Psalm 50

PSALM 50 God is not happy with the Jews, for they have not worshipped rightly while bringing their sacrifice

The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

• Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.”

• God has all the power over nature. As we saw when Jesus calmed the seas.
• Messenger announcing the presence of the Lord
  
  

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

• Psalm 48:2 “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great King.” Zion = Jerusalem, the habitation of God Himself
• God is surrounded by a shekina, a glory. Luke 2:9 as an example.
• This is why the New Jerusalem will have no night, because God will be its light Revelations 22:5

³Our God comes; He does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire,
   around him a mighty tempest.

·         He is not slow in keeping His promise, as some count slowness. He is a mighty and awesome God

·         Exodus 19:16-19 “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.”

·         Ezekiel 1:4 “I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal”

·         Ezekiel 1:13-14 “The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.”

⁴He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

·         God judges His people for everyone to see

·         Deuteronomy 30:19 “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”

·         Isaiah 1:2 “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, "Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me.”

⁵"Gather to me my faithful ones, who cut a covenant with me by sacrifice!"

·         God is going to clarify to the people He made the agreements with the nature of sacrifice

·         Abraham made a covenant by sacrifice, Genesis 15:9-18

·         Moses made a covenant by sacrifice, Exodus 24:7-8, the Jews Jeremiah 34:18

·         Jesus made a covenant by sacrifice

The heavens declare His righteousness for God Himself is judge! Selah

• The Jews did NOT declare God’s righteousness in their sacrifice but His wrath. The heavens can declare God’s righteousness
• Psalm 75:7 “But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.”

7 Hear O my people and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, Your God

• Psalm 81:8 “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me!”
• Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
• God Himself speaks now, He indicates His possession and His right to judge them
  
  

8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you, your burnt offerings are continually before me

• It has nothing to do with your sacrifices
• Numbers 16:35 “And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.”
• Isaiah 1:12+ God is not pleased with wrongful sacrifice, which is how we know He was pleased with Jesus
• Jeremiah 7:22-23 NO NIV “For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it maybe well with you.'
• Micah 6:7 “Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
• Hosea 6:6 “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings”
• Psalm 40:6 “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.”
• Matthew 9:13 “But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."”
• Hebrews 10:8-10 In speaking of Jesus, who prayed in the Garden not my will but thy will, not about sacrifice but heart “First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
  
  

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

• Reason 1 God is not pleased: if you take His stuff and kill it you are a thief and arson. God is sovereign!
• Isaiah 66:1-2 “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made.”
• 1000 means a big number, same as the millennial reign in Revelations

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?

• God does not care about eating. He is transcendent.
• John 4:24 “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

14Offer 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

• NO NIV for this section!  This then, is the sacrifice God wants: thanksgiving, honesty, and cries for help
• Not that sacrifices had no value, but that they have no intrinsic value to placate God with their mere presence
• Hebrews 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess His name.”

16 but to the wicked God says: What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?

• A hypocritical worship angers God.  Which is why we are to examine ourselves before the Lords supper 1 Corinthians 11:17-33 – do not confuse weakness with hypocrisy
• Acting saved will not save you, reforming your behavior is useless if your heart is evil.
• Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.”

For you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you.

• Cast words behind, throw them out as if they had no value
• Obedience is the form of worship God desires
• 1 John 2:3-6 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
• We can get a bad idea of what a Christian should be like from hypocrites and their teachings, hence the condemnation

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 you own mothers son

• Violations of commandments 7, 9,
• Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”
• Romans 1:32 “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

These things you have done, and I have been silent

• God remains silent to show us His patience and to pour wrath on Christ
• Romans 3:25-16 “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

You thought that I was one like yourself, but now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you

• We are not to assume God is like us. We are evil, He is good. We are weak, He is strong. We are selfish, petty, and criminal, He is magnanimous, forgiving and Holy

Mark this then you who forget God least I tear you apart and there be none to deliver!

• Hosea 5:14 “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.”
• Preaching about hell is at bottom a kindness, for these men will be severely punished for their ingratitude, profaning His worship, mocked His patience, and acted like criminals

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me,

• The parallel from verse 14

to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God

• Hebrews 9:13-15 “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”