Psalm 50 is a tough writing. Unlike Psalm 49 (directed to all people), Psalm 50 is specific to its intended audience: the ones who have made a covenant with God. This Psalm is for the saints, and it contains some severe warnings of correction, judgment, and even destruction, at the hand of the Lord. It is a small wonder why this Psalm has little pulpit time. It offends our comfortable theology. And yet it is written for our admonition, as are all the Scriptures.
In overlooking this Psalm, we can miss an amazing and timeless revelation regarding thanksgiving, and we can miss further revelation regarding the heavenly solution to the ‘Ichabod Syndrome’ (glory departure) upon the earth. And we can miss some understanding as to why our great God, Whose ways differ from our ways, might not only ALLOW trouble to come our way, but might actually LEAD us into trouble, with divine purpose. Notable is the 23 verses of this psalm. Psalm 23 is all about being led by the Good Shepherd through the valley Of the shadow of death.
Back to 50. The revelations can be found in verses 14 and 15:
14 Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
There is divine formula and process.
Just as Peter reiterated – ‘let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls unto Him as to a faithful Creator’, the writer of this psalm tells us that, for those walking the walk and finding themselves in trouble, they are offered the invitation to call upon the One they serve, and after that call deliverance will occur, and then the glory of God will be manifest.
Yea God! Reglorification of the world through the deliverance of the righteous, as a result of trouble being overcome by mercy.
THAT is living the gospel in front of a jaded and distracted and broken and deceived world.
Saints, your offering of thanksgiving sits solidly within the process and promise of holy purpose.
Happy Thanksgiving.
PSALM 50 (NKJV)
God the Righteous Judge
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 The Mighty One, God the Lord,
Has spoken and called the earth
From the rising of the sun to its going down.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God will shine forth.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent;
A fire shall devour before Him,
And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him.
4 He shall call to the heavens from above,
And to the earth, that He may judge His people:
5 “ Gather My saints together to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
6 Let the heavens declare His righteousness,
For God Himself is Judge.
Selah
7 “ Hear, O My people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you;
I am God, your God!
8 I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices
Or your burnt offerings,
Which are continually before Me.
9 I will not take a bull from your house,
Nor goats out of your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.
13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
Or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
16 But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to declare My statutes,
Or take My covenant in your mouth,
17 Seeing you hate instruction
And cast My words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him,
And have been a partaker with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth to evil,
And your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things you have done, and I kept silent;
You thought that I was altogether like you;
But I will rebuke you,
And set them in order before your eyes.
22 “Now consider this, you who forget God,
Lest I tear you in pieces,
And there be none to deliver:
23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
And to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God.”
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