The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken...

Psalm 50 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.”

In today’s text the psalmist says: The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken, And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting… “Gather My godly ones to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”    Under the old covenant there were prescribed sacrifices for the atonement of people’s sins.  In this Psalm we see a foreshadow of the new covenant which was to come, the covenant established through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. God, speaking through the psalmist says:  “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.  “I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds.  “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.  “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains.”        Basically God says, there is nothing that they, the Israelites, can give Him that is not already His. The same is true for us. When we give tithes and offerings, we only give back to God a portion of what He has given us. In truth, it’s already His. There is nothing we can give that God needs from us.   

Rather than giving material things to God, He says:   “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High.”     What He desires is that we are thankful for what we have and that we keep our word, to walk in His ways. In Psalm 51:15-17, David says:  O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.  For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.       We cannot offer anything to God to pay the price, to atone for our sins. Rather, God desires our thanksgiving and our praise. Through the finished work of the cross, Jesus has done all that can and all that needs to be done. What is left for us is to praise God, to thank Him with a humble and contrite heart. That’s the one thing which we can give. God has given us a free will. We have a choice of whether we will give the praise and the thanksgiving He desires. In Hebrews 13:15-16, comparing the old and new covenant and the sacrifices to God, it says:    Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.  And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.     As hard as it can be to give our money, our tithes and offerings, sometimes it is harder to be thankful, to praise God when times are hard. It’s difficult to do good and share with others when we have little ourselves. That though is the sacrifice which pleases God, that we give to Him thankfully from a heart of praise. Jesus says:   “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:30-31)   

God also has a word to the unbeliever. He says:    But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes And to take My covenant in your mouth?  “For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you.  “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, And you associate with adulterers.  “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit.
“You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son.  “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you;          Many today think God is like them. They think He agrees with and condones their lifestyle and their sin. Many today try to hold believers to the statutes of God, at least to the ones that are of their liking and convenient for their purpose. Yet they themselves “hate discipline” and they “cast God’s words behind them.” To them, to those who live as they choose, forgetting God, He says: “ I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.  Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.  He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

It is not God’s intention or His desire that people would come under judgment and condemnation. God wants everyone to know His love, not His judgment. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.    Through the psalmist God says:   “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”       All God desires is that we call upon Him with hearts of thanksgiving and praise, that we receive His love, demonstrated in the cross of Christ.  There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, Jesus did it all. There is nothing we have that is not already His except our hearts, those we must choose to give to God. God says:  “I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”     Call upon Him, honor Him, give to Him a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and He will rescue you from whatever situation or circumstance you are in. The finished work of the cross will redeem, reconcile and restore you.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit all that I have is Yours. There is nothing I can do or nothing I can give that You need. So instead I give You my heart. I humbly give You what You desire, a heart of thanksgiving and praise.    Amen