MONDAY 12th
Psalm 50
NIV (v6) – ‘And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.’
ESV (v6) – ‘The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah’
In the psalm on Friday it was the composer himself who called the whole world to listen, in todays psalm it is God himself, ‘The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth . . . “hear, O my people, and I will speak . . .”’ (v1, 7) In verse 4 we see the reason, ‘He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people.’ (v4) ‘The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge!’ (v6)
We can so easily take pleasure in the fact that God is a loving God and a merciful God, but we also need to be reminded as those who received this psalm needed to be, that God is also a righteous God (Psalm 7:11) and he is the one who will ultimately be the judge of all the earth. He is a righteous judge, therefore in his judgments he will always do what is right and his verdict will be just and final.
There are some other verses in the psalms that speak of God as judge, for example, ‘Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”’ (Psalm 58:11) ‘. . . but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.’ (Psalm 75:7)
In Psalm 98 we have some verses that invites the sea to roar, the rivers to clap, the hills to sing before the LORD, for he cometh to judge the earth. It continues to say that he will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity (truth).
Judgment day will come, and it behoves us all to make sure that we are in a right and proper relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, for once we have responded to the message of the gospel by faith, our sin will have already been dealt with, the verdict given, not guilty, justified by faith, For those who have refused to believe the future judgment day will be an awful day, a terrible day, when the verdict will be made ‘Guilty, depart from me’ and the command will be given to take all that are guilty from the presence of God and to be thrown along with the devil and all his fallen angels into the Eternal Lake of Fire.
It is far better to come today to the foot of the Cross, to the one who hung on the Cross in our place and to receive the forgiveness and cleansing he offers and know that when the Judge of all the earth looks at those who have been cleansed in the precious blood, he sees Jesus and he sees us as standing in clothes of righteousness. Sadly so many in this world reject what Christ has done on their behalf, please if you are one of them, take notice, the Judge will one day pronounce his judgement, and it will be a perfect judgement, come today, before it is too late to the One who was willing to take the punishment for your sin at Calvary, choose Jesus, choose life, choose the way that leads to life everlasting.
Finally in this chapter, God talks about the various sacrifices the people were making, he says that he does not rebuke them for bringing them, but continues to say, ‘I already own everything, all that you sacrifice already belongs to me, instead, bring to me a sacrifice of thanksgiving.’
The psalm ends with these words, first a warning to those who reject God, for us today it is all who refuse to see what he has done in Christ at Calvary, ‘Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!’ (v22) On judgment day we will have no defence if we have neglected to remember God and to accept what he has provided, it will be like a tearing apart, and there will be no help from anyone, it then continues, ‘The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me: to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!’ (v23)
‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death’ ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!’ (Proverbs 16:25 & Psalm 139: 23-24)
‘”Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”’ (Genesis 18:25)