A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving – Psalm 50

Asaph was one of David’s appointees to lead the worship of Israel at the tabernacle.  He was a priest, a musician, and a man of wisdom.  This psalm and psalms 73-83 are his contributions.

A Psalm of Asaph.

The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.  He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:  “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”  The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you.  I am God, your God.  Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.  I will not accept a bull from your house  or goats from your folds.  For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?  Offer 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.”

But to the wicked God says:  “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?  For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.  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 your own mother’s son.  These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself.  But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

“Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!  The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”  (Psalm 50 ESV)

God calls us to worship and to submission to His judgment.  He reminds those of us who are faithful that we must not think the sacrifices we bring are what sway Him in our favor.  He does not need them, we do.  He accepts our sacrifices if offered from gratitude. 

Perhaps in our dispensation our “sacrifices” that we offer to God are our deeds, our attendance at church, our tithes.  But these done as means of swaying God to our favor are wrong-headed.  What moves God is genuine faith and gratitude.

To the wicked, those who persist in sin but speak as if they are God’s people, He warns that His silence is only temporary, a chance for them to repent, but He will rebuke and tear them apart with no one to deliver them if they persist in their wickedness.