God Judges His People

1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 3 Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.

Psalm 50:1–2 ESV

1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Psalm

It is normal for a speaker to be introduced

A persons accolades and experience will be highlighted so that the listeners know why they should listen

None compare to God

Who is He (His names)

He has all power

He is the only true God

He is the God whom has covenant with Israel

The whole earth is to be summoned for Judgement

Although the psalm will only deal with the judgement of Israel

Those outside do not escape the judgement

The one to judge is Himself the perfection of beauty

His judgement are pure and perfect

His standard is holy

this should be terrifying

He will come

He is will not forever stay silent as His perfect standard is disobeyed

As a devouring fire

Nothing escapes the destruction of a devouring fire

As is the sound and power of a mighty storm so shall be His voice in judgment

All creation will be called to witness the judgement

Through the judgment His Saints will be gathered to him

Those who seek refuge in Him

The Judged

Israel, His people

The wicked

Both His Saints and the Wicked are judged

The judgement is different

To his Saints

He rebukes them

But promises that he shall deliver them

To the Wicked

Repent OR

I will tear you apart, and there will be none to deliver you

His Judgement

To His People of Covenant

Psalm 50:7–15 ESV

7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. 8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. 9 I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Psalm 50:7-

God is rebuking for their wrong thinking in regards to their worship and service to God

He is not rebuking them for their sacrifices

In other times God rebukes sacrificing lame and diseased animals

Or failing to sacrifice all together

That is not what he is doing here

They are doing it right

They are continually sacrificing to him

They are correctly performing their act of service and worship to God

So what is the problem then? Why are they being rebuked if they are doing it right?

God is rebuking the attitude of their heart

They had somehow come to the idea that their giving and sacrificing to God was somehow needed by God or helpful to God

Their view of themselves was too high

Somehow their service was invaluable to God

Their view of God was too low

They failed to recognize that the creator of everything was no in need of anything from His creation

They failed to remember that they were the ones in need

All they could give was thanksgiving for what God had provided

All they have is from God

Everything is God including what they sacrifice to God

If it was God’s already, why should they sacrifice it to God?

God gave them the privilege to sacrifice to Him as an act of thanksgiving

He is not in need, it is for their good so that they can show their thankfulness for all God has provided

Similar to buying a present for your parents using their money

Your parents want you to have the opportunity to show love

Although he is rebuking Israel, the message applies to the Church today.

We can also easily think to highly of ourselves and not high enough of God

It is easy for us to start to think that God needs our service and our worship?

Is God in need of

Missionaries

Preachers

Worship singers

Choirs

Financial donations

Nursery workers

Others who give up time

Who gave us our time, abilities, and resources

God!

So then why should be sacrifice our time, abilities, and resources if its all from God anyway?

An expression of thanksgiving

it is a privilege that God has given us

We get to use the the time, abilities, and resources that God has given us to show our thankfulness to God for all he has done for us

We are not earning anything

To The Wicked among His people

God Rebukes his people for their error, but affirms his covenant promise to deliver them.

To the wicked the message is very different

Psalm 50:16–22 ESV

16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? 17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. 18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. 19 “You give your mouth free rein for 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 have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. 22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

Psalm 50:16–21 ESV

Psalm 50:16-

The wicked can know the right things and say the right things

His Statutes or laws

His covenant

But the words have no impact on how they live

The righteous will walk according to His law

His word is not a light guiding their path

they cast it behind them

They hate discipline

God disciplines those he loves

His correction of those who’s view of sacrifice was wrong IS DISCIPLINE

Those that love God will receive His discipline

The wicked he is now addressing hate discipline and do not change course when disciplined

Although they confess with their lips God’s covenant they live in the World

Vs 18

It does not say that they are thieves and adulterers though they may be

It says they keep company with

They are walking in the counsel of the wicked

Standing in the seat of sinners

Sitting in the seat of scoffers

In David says his delight is in the Saints of God

Psalm 16:3 ESV

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

But these wicked people delight in the unrighteous

They prefer to be with those that disobey God’s commands

Psalms, Volume 2: (Psalms 42–106): An Expositional Commentary The Second Indictment: Hypocrisy

In the previous example, the psalmist condemned these hardened hypocrites not necessarily because they stole things from others, though they probably did, but because they joined the company of thieves. So also in this case. These alleged people of God are condemned not necessarily because they have been guilty of adultery themselves, though they may have been, but because they threw in their lot with adulterers. That is, they liked to hang around them.

We see this same thing today

How many people may claim “Jesus Loves Me”

Yet throw his commands behind them

And love the world and its system

They claim to be Christians yet live like everyone else

The way they speak reveals the evil of their hearts

Psalm 50:

Psalm 50:19–20 ESV

19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.

Jesus says “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

In other words, if our words are evil and mean it is because our heart is evil and mean

And that is true of these that God is Judging

they say whatever they want regardless of how evil it is

They lie

They say bad things about people

even those that are closest to them

Even their own siblings

Psalm 50:21 ESV

21 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.

they thought that God was like them

That like them he like the company of evil people

and that He could simply overlook their evil ways

They did not recognize how perfectly holy God is

He has been silent regarding their evil ways

But he will not be silent forever

Call to repentance

Psalm 50:22–23 ESV

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

The wicked are on the wrong path

They are headed for destruction

God’s Judgement is not yet final for them

He is warning them and giving an opportunity to repent

If they do not heed His words then

God will destroy them

No one will deliver them from his judgement and wrath

A time is coming in which it will be too late

He gives 2 instructions and 2 outcomes

The instructions are two parts of the same thing

the outcomes are two parts of the same thing

The instructions

Offer thanksgiving as sacrifice

Order His way rightly

to order our way rightly is to live life according to God’s perspective

Love what God loves

Hate what God hates

We must have a proper understanding of who God is

To offer a thanksgiving sacrifice comes from a rightly ordered life

understanding that God needs nothing from us

a right understanding of God

But out of thanksgiving we delight to make sacrifices to God

Our actions show what we believe about God

The outcome

Glorify God

This is not to add glory to God

To Glorify God is to see His Glory on display

To see the Salvation of God

We will Glorify God because we will See His Salvation

The wicked will not see this

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