Revering the Word
Psalm 50 God is honored in a heart and life that gives thanks.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Psalm 50 and it is a psalm of ASAF. ASAF has an interesting role in Old Testament history. You might recall that David tried bringing up the tabernacle towards Jerusalem and because they did not carry it rightly, they were punished for it and then David brought David sought to bring the tabernacle again but to make sure that he honored the Lord and had the Levites carry it and do it right. You might remember that he even brought it in with dancing. David was like dancing before the Lord. Well, ASAF was a worship leader who David put in charge of helping to bring to giving thanks and praise to God as they brought the tabernacle towards Jerusalem and he wrote a psalm if you want to call it not he wrote this one but he wrote a prayer of thanksgiving. He was put in charge of that and the music at the time that they brought that in. So I would imagine he really loved to worship God and he learned the power of thanksgiving to God and that comes up in this psalm. So in this psalm written by this worship leader who knew what was good and right in giving thanks to God this is what he wrote and it's a it's really a both a judgment on God's people for what they're doing wrong and helping them to remember that the heart of it is to live a life of thanksgiving to God. So with that backdrop let's get started. He's speaking as though God is communicating directly to him and that he's communicating on behalf of God in this psalm the mighty one God the Lord has spoken and summon the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting and he's really bringing out the grander of God and that God is creator. God is the author of life. God is the one who is in control and he has a very high and lofty view that he's celebrating of who God is which is good and right. Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God has shown forth and out of Jerusalem you know it's God's special place God is shining forth. May our God come and not keep silence fire devours before him and it is it is very tempestuous around him. He summons the heavens above and the earth to judge his people. Gather my godly ones to me those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice and the heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is judge. He sees God as holy as the one in charge as judge and isn't it interesting I really do love where he says gather my godly ones those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice and this is interesting because this is you know referring to old covenant stuff and the Mosaic covenant was ratified with a sacrifice and you know he is leading his people Israel at this time of this writing Israel is being led by David they're they're heading towards one of the grandest times in their history through David and through Solomon when they began to build their temple in Jerusalem and it was kind of the heyday of Israel where Israel was really on top sadly they did not honor him real well and the generations to come and what was created one day was going to be lost but here he says gather my godly ones to me those who have made covenant with me by sacrifice and this reminds me of where we are at today we are now under a new covenant that God made with us through the sacrifice of his son and he has gathered now the church before him and we are now part of God's family through faith in Jesus whom God put forward as the final sacrifice through the new covenant that he made so I even see that foreshadowed here in this Psalm all right verse seven here oh my people so this is like God is wanting to communicate something to the people here and I will speak oh Israel I will testify against you I am God your God I do not reprove you for sacrifices so for your sacrifices so this this is interesting because although God set up a sacrificial system in the Old Testament and they were to honor him through bringing sacrifices and at home for their sin and for various other reasons that they would bring sacrifices in order to honor God and he's saying you know it very much is apparent as you go through the Bible that in some ways God got weary of their sacrifices not for the sacrifice itself but for their inauthenticity for their lack of worship for doing a sacrifice but not really doing it from the heart it's kind of like well and you know just as a minor example it's kind of like going to church to check it off the box versus really falling in love with God and wanting to live for him and they began to do sacrifices in such a way that their heart really was not in tune with the worship of God and the thanks giving of God and but he's saying listen it's not the sacrifice that's the problem I don't reprove you for your sacrifice 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 so in a sense he begins by saying I don't reprove you for your sacrifice but in a way he's saying you know what I don't need him even though I've required him listen I own all the cattle all the cattle are mine on a thousand hills I know every bird everything is mine he's like if I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all it contains shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats and this is what he says and where he begins to crystallize for them what he wants them to change and what they're doing wrong he says offer to God a sacrifice of thanks giving and pay your vows to the most high call upon me in the day of trouble what he's wanting is he's wanting them to be devoted to him he's wanting them to be thankful to him he's wanting them to worship him and not just through a ritual but through a heart of love and devotion and thanksgiving to God and he's sensing that they're doing their sacrifices but they're not doing it with the right heart I shall rescue you and you will honor me he's like when you have this heart of thanksgiving I'm gonna hear your prayer and I'm gonna be with you and now he's going to specifically say what he calls wicked here and what he's upset about but to the wicked God says what right have you to tell me of my statutes and to take my covenant in your mouth and what he's talking about again is in authenticity if there's people who are speaking of the word of God well that's a great thing right it's a great thing to speak of the statutes of God and have to have the covenant of God in your mouth but what if you're not following him what if you say that in the assembly but then really your life is not it's not true it's not authentic it's not real you're you're not really following God you just do it when when maybe the people are around or you do it in the the tabernacle but you're not really living a life of devotion to me because he's saying here in verse 17 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 the cultures he's like you know what I know the lives that you really live in you're living in the middle of sin in the midst of sin you're actually celebrating even when things go wrong you let your mouth loose and evil and your tongue frames deceit you sit and speak against your brother so you're filled with gossip and slander you slander your own mother son these things you have done and I had kept silence I've seen you do it though I've seen really the true nature of your behavior and the true nature of your heart and yet in the assembly you're speaking the word of God and you're bringing your sacrifice but you really don't have a heart of Thanksgiving and you know this person ASAP was really affirmed in that God was pleased because when they brought the tabernacle in when he gave thanks it went way better than it went the first time when David didn't do it rightly and and this man ASAP was put in charge of giving thanks to God and he saw the blessing there is in having the right heart towards God and giving thanksgiving and he's trying to teach all of Israel that this is the heart of it the heart of it is to really be devoted to God and to give thanks to him you thought I was just like you I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes he's gonna show them clearly what they've been doing wrong but then now this is what he says this is where he repeats what he said earlier and where the teaching comes in he says 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 of right I shall show the salvation of God so what are the two things that he teaches on the positive that we should do he's like the one that really honors me is the one who brings a sacrifice of thanksgiving to me the one who's really thankful to me honors me and to him then who orders his way of right to him who orders his life in alignment with me I will show the salvation of God so what he's saying is you know what I want your heart to well up and thanksgiving towards me and I want you to honor me with the way you live your life I'm not reproving you for bringing sacrifices because that was part of the old covenant and yes that's indeed what you were supposed to do but what good is it if your heart is far from me and if your life is not reflecting the fact that you are a follower of me so get your heart right get your get your living right and and then I will too also be pleased with your sacrifices which really interesting as we get into the New Testament and if we go to Hebrews chapter 13 now you might recall in the book of Hebrews there were people that were getting mixed up in falling back on Jewish law and the sacrificial system and kind of mixing it with Christianity so to speak and Hebrews was being written to challenge them to say listen we're done with the sacrificial system now Jesus Christ is the once and final sacrifice and that's the one you need to know and that's the one you need to worship and towards the end of the book he in verse 10 of chapter 13 it says we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat meaning we don't go to the Jewish tabernacle anymore we have our own tabernacle through Jesus Christ it says for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp so even in this day in Hebrews there is still Jewish sacrifice taking place it's about to end because God's gonna allow the temple in Jerusalem in 78 to be torn down and then even the Jews will stop offering sacrifices and we should because we're under a new covenant now that's not why they have stopped they just made they just changed their rules because of the destruction of the tabernacle but they aren't embracing the new covenant Jews are whereas Christians are but anyways what he's saying is even even when those sacrifices are taking place in the temple they take the bodies of the animals and they burn them outside the camp verse 12 then says therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate ultimately Jesus was hung on a cross outside of the gate on Golgotha where Jesus died on that cross and what the author of Hebrews is saying is as the bodies of the the sacrifices are burned outside the camp Jesus went outside the camp and basically you need to move outside of the camp of the Jews you need to move outside of the old sacrificial system you need to you need to go outside of that and you need to come to to Jesus into this new church age outside of the Jews and this is what he says then so let us go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach so you know if the Jews are attacking you for not being a Jew anymore bear that reproach because that's not the way to God anymore is through you know Old Testament sacrifice and through Judaism it's now through Jesus now listen for here we do not have a lasting city but we are seeking the city which is to come so we're we're in this church age we are now promised eternal life and we're looking for heaven and we're looking for the new Jerusalem that one day is going to come and listen to what it says then verse 15 this is where we were headed through him then through Jesus let us continually offer up a sacrifice a praise a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name and then it says and do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices God is pleased see the now way to sacrifice to God is to offer him praise and thanksgiving and to do good and to share out of our faith in Jesus we don't offer animal sacrifices anymore but we do offer the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name and we offer up a sacrifice of praise to God ASAP was already beginning to understand in the old covenant that what God really wanted was your heart he wanted you to live in devotion to him and to give thanks to him and your sacrifice of an animal even then in the Old Testament was was was so much better and really done right when you offered it with a heart of thanksgiving and now today the sacrifices ended Jesus is the final one but God is still wanting us to have a heart of thanksgiving and a life that reflects that we honor him let's get an in alignment with our God and give thanks to Him. God bless you all.