Studies in the Psalms - Psalm 50

Statistics say that almost 50% of Americans attend church weekly. If that’s true that means some 150 million people come to worship God every week. Some, if not many, of those who attend church, have little regard for God’s way. Going to church is not a free ticket to heaven. Only faith in the work of Christ on the cross can save us. Jesus was clear that repentance is a necessary response to Him. You must recognize that you need His blood to cover your sins. Psalm 50 is a look at the judgment of God in exposing those who are false worshippers.

Psalm 50:1-6

The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.  Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.  He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”  The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah

In its historical context, this psalm speaks to the Jews. In its spiritual one, it speaks to all of us today.

Psalm 50:8-11
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.  I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.  For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

Many of us show up every Sunday. We bring a check for the collection plate or we toss in a couple bucks.

Psalm 50:12-13
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

It’s important to support the church. The money we give keeps the lights on. It also supports ministry that serves both in our neighborhoods and to the far ends of the earth. But God wants more; He wants your heart. He wants a grateful heart. Thanksgiving is the beginning of proper worship.

Psalm 50:14-15
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

But God also wants our hearts to be obedient in following His law.

Psalm 50:16-21
But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?  For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.  If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.  “You give your mouth free rein for 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 have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

God takes our obedience seriously.

Psalm 50:22
“Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

Thanksgiving and obedience.

Psalm 50:23
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

We cannot earn our salvation. But we must respond to it with a heart for God. That heart must be a thankful one and it must be an obedient one.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the most important command is He said this in Matthew 22:37-38, “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.”

How do we love God? Jesus answered that one with a simple answer.

John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Do you?