Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank the Father for his Word and ask him to care for and bless his people by causing that Word to dwell richly in their hearts.
Read
Scripture Passage
Psalm 50
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.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 50.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
God owns all creation, needs nothing from human hands, and judges the covenant people who speak religiously while rejecting his instruction. External sacrifices cannot substitute for faithful gratitude and rightly ordered conduct; sinners' hope rests in God's own ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
Psalm 50:7
Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel. I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
Bryan explicitly says that he especially likes verse 7, while also mentioning verse 12 and affirming a co-host's choice of verse 4. Verse 7 states the passage's courtroom setting and grounds God's testimony against his covenant people in his identity as their God.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do & Christ Connection
Remember who God is and who you are. Reject the hypocrisy of religious speech without obedience, glorify and love God, confess that you are a covenant lawbreaker, and rest your hope in Jesus Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice sinners could never supply.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Okay, well welcome to Coffee and Devotions this Sunday morning. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through All the wisdom literature. That's right. All the wisdom literature. Well, thanks for joining us tonight.
Why don't we go ahead and have, or we'll just pray and we'll get into God's word. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, that you would care for us and you would bless us, that you would let your word dwell in our hearts richly in Jesus's name. Amen. Okay. Why don't we go ahead and pull up our passage here for us today. So Psalm 50, And I'll start and we'll just go paragraph by paragraph. Psalm 50, a psalm of Asaph. The mighty one, God the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty. God will shine forth. Our God shall come. and shall not keep silent. A fire shall devour him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around. Okay, mom, you want to read verses four through six? He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. Let the heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are continually before me.
I will not take a bull from your house, nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts, the fields are mine. Debra, can you read 12 through 15? If I were hungry, I would not tell you for the world is mine.
All its fullness, all its fullness will I eat flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats. Offer the Lord thanksgiving and pay vows to the Most High. Call upon me the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. Now isn't that interesting?
What is God saying he owns? What do you think he's saying? Everything. He owns everything. Right? If God was hungry, would he tell us? Does God need anything? So what do you think this is? What do you think this is talking about with like the sacrifices and the offerings and stuff? What do the people think? Yeah, they might even think that God needs their offerings, but does God need the offerings? No. No, right? So what does he say after that? Olivia, you want to read 16 through 21?
But to the wicked God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to 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 kept silent. You thought that I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. What do you guys think he's talking about there? He's saying that he'll judge the wicked. Yeah, but do these people think that they're wicked? Nope. Nope? Are these people the ones who are making sacrifices? Yeah. Yeah?
All right, what right do you have to declare my statutes or take my covenant in your mouth seeing you hate instructions and cast my words behind you? Have you guys ever met anybody like that before who talks a good talk but doesn't walk the good walk?
Who acts like God needs them? Yeah, but God says, mm-mm, that's not how this works. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, and there will be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies me, and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God.
So what do you guys think this entire Psalm is talking about? What do you think? Let's let mommy answer first. What do you think this psalm is talking about? If you had to summarize this, what would you say this is about? Don't forget God. Okay, don't forget God. What do you mean by don't forget God? Like, don't forget what you are compared to God. Ah, yeah, good. Well, don't forget what you are compared to God. What about you, Deborah? What do you think this is about? God is Lord over all, and he will judge the wicked. That's right. God is Lord over all, and he will judge the wicked. That's right. You want to know what psalm comes after this? Psalm 51, where God, where the psalmist confesses his sin.
Are we righteous by ourselves? No. We don't have a right. We don't have a right to take God's law upon our lips and act like we're perfect either, do we? No. No. But who, who made the ultimate sacrifice? God. God, Jesus Christ. Right. And so do we, do we have hope in blood of goats or of lambs and stuff like that? No. What's our hope in? God. That's right. Our hope is in God. What do you think, what would you underline as the best verse to summarize this passage, Olivia? What would you underline in your Bible?
I don't know. There's a lot. There is a lot. Do you have something that you really liked, you or Debra? You shall call the heavens from above and the earth. You may judge his people. Okay. You like verse four? I really like verse 7, right? Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel. I will testify against you. I am God, your God. And I also like 12. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine. It's all that's fullness. Yeah.
What do you guys think we're called to do in response to this? What do you think? What should we respond to? Glorify God and love Him all the days of our lives. Glorify God and love Him all the days of our lives? Good job, good job. What about you, Mom? What do you think you're called to do in response to this passage? Remember who God is and who I am. Good. Remember who God is. I like that.
Remember who God is and who we are, right? We are covenant lawbreakers. We are those who don't deserve to take the covenant with our own lips. We're not those who can say, you know, God, we've offered the sacrifices that you needed. No, no, that's not how this works. God loves us because he loves us and he's fulfilled the sacrifice.