Several years ago I read a book by James K.A. Smith entitled Desiring the Kingdom. In this book, Smith makes the insightful observation that ordinary cultural activities in which we engage—such as a trip to the mall or attending a football game—are themselves “liturgies,” or forms of worship that seek to form our hearts according to the values of this world. In order to combat the effects of these worldly “liturgies,” we must build into our lives regular practices that shape our hearts according to what is true, and preeminent among those practices is gathered worship with the church. I found the book to be very insightful and helpful, but I also noticed that Smith seemed to downplay the importance of how we think in the process of the formation of our hearts. Instead of assuming that we are changed by thinking, he argued, we should understand that we are changed primarily by the regular practices of our lives.
I wholeheartedly agree that the regular practices of our lives matter a great deal. If you are not in the habit of attending church, or praying, or reading the Bible, or fellowshipping with other believers, your spiritual life will suffer. But that doesn’t mean that the way you think is not also a major part of this equation. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” We need both: regular practices that orient us toward God combined with right thinking about God. Psalm 50 presents us with clear evidence that how we think about God really matters. It was written about a people who seemed to have their regular worship practices pretty well mastered, and yet it rebukes them for going through the motions of worship while their hearts remained far from God. And that, I believe, is owing to the fact that they had, over time, allowed God to become more and more pushed to the side in their thoughts and lives. Has that ever happened to you? It wasn’t that you ever consciously intended to distance yourself from God, but rather, over time, little by little, one small decision after another, you allowed your life to coast into a pattern of basically ignoring him. As Lee has said many times, we never drift toward holiness. So when we allow ourselves to drift, it is always with the currents of this world away from God. And then one day you look up and notice that you still have all the outward marks of being a Christian, but the vitality of your walk with the Lord is simply not there anymore, and you may be one crisis experience away from abandoning the faith altogether, for all you know.
When we fail to nurture a life of contemplation of God, reflecting on who he is and what he has done for our salvation, we will naturally diminish him in our thinking and will naturally grow distant from him. This is why we need the Word of God to correct us regularly and get us back in touch with the reality of who God is. That seems to be the purpose of Psalm 50, which some scholars believe was a psalm used for a ceremony of covenant renewal in Israel. As we work through this psalm, it will show us that a right view of God gives proper direction to our worship, life, and faith. The psalm divides into four sections. It begins with a setting of the judgment scene in verses 1-6. Then God addresses in judgment his people Israel to show them the meaning of true sacrifice in verses 7-15. Then he turns to address “the wicked” among Israel to rebuke them for disobeying the very Law they claim to adhere to in verses 16-21. Finally, in verses 22-23 he addresses the same two groups in reverse order as he issues a final call to repentance. From these four sections I see primarily three truths about God that I want to draw out and show how each one should give direction to us. May these truths help reinvigorate or maintain our spiritual vitality by bringing us before God this morning.
I’m going to begin at the second section. After the judgment scene is set in verses 1-6, we come to the next section and see that
The doctrine of God’s self-sufficiency, called his “aseity” in theological terms, is a doctrine that affirms that God alone exists of himself, independently, with fullness of life contained entirely within himself. He does not depend one iota on anything outside of himself either for his being or his fullness of joy. Rather, he is the one from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things (Rom. 11:36).
This doctrine has implications for how we worship God. When I say that it directs us to true worship, not mere ritual, the word “mere” really matters there. I’m not saying that rituals are not important, for they certainly are. I would never advocate an anti-institutional, anti-ritual approach to worship. God commands us to engage in certain regular practices: gathering on the Lord’s Day, hearing the preaching of the Word, coming to the Lord’s table, etc. Worship is not enriched by getting rid of these things. Notice that in verse 8 God says to Israel, “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.” I believe God is saying here, “Your practices of worship are fine. I don’t have any rebuke for you in that regard, because you offer up sacrifices regularly as I have commanded.” Rituals matter.
But worship is not merely about rituals. There is more to it. Note that even though Israel has the practices right, God says in verse 9, “I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.” Why not? The profound answer about the nature of God comes in verses 10-13, which I want to read again in full: “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?” It is as though God is saying to Israel, “Do you think that your sacrifices enrich me in any way? Do you think you’re doing me a favor? Don’t you understand that the purpose of worship is not to supply something lacking in me? It’s so that my fullness may be shared with you!” God is not like one of the pagan deities who can be bribed to give favors to worshipers in a business transaction of sacrifice. He is the sovereign, self-existent, self-sufficient Lord of all.
And that means that our worship practices are not just tasks to check off a list. If we treat them that way, what are we actually saying? Aren’t we saying, “This task doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but I know God must get something out of it, so I’m going to do it so I can check it off my list and then get on with real life”? Brothers and sisters, if you approach the Lord that way, you have profoundly misunderstood who he is. He doesn’t need your worship. He’s not waiting on you to address his personal insecurities by singing to him about how great he is. He’s offering himself to you to fill you with the joy of knowing him. That is what worship is about.
God goes on to explain that to Israel in his directions of verses 14-15: “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.” Here God tells Israel that proper worship takes the form of gratitude and petition, both of which highlight the sufficiency of God. God commands that Israel offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform their vows to the Most High. Vows of particular offerings to God could have either entailed making a particular promise to give an offering in gratitude for a particular act of deliverance, or they may have been offered freely on the part of the worshiper without any obligation from the Law. Either way, fulfilling your vows is an expression of gratitude. Gratitude is essential to a godly life. It is what happens when we as creatures are properly related to our Creator. All sense of entitlement goes out the window when we realize that everything we have is a gift of grace. And with entitlement goes all the bitterness, disappointment, and jealousy that comes with the thought that God somehow hasn’t given us what he owes us. When you really take to heart that God owes you nothing, you begin to see more clearly how much he has lavished grace upon you, and it fills you with the joy that comes with gratitude. And gratitude puts all the focus on his sufficiency and our need, rather than vice versa.
The other side of gratitude is calling upon the Lord with our needs. God says to Israel, “You want to worship me rightly? Then call upon me in the day of trouble.” God is not annoyed by the expression of our needs to him in prayer. He is not troubled or interrupted. He loves to lavish grace upon us in answer to prayer. This highlights his sufficiency. James tells us in James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask.” Is it possible that we have not yet received certain blessings from the Lord because we have not yet chosen to ask for them? Maybe we assume they are too trivial, or maybe we have an unbiblical notion of God’s sovereignty that prevents us asking for what we desire, or maybe we don’t really trust that God loves us and wants to bless us. Whatever the case may be, have we failed to receive certain blessings because God is waiting for us to highlight his sufficiency by asking him for them? The doctrine of God’s self-sufficiency directs us to worship God, not by checking things off a list, but by coming to him with profound gratitude and with profound faith that is manifested in praise and prayer. In worship, we have the privilege of entering deeper into the joy of knowing God.
Now I am going to tie together the first and third sections of the psalm as we draw from it a second word of direction:
Late in his life Johnny Cash recorded an old folk song entitled, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” With an ominous sounding tune and Cash’s deep, rich, yet old and raspy voice, you hear him sing the chilling chorus: “You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, run on for a long time. Sooner or later gonna cut you down.” That’s a message that comes across in many of the biblical prophets, and it certainly comes across in this psalm as it rebukes those who assume that God’s present patience with sin indicates that he will never come in judgment.
But indeed he will! The first six verses paint a picture of the judgment scene, showing us God’s absolute supremacy in various ways. First, notice his names in verse 1: “The Mighty One, God the LORD.” In the Hebrew, that is an unusual expression that could be translated, “Yahweh, God of gods.” Second, notice the indications of his sovereignty over absolutely all things. In verse 1 he “speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting,” meaning from east to west and everything in between. The whole earth is called to bear witness at his judgment seat. Then in verse 4 he calls upon the heavens and the earth, so that by the mouth of at least two witnesses the truth may be confirmed. Verse 6 tells us that the heavens testify to his righteousness as judge. He is no tribal deity with a limited jurisdiction. He is sovereign Creator, Lord, and judge of heaven and earth. Then notice third the visual indications of his majesty. Verse 3 reads, “Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.” In imagery reminiscent of the terrifying scene at Mount Sinai, where smoke and fire engulfed the mountain and struck the people of Israel with fear, we have a description of the Lord’s coming in judgment.
But then there is a surprising twist at the end of verse 4: “He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people.” While the people of Israel may have assumed this was a description of a judgment scene with God ready to come and destroy their enemies, in fact God’s judgment is turned against them. He calls for his “faithful ones” in verse 5, not necessarily indicating that they are a faithful people, but rather that they are in covenant with God, having entered into covenant with him at Mount Sinai. It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17). What these first six verses indicate to us is that God’s judgment is impartial. He will not degrade himself by lowering his standard for Israel’s sake. Yes, he chose Israel by grace, but his grace in no way compromises his holiness or his righteousness.
And that’s a message that comes through clearly in the third section, verses 16-21, where God addresses “the wicked,” or those among Israel who presume upon his favor simply because they are Israelites. They are people who belong to his covenant, who recite his statutes, perhaps even some of whom are teachers of the Law of God, and yet for their own lives they hate discipline and give no heed to obeying God’s Word (vv. 16-17). Whereas the rebuke in verses 7-15 toward ritualistic worshipers addresses violations of the first table of the Law (love toward God), the wicked in this section are rebuked for violating the second table of the Law (love toward neighbor). Notice the particular commandments that come into view in verses 18-20: “If you see a thief, you are pleased with him.” That’s a reference to the 8th commandment against stealing. The verse goes on, “and you keep company with adulterers,” a reference to the 7th commandment against adultery. Interestingly, in both cases the wicked are not accused directly of theft or adultery (though they were probably guilty of that), but rather of giving approval to these actions among others. And that’s a whole new level of depravity. It’s bad enough to sin in secret and to keep that sin hidden from others out of shame. But when you get to the point that you no longer feel that sense of shame, and you can celebrate sin openly with others, you have reached a new level of hardness. Does that sound familiar, as you look around you at our society today?
Then verses 19-20 address violations of the 9th commandment against bearing false witness: “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.” The wicked do not hesitate to slander those to whom they have the greatest earthly obligations, their own flesh and blood. This is a striking picture for us of how far it is possible to fall into sin while remaining externally affiliated with God’s people.
But the real theological punch comes in verse 21: “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.” In our sin, we are prone to interpret the patience of God as an indication that he doesn’t really take sin seriously. We think that he is like us. Worse, we assume that the grace he has shown in the past is something that he owes to us forever. But make no mistake: the fact that God’s judgment appears to be delayed is no indication that it will not come. Judgment will come, and on that day there will be absolutely no question about where God stands with respect to our sin.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Membership in the visible church is no guarantee that you know that Lord. Not even a track record of impressive works of ministry is a guarantee that you know the Lord. If you are a worker of lawlessness, if you live a hypocritical life that is given over to sin, the judgment of God will come for you. God will not be mocked. Search your heart and ask, in the light of God’s Word, “Have I made peace with any sin in my life? Have I given sin, in any form, safe harbor?” If so, may Psalm 50 awaken you from your spiritual sleep and prompt you to conviction and repentance.
And that leads us naturally into the last section of this psalm, where we learn that
This psalm is a lot to take in, but it doesn’t leave us without hope. God has addressed ritualistic worshipers in verses 7-15 and wicked hypocrites in verses 16-21. Now he addresses both groups again, but in reverse order, in the last two verses of the psalm. To the wicked he says in verse 22, “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!” I think the key word in that verse is “lest.” God is saying, “Listen to me now and take action so that I won’t have to tear you apart!” Yes, we have a scene of judgment described for us throughout this psalm, but the ending of the psalm is a way of showing that, as long as the final judgment has not come yet, there is still time to repent. Even to those hardened in hypocrisy, God holds out the possibility that they might repent while there is still time and find deliverance before it is too late.
And then to the ritualistic worshipers God reiterates what he had said before in verse 23: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” Yes, judgment will come, but the heart of God is to give salvation from his coming judgment, and so he holds out the hope of salvation to all who will repent now.
When Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord passed by him and proclaimed his name to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6). From that point on in Scripture, that terminology becomes synonymous with God’s name. Interestingly, there are a couple of places where that terminology appears with a little phrase added to it. One example is Joel 2:13, where the prophet calls upon the people in these words: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” Remarkably, Joel brings the action of relenting into the very name of God, as if to say that yes, God will come in judgment, but his heart delights much more in relenting over judgment to those who repent. With God, as long as you draw breath, it is never too late to turn from your sins, to cry out for his mercy, and to order your way rightly before him.
And that is where I want to conclude this message today. There are two kinds of people in this room right now: those who are identified as being in Christ and those who are not. First, let me address you who are not. The gospel is good news that while judgment looms over this world, God’s offer of forgiveness of sins is freely held out to you if you take hold of Christ by faith. He lived the life that you should have lived. He died on the cross under condemnation to take on the punishment that his people deserved. He was raised again on the third day in victory over death, and there is absolutely nothing that you can do to save yourself. Christ has done it all. So look to Christ in faith, and be baptized.
But what if you are already identified as one who is in Christ? What if you are already baptized? Then I urge you to examine yourself in the light of this psalm. Have you drifted from God and allowed your view of him to be downgraded? Do you treat worship like a checklist, as though you have something to contribute to God instead of coming to receive from him? Or have you allowed hypocrisy to take root in your life, becoming hardened in patterns of sin because you assume that God’s judgment will never come, or if it does, you’ll be off the hook because of your baptism? If you find yourself addressed by any of those concerns, God has been gracious to you to bring it to your attention today. It’s time for you to humble yourself before God and repent. Cry out to him in confession, seek his forgiveness, and then order your way rightly. Maybe you need to meditate deeply and regularly on who God is as self-sufficient, righteous, and merciful, and let that meditation inform your worship practices more explicitly. Or maybe you need to attack some sin in your life with new boundaries, safeguards, and measures of accountability to help you break free from it. Whatever the case may be for you, don’t put off repentance today if you are under the conviction of sin. Bring that matter to the Lord now, and then eat and drink with us joyfully at the Lord’s Table. Amen.