Psalm 50--God Himself Is Judge

Psalm 50
English Standard Version

God Himself Is Judge
A Psalm of Asaph.
50 The Mighty One, God the LORD,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines forth.

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

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

12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and 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 recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
17 For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.

19 “You give your mouth free rein for 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 have been silent;
    you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
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!”

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The LORD is not only King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but the Judge of the Living and the Dead.  One day, everyone will be summoned to their day in court, and no one will be a fugitive from God's justice.  Everyone will appear before Him, and He will know their actions, words and even the things that we imaginations and fantasies that we lived out in our own minds and shared with no one else.

There are two different judgments that are discussed in this psalm of Asaph.  The first is the judgment of the "righteous"--those who are people of His covenant by way of blood sacrifice.  While that sacrifice is not directly indicated, the LORD makes clear later in the passage that His covenant is not about the blood of bulls (what was offered on the Day of Atonement).  No, it's about a better sacrifice that was offered by His Son, Jesus who was our penal substitutionary atonement.  The LORD says that He is not like all the pagan gods who the priests claimed needed lots of sacrifices so that the gods could have food and drink.  It was actually the priests who needed the sacrifices to take care of them and their families and the sacrificial system in Leviticus was definitely made to picture the sacrifice Jesus would make, and to temporarily take care of the issues of sin and guilt.  However, there was also a portion of the offering that went to feeding the priests and the other Levites (and their families with them) who gave their lives in service to the LORD.  God reminded the people that He is Creator of all and that means that every wild beast and every tame beast belongs to Him.  So, even the sacrifices they offer from their field are not something that is theirs, but something that is already His that He is accepting on their behalf.  It's a picture of Jesus who came from the Father to be our sacrifice--we did not own Him and offer Him in our place.  He came from the Father and the Father willingly offered the Son (and the Son was a willing sacrifice too) in our place.  So then, the righteous (the people of the covenant) will be judged by the finished work of Christ, and not by their works, nor by the sacrifices they have offered.

The wicked however will be judged according to their works.  There will be many pretenders there that day who can recite all the words of the Old Covenant, but they do not obey the Law because their hearts were never changed by the regeneration that comes from being "born again" through Christ.  The LORD shows contempt for them and says they have no right to recite the Law and claim its promises if they are going to be children of disobediences, and therefore their portion will be for them to be children of wrath.  He will pour out judgment on them and we see a picture of fire here that so often accompanies the discussion of eternal damnation in the place we call The Lake of Fire.  God warns the wicked to obey His commandments and not treat His Word with contempt.  They are not to associate with other wicked people, not to join in their wickedness, and not to celebrate their wicked deeds.  They are to watch their words, for out of the evil man's heart, his mouth speaks many evil words.  Even though the LORD silently watched and kept account of this evil, not immediately judging it when it happened, that does not mean that He was going to let them get away with it (that is what the wicked assume--either God doesn't exist, or He doesn't care).  God does exist and He does care, and one day they will have their day in court and all the evidence will point to the verdict that we already know to be true, "Guilty!"

Therefore, we warn the wicked and godless of the coming day of judgment and offer them the chance to have Jesus stand in their place so they too can be declared innocent because "He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of Christ."  We also live in such a way where we make it clear to others that we are not depending on our own righteousness (our own good works, offerings, sacrifices, charitable contributions, etc.) to save us or even get us "brownie points" with God.  God is not interested in any of that which we do by our own strength.  The only righteousness that is acceptable to Him is the righteousness that comes by faith by letting the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) be at work within us and make us into His image and so that we do His works.  We should praise the LORD for the finished work of Christ and offer a sacrifice of praise.  At this time, the people still offered burnt offerings, but this psalm points to a day that we live in now where the sacrificial system was ended because it no longer serves its purpose--instead we rest on Jesus to be our Guilt Offering, our Sin Offering, our Peace/Fellowship Offering, and all of the other offerings from the Law.  He came to "fulfill all righteousness" on our behalf.