Psalm 50 speaks to the true human condition as loudly now as it did 3000 years ago.
(Image Credti – Knowing Jesus)
Please read Psalm 50 in whichever reputable translation you prefer. The translation I am using is the New International Version, 1983 revision. This Psalm is attributed to Asaph, one of the primary worship-leaders and composers in the time of King David. The subscript is “A Psalm of Asaph”.
A reminder that in their original form, the Psalms, as with all Bible…
This morning, I had the privilege of starting the day with four other men and one woman of God with great time of prayer for the nation. We started in Psalm 20 and moved to psalm 50 and at one point, I’m not sure why, the 70’s chorus, “I Surrender All” came into my mind. As a result, one of my prayers included the idea of surrendering all and anything necessary to make revival happen.
Afterward,…
Give us aid against the foe,
for human help is worthless.
With God we will perform valiantly;
He will trample our foes.
~ Psalm 60:11-12
OBSERVATION:
"Give [me] aid against the foe" - the enemy...
Human help is worthless exactly because even at my strongest, I am weak...
But when I rely on Him, my performance is improved well beyond my abilities...
...and it is He who tramples my foe... the enemy...
APPLICATION:
Rely on His help...
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father - forgive my self-reliance, and continue Your Holy Spirit's reminders to lean into Your strength instead of falling back on my own... May I follow Jesus's example, and surrender my will for Yours... In His Name, and for Your glory and praise in all things throughout today...
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. 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 I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
I know I've read this before, but I only just now gained some understanding of it. God is talking to the just, to those who love Him and serve Him. He is saying, "I know you continue to make your offerings, but I don't need them. They do nothing for me- they never were for ME, they were for YOU. I don't need your sacrifice, I need your thanksgiving."
He wasn't telling them to stop making sacrifices. The Jewish law did not end until Jesus was crucified. What God was saying was that they should give to Him, not out of fear, but out of thankfulness for God's grace and goodness. It's the same as tithing, or as when Christians say they will give everything they have to God. We don't do it because we're afraid that God will get angry and punish us if we don't. We do it because He was so good to us that we want to do something, anything, for Him.
We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
It is not simply that prayer is our part in dialogue with God generally considered. More specifically, prayer is properly our word of response to the God who initiates the conversation. [Notice] in Psalm 50 that God graciously initiates the relational dialogue by means of His word. He calls His people to attention and speaks first: “Hear, O my people, and I will speak” (Ps. 50:7). Without this initiating word, none of the ensuing words of thanksgiving and vow and petition and praise would be forthcoming or make sense. That is to say, there would be no prayer were it not for the initiating speech act of God.
This is, in fact, the nature of all our life and all reality— it all flows from divine benevolence and initiating action. God is the One Who always gets things going, as it were. From beginning to middle to end— from God’s “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), to His shining in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6), to His “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5)— everything that is, is ever and only response to God’s prior word and creative/saving activity. This includes prayer... prayer is always and properly our response to God’s initiating word and work... prayer is fundamentally and always “answering speech.” As a result, “What is essential in prayer is not that we learn to express ourselves, but that we learn to answer God.”
The Lord Shall Judge All People
The Bible Knowledge Commentary – Psalm 50:1-23
A Psalm of Asaph.
1The Mighty One, God the Lord,
Has spoken and called the earth
From the rising of the sun to its going down.
2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God will shine forth.
3Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent;
A fire shall devour before Him,
And it shall be very tempestuous all around…
The deepest yearning in every human soul is to become whole again, to return to their spiritual source, to experience belonging and union with the Beloved.
The Almighty God, the Lord, speaks; he calls to the whole earth from east to west.God shines from Zion, the city perfect in its beauty.
Our God is coming, but not in silence; a raging fire is in front of him, a furious storm around him.He calls heaven and earth as witnesses to see him judge his people.He says, “Gather my faithful people to me, those who made a covenant with me…