The heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is judge.

Psalm 50 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.”

Psalm 50, is subtitled, God the judge of the righteous and the wicked. We cannot know and understand God fully unless we know all of His character. We cannot ever fully comprehend the magnitude and the magnificence of God. Our finite human minds cannot fully comprehend what is infinite, we who are locked into this finite time cannot comprehend what is eternal. Revelation 1:8 says:    "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."    While we can never fully understand and comprehend all of God, we should at least know as much of His character as we can. We should know that God is love. (1 John 4:8) We should know that He is faithful. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands. (Psalm119:50) Psalm 86:15 says: But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. In Exodus 3, when God was sending Moses to the Israelites, to deliver them from Egypt Moses asked God what name he should give to the Israelites for God. Verse 14 says: God said to Moses, “ I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”      We cannot begin to understand or describe God knowing or using only one aspect of who He is. Many people today want to treat God as if He is a buffet, they want to fill themselves with the qualities and characteristics of God that are pleasing to them and simply avoid those they don’t like. Whether we like it or not God is judge. He is the righteous judge of the righteous and the wicked. It is God’s love and compassion, His grace and mercy, His faithfulness, His justice, which all together make Him a righteous judge.   

Verses 4-6 say:  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.   God calls His godly ones those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. This speaks of the old covenant relationship when sacrifices were made in order to cover sin. Yet even then in that time, under the old covenant, God says: ; 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.”      God needs nothing from us and there is nothing we can do to justify ourselves, to make us righteous before Him. What God really wants from us is our thankfulness. Verse 23 says:  “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

God is a righteous and just God. The sin of man, which caused separation from God did and does require a sacrifice. Because of God’s love, He provided the sacrifice we could not.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) We live in the age of grace. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the only sacrifice required by God for our sins. Yet if we only know the love, mercy and grace of God, if we forget that the free gift of salvation was not free at all, we devalue the cross of Christ, we nullify, in our own lives the only sacrifice that can save us.

God, even in this age of grace is still the righteous judge. To the wicked He 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.       Again there are many today who want to claim and hold to some of the statutes and promises of God, just as they pick and choose which characteristics of God they will acknowledge. God says He will state the case before them.

I am glad that God is the judge and not me or any man. He alone has the capacity to righteously judge, in love, mercy, grace and compassion yet with justice. His justice requires a sacrifice, yet all that God wants from us is that we thankfully receive the sacrifice that He provided. Jesus came because of the love, grace and compassion of the Father. Each one has an option, a choice, whether to know Him and receive Him now in that love, grace and compassion as Savior, Redeemer and Lord, or to know Him as He will be known, the Righteous judge, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer, the sacrifice for my sins, Thank You. I embrace all of who You are. I worship, love and serve You, I  Am, the eternal, infinite, loving, faithful, gracious and merciful God; the Righteous Judge.   Amen.