Psalms 50:1-4. The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof. Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
To profess to be the people of God is a very solemn thing, for the apostle Peter tells us that «judgment must begin at the house of God.» Those who profess to be his people shall be like the wheat on the threshing floor. John the Baptist, preparing the way for the first coming of Christ, said of him, «whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.» When he comes again, he will separate the precious from the vile, the true saint from the mere pretender.
Psalms 50:5-6. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.
He will not depute this office to another. He knows the details of each case, he knows the motives that have been at the back of every action, he knows the law, and he knows what sentence ought to be passed in every instance: «God is judge himself.»
Psalms 50:7-9. Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
Observe what contempt God expresses, in this Psalm, for all mere ceremonial sacrifices. They were ordained by God, and were acceptable to him when offered with a right motive, but apart from that motive, and apart from their spiritual significance, what was there in them to make them acceptable to the Most High? Doth the Lord delight in the fat of bulls or the blood of goats? There can be nothing in these things, in themselves that can please his infinite mind, so he says of them. «I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.» Where the heart was not given with the offering, it could not be well-pleasing unto the Lord.
Psalms 50:10-11. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
If any man thinks that he can make God his debtor by any offering that he brings to him, what a great mistake he makes! Whatever you bring to God, you will only bring to him what is already his. The silver and the gold are his as well as «the cattle upon a thousand hills.» What we willingly bring to him out of heartfelt gratitude, he will graciously accept; but if we imagine that there is any merit in what we give, he will have nothing to do with it.
Psalms 50:12-13. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
«Think you that there is any offering that man can present to me which can appease my wrath, or give me pleasure?»
Psalms 50:14. Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
The offering of the heart is better than the gift from the purse. The praise and thanksgiving that come out of the very soul, these God will accept.
Psalms 50:15-16. And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
There were, in those days, wicked priests who taught the people what they did not themselves practice, just as there are, in these days, men who because of their official position, have dared to stand up, and declare the gospel of Christ by which they were not themselves saved, and in which indeed, they were not even believers. Are they the men to preach the truth? Are they fit to teach others? Assuredly not: «Unto the wicked God saith, «What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?»
Psalms 50:17-20. Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.
How then canst thou hope to please God with thy formal ceremonies, with thy mere attendance at the house of God while thy heart is estranged from him? Thou dost but mock God with all this empty formalism.
Psalms 50:21-22. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, --
«Consider this,» you who are full of heartless religiousness, you who are so particular in your observance of the outward forms of religion, and yet do not think of God as you should; «consider this,»
Psalms 50:22. Ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
What a terrible God is this Jehovah whom we serve! If our hearts are not right towards him, if we dare to mock him with solemn sounds uttered by false tongues, this verse warns us as to how he will deal with us.
Psalms 50:23. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
So that what God really desires is living, loving hearts; and holy gracious lives; and, therefore, if we do not give him our hearts and our lives, our sacrifices and oblations are all in vain, they are an abomination in his sight.