Psalm 50
Psalm 50
is a psalm about the coming judgment that all of creation will endure before
God. The opening six verses talk about
the Lord as He comes before creation to stand as judge. There are many impressive images that we can
find here.
The first
impressive image that caught my attention is the one about God summoning all of
creation. This is a pretty neat
thought. It is God who will summon us –
especially at the time of judgment. So
often we think that it is we who summon God.
Even in our prayer life, how many of us have this unspoken idea that
when we pray it is we who are getting in contact with God? No, when we pray we are merely listening to
the Holy Spirit telling us to get in touch with a God who is already in the
process of trying to get into touch with us.
It is not we who initiate anything.
God initiates; God summons. We
respond.
Another
profound image is the image of what is before God when He comes to judge. There is a devouring fire before Him. Perhaps it is because I am in the midst of a
6-week Bible Study on Hell, but I couldn’t help but immediately think about
some of the New Testament passages that I’ve been studying recently. Specifically, I thought of Revelation 14:9-11.
That passage talks about the message of
the third angel. Here the angel speaks
about those who follow the beast and take his mark being tormented in fire and
sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. I don’t know if John borrowed this image from
Psalm 50 when he wrote it in his letter, but the imagery sure seems to at least
parallel one another.
At the end
of the first six verses we hear God call forth the righteous ones from the
earth and desire to extend judgment upon them.
Notice specifically the image that God tells them for which they will
not be judged. In verse 8 God is clear
that it is not because of their sacrifices that God is in any kind of
relationship with them. God is not
interested in whether they can properly sacrifice the right bull or lamb. He doesn’t care if they “follow the template”
precisely or not. Worshiping God is not
about maintaining a tradition for the sake of continuing the tradition. Rather, in verse 14 we hear what God
desires. God desires that we worship in
thanksgiving and serve Him out of our desire.
God wants us to desire to be in relationship, not go through some
established set of motions. God desires
relationship, not hollow tradition.
The other
area in which we can see God taking judgment in this psalm is in our attitude
towards others. What does God say? His people delight in relationships with
thieves. We take pleasure in our company
of adulterers. We train our tongues to
speak evil and deceit. We slander one
another.
Verse 22
tells us some pretty definitive truth.
God is not pleased. “Listen, lest
I tear you apart!” God says through the psalmist. We are to be thankful to God. We are to order our ways to His ways
meaningfully. We are to live out our
faith. We are to practice what we
preach. That is what we are supposed to
do – and those are the things that are pleasing to God.
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