behind you.
¹⁸ “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
And you associate with adulterers.
¹⁹ “You let your mouth loose in evil
And your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰ “You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
²¹ “These things you have done and I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.

²² “Now consider this, you who forget God,
Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.
²³ “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way aright
I shall show the salvation of God.”

^“ He summons the heavens above, And the earth, to judge His people:” Jesus says: "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32"All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-32) The word nations is translated from the Greek word ethnos, from which we get the English word ethnic. So it is not the political entities, the various governments and countries that are being judged, but rather it is all people, people of every ethnicity. God created all men. All people are His people.

In verses 16-20 the psalmist list some of the things the “wicked” do.  Verse 21 says:  “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.        How many today think that God is like them? They try to justify their own actions by putting their values and beliefs on God. They twist scripture, taking small portions of it to build their own doctrines, which are not consistent with the true character of God. God cannot be made to fit into the limitations of human understanding. So we cannot make God fit into the image we want. When we justify our own participation and tolerance of sin by saying we believe that if Jesus were here today, He would love and embrace certain things, we are guilty of thinking that God is like us. God’s righteousness does not change with the whims of man or the ebb and flow of cultures. All the evil, deviant  and unrighteous behavior that exists today, has existed for thousands of years. Our culture’s changing opinion does not change God.   Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.(Hebrews 13:8)  "For I, the LORD, do not change(Malachi 3:6)  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

Today’s text ends with:  “Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. ²³ “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”    To him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God. It’s really not that hard or complicated. Jesus says: it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. (Matthew 18:14) The judgment of all people will come, the way out is not to attempt to make God like us but rather to order our way aright, to make ourselves like Him. God then reveals His salvation.

 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; ¹³ for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-12)

God says one thing to both those He calls “My people” and the wicked. He says: ⁷ “Hear, O My people, and I will speak…I am God, your God…. ¹⁴ “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving  –and-    ²² “Now consider this, you who forget God…²³ “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;

The beginning of making our way aright, of coming into agreement with God rather than trying to make God agree with us, is thanksgiving to Him. A sacrifice of thanksgiving offered to God. Thanksgiving that is not based on the good that God has done but on the goodness that He is.

Thank You heavenly Father, Thank You Jesus Christ, Thank You Holy Spirit, regardless of what has happened or what will happen, I will give You thanks. I will offer both my thanksgiving and praise to You because of who You are. Thank You. Amen.