Is Your Faith More Than Moralism? (Psalm 50:1-15)
GIST: If our worship is just motions and our hearts remain unchanged, we’re missing out on who God is and the salvation He brings —which are both absolutely vital!
This morning, we’re continuing our Summer in Psalms by coming to Psalm 50. At least, that had been my plan all week… until I typed it all up. Then I realized we had too much to reasonably walk through in one Sunday, so this will be a two-parter.
This is the first psalm credited to Asaph. There are 12 psalms total given this attribution. However, they were likely not written by one Asaph ☺️. The original was one of David’s chief musicians, and it seems the family continued in that service, so some were likely written by his descendants.
Like last week, we’re going to walk through the psalm piece by piece, then we’ll bring it all together in our takeaways. Even though we’ll only hit the first ½, let’s start by reading the whole psalm for context→
“1 A Psalm of Asaph. 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!”
So, this psalm is about… judgment. I know that’s what everyone wants to hear when they come to church. That’s the beauty of working through the Bible verse-by-verse like this though. We’re going to come to everything it addresses, and future reality is a big piece of that. Where will spend eternity? This chapter makes it very clear that has everything to do with where our hearts are now. We don’t earn salvation, but we have a chance to be rescued by God’s sovereign grace or not. Here we see God addressing two groups of people who, at the very least, are claiming to be His people, but are either trying to save themselves through moralism (right living) or just living full-on hypocrisy. Today, we’ll just talk about the moralist which, yeah, gives us plenty to think about. Here’s our gist: If our worship is just motions and our hearts remain unchanged, we’re missing out on who God is and the salvation He brings —which are both absolutely vital! Let’s dig in.
“1… 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.”
From the beginning, this psalm calls us to have a right view of God, to take Him seriously, to think about who He really is. We’re called to see His majesty —the Mighty One, the Sovereign LORD, who has all-encompassing perfection—all day, every day coming from Heaven, Zion, that which is beyond us plunging deliberately into our lives shining forth fully displayed. That’s the introduction! Let’s keep that picture in mind as we read what comes next→
“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”
Remember, Selah functions as a sort of pause to let us contemplate what was just said. Here we are called to take in what’s happening. The wonderfully perfect God is storming forth to judge His people. Honestly, that’s a powerful and terrifying image. It also begs the question: who can possibly stand in the face of this?
Keep also in mind that He just called is first target audience His people and His faithful ones. Though we’ll see that these people are definitely missing the mark, they are still called His. Now, let’s remember, if we are His (if we’ve given Him our lives and received His gift of rescue), we know we won’t face final judgment in the sense that we won’t be condemned for our sins (we won’t go to Hell) because we’ve been forgiven and covered in His righteousness. Nonetheless, as people saved by grace and shown His light, we’re still held accountable. In fact, we’re held to a higher standard because we should know better.
These people should have known better too, but look at what they’d fallen into, and, please, let’s take this as a serious warning for our lives as well→
“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?”
There is an implicit rebuke here. However, it’s not because of the sacrifices. They are making those. The issue is He doesn’t need them, and they are living like He does! This is the core of the issue: they are misunderstanding the character of God. They think He needs their sacrifices, but they are the needy party. They need His grace and direction. We need His grace and direction. He needs nothing.
This is called moralism. They are tying their salvation to “doing”. Every other religion does this. If we can just (fill in the blank), we can be saved. It doesn’t work like that. We cannot save ourselves. We need Jesus to come and rescue us. There isn’t anything we can do to earn that or conjure it. He saves because He loves. Period.
That’s what God is speaking to His people here, too. He doesn’t need anything from them. He owns everything. The “cattle on a thousand hills” is probably the most quoted from this list, but all of this is saying the same thing. He lists forest beasts and cattle; birds and field stuff. What’s the contrast? Wild and domesticated, it’s all His!
So, if we’re not supposed to buy our way into Heaven by doing good stuff, what are we supposed to do? Glad you asked ☺️→
“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."”
This issue here isn’t external. It’s internal, so the solution is internal too. Let me try to break this down with a few statements.
Have The Right Heart. They were bringing their offerings out of obligation and because they thought God needed them. Instead, come to Him aware of your need and thankful for His grace, thankful for the opportunity to be part of what He’s doing. That is the sacrifice He desires—a grateful heart ready to receive His love and glad to be changed by it! That kind of heart will also→
Keep The Proper Perspective. Worship is an act of surrender. We’re laying our hearts before God, praising Him, and committing ourselves to Him. When we do this (performing our vows), we need to think about who He is and what we’re doing. He is the Most High. We’re not participating in a social club. We’re not exercising self-motivation. We’re coming before the sovereign creator and Savior of the world! We have to remember this, but we don’t when we’re just going through the motions. That’s true for all of us. So, we need to keep the proper perspective→
Which Will Lead To Real Trust. See that He says to call on Him in days of trouble? This is building off the previous two. If our hearts have already been oriented toward Him, and our perspective is keeping His sovereignty constantly before us, then it will be natural to turn to Him when we’re in need. Why? Because we already have that relationship. We already know Him. We already love Him. We already trust His character and strength, so we know we can call on Him. When you’re stuck, your heart goes to people you know you can rely on…not random strangers.
I remember one time in Belarus, my youngest brother, Johnny, got stuck in an outhouse. It was after dark, and we were in a village with some close family friends. He needed to use the restroom, so he proceeded to the only option—an outhouse in the back of their property. He ended up being gone for some time ☺️, so my parents had us go check on him (I can’t remember if it was me or my other brother who went to check, but it was probably Stephen because he was a much better brother ☺️). We thought he just had diarrhea or something, but it turns out when he closed the wooden door, the piece of wood used as an outside latch fell down and trapped him inside. The whole time we were enjoying ourselves inside, he had been screaming outside for us to come rescue him. I say all that because when he came in he told us he had been calling all our names, even our dog Metro’s (and he wasn’t even with us☺️). Why? Because he trusted us (a choice that seems less wise in hindsight).
If you don’t take God seriously now and seek to know and love Him, you won’t trust Him when times of trouble come, so you’ll miss out on the assurance and hope He provides. The proper perspective leads to real trust→
And Real Rescue. I love how this sentence is worded. Call on me; I will deliver you. There is no question of ability. Let’s pause for just a moment to let this sink in. What is the deliverance we need more than anything else? We need rescued from sin. By nature, it is consuming and enslaving us. We cannot live up to God’s standards. As sinners against the eternal God, we’re running willingly toward eternal punishment, and there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to save ourselves from that fate. BUT GOD wants to rescue us. He wants to deliver us. He wants us to walk with Him. That’s why Jesus came. That’s why He took Hell in your place. That’s why He really rose from the dead victorious over sin. So, if you call on Him, He will rescue you with His gift of salvation.
Now, take that another direction. If God loves you like this, is there anything you can face that would change this? If He’s willing to face Hell to save you, do you think He loves you enough to take care of that secret sin, that gossipping tongue, that bitter spirit, that anxious heart, that… you get the idea? The answer is ABSOLUTELY! Chew on that.
Proper perspective=real trust, real rescue→
And A Lifestyle That Shines His Character…For Real ☺️. I had to keep going with the “real” thing I had going ☺️. The last part of this state says we’ll then glorify Him. I’ve made this comment before, but God’s glory is His character in all its goodness on full display. If we’re looking at Him rightly, loving Him truly, and letting Him change our hearts instead of just going through motions that mean nothing to us and make absolutely no impact in the lives of the people around us, we’ll be shining His character. People will see Him in us.
Guys, that’s incredible. Motions are meaningless. An actual relationship with Jesus built around true worship points other people to Him. Instead of being empty, it has a ripple effect of life-change.
And, I guess that’s as far as we’ll get today ☺️, so let’s hit some→
TAKEAWAYS
I guess these are really more questions to take away than anything ☺️.
Are you “doing stuff” because you think it saves you? Even if you would NEVER use those words. Look at your heart.
Do you worship from a place of thanksgiving fueled by genuine love?
Do you think about the person and character of God? Like, does this take up your time? Are you studying His Word, talking to Him, letting Him fill your heart—or is your view of God surface deep? We can’t afford for Him to be a stranger. A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” There is so much truth in that statement.
Do you trust Him?
Have you experienced and are you experiencing His rescue? Are you saved? Are you continuing to turn to Him every day?
Do people see Jesus in you?
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