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Psalm 50
As we come out of Psalm 49, we are reminded that riches cannot redeem the wealthy from Sheol. And the connection between Psalm 49 and the slaying of the first born of Egypt is rather evident as the Jewish reader would have automatically associated the “redemption” language with the Passover in Exodus 12-13. We were also reminded that true redemption from death, hell and the grave came only by blood.
And just by reading Psalm 49, one may get the mistaken impression that by merely bringing one’s sacrifice and going through the motions of making an offering to God would have been enough to save someone from God’s impending judgment under the Old Covenant. Psalm 50 is here to show us the True God is not interested in mere formalism and that He certainly is not satisfied with hypocrisy from those who claim to be His people.
Perhaps no better N.T. passage helps to illustrate the truth of Psalm 50 better than I Peter 4:17— “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
Psalm 50 reveals God as the Righteous Judge and may we come to soberly reflect upon His perfect judgments!
- Summons to Judgment Verses 1-6
- Reminiscent of Mt. Sinai—Exodus 19:16-19
- This is designed to evoke wonder, fear and awe from the worshipper.
- The Names of God—Notice verse 1. Here we have 3 names of God mentioned. Perhaps an alternate translation would be “the God of gods, Yahweh”.
- “El” (= God), “Elohim” (= God), “Yahweh” (= LORD) (the NIV has “The Mighty One, God, the LORD”). The Creator-God (= “Elohim”) and the Redeemer-God (= “Yahweh”) are one God (= “El”)
- This is the Covenant God Who has covenanted with both Israel and Creation itself. —Hosea 2:18
- “The psalm opens with a majestic heaping together of the divine names, as if a herald were proclaiming the style and titles of a mighty king at the opening of a solemn assize (court)…”—Alexander Maclaren
- His Universal Judgment—The scope of God’s judgment is universal. Notice the phrases “earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets” and “the heavens above, and the earth” in verse 4. God summons both realms seen and realms unseen to be witnesses to His righteous judgments but then the Psalm takes an unexpected twist.
- His Particular Judgment—We expect God to judge those outside the church who reject the gospel. But we have a sudden surprise unfolding for us here. Notice verses 4-5.
- “To Cut a Covenant”—In the ancient Near East, the act of making a covenant with someone was a solemn and serious ceremony. We have glimpses of the ceremony in two biblical passages, Genesis 15 and Jer. 34:18–20, and there are records of similar covenant ceremonies from the Mari texts (eighteenth century B.C.E.) and from Qatna (fifteenth century B.C.E.). In Genesis 15, God commanded Abram to bring a number of animals to an altar, cut them in two, and lay them “each half over against the other” (15:10). When the sun had gone down, “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” passed between the carcasses of the animals, and God said to Abram, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (15:17–18). In Jeremiah 34, the prophet says that the fate of those who do not keep the covenant will be “like the calf when they cut it in two and passed between its parts” (34:18). At Mari, the phrase “to kill an ass” was equivalent to “to make a covenant.” A common element in the covenant ceremony was the recitation of words such as: “As this beast is cut up, may the gods do to me and more, if I do not fulfill the stipulations of this covenant.” Thus we surmise that covenant-making in the ancient Near East involved the slaughter and placement of animal halves on either side of an altar and a ceremony in which each participant in the covenant walked between the slain carcasses and declared their intent to observe the stipulations of the covenant. If any of the participants violated the stipulations, then they swore they would receive the same fate as the slain animals. The verb used in the Hebrew Bible to describe covenant-making— kāraṯ, to cut—is thus appropriate and descriptive.”
- Reminiscent of Mt. Sinai—Exodus 19:16-19
- First Indictment: Formalism Verses 7-15
- To the “mechanically pious” as Derek Kidner refers to them.
- God rebukes them for allowing themselves to lose sight of the true meaning of the sacrifices and offerings.
- Rituals are not bad in and of themselves. In this case, sacrifices and offerings did 2 good things:
- Remind us all we have comes from God. When we give we are simply giving back a portion of what God already gave to us.
- The teach us the only way to approach God is by having an atonement for our sins.
- One of the greatest follies we can commit is to allow ourselves to think we are doing God a favor by our devotional life…God doesn’t need our worship. We need God.
- The Object Lesson—The blood of the Sacrifice!
- A Heart of thankfulness because of the sacrifice.
- Formalism without the proper heart attitude makes the offerings detestable to God.
- Second Indictment: Hypocrisy Verses 16-21
- Beware of “nominalism” i.e. “Christian in name only”
- Enter the 10 Commandments:
- You shall not steal in Verse 18
- You shall not commit adultery in Verse 18
- You shall not bear false witness in Verses 19-20
- What is the problem here? —The people made the mistake of thinking God was like they were in verse 21. We must always remember God is a God of Moral Perfection.
Conclusion—This Psalm speaks to 2 classes of people. The redeemed who may have lost sight of what the sacrifices and offerings meant thus allowing themselves to slide into formalism. Also, this Psalm addresses the unredeemed who are playing the hypocrite and saying all the right things but not really meaning it on the heart level. This Psalm invites us to come to God with a heart of genuine thanksgiving in verse 23.
