God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked.
A Psalm of [a]Asaph.
50 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken,
And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shone forth.
3 May our God come and not keep silence;
Fire devours before Him,
And it is very tempestuous around Him.
4 He summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:
5 “Gather My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens declare His righteousness,
For God Himself is judge. [b]Selah.7 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify [c]against you;
I am God, your God.
8 “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 “I shall take no young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.
10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11 “I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is [d]Mine.
12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and [e]all it contains.
13 “Shall I eat the flesh of [f]bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
This passage talks of sacrifices, and specifically the animal sacrifices that Israel was supposed to offer under the old covenant. God makes a call to bring to him those who have made a covenant (promise) by their sacrifice. Yet He clarifies something important in vv. 9-13. God didn’t need the sacrifices, if he needed an animal, he could take his pick from the whole earth.
There were a couple reasons for sacrifices (among others): it was a test of obedience, and it was supposed to help them focus on God regularly. Unfortunately it didn’t really work out because they became obsessed with sacrifices instead of with God himself. And so the psalmist tells them to offer (instead) a “sacrifice of thanksgiving”.
Then he tells the people to pay their vows, and what’s that about? It’s about the promise one was making by offering a sacrifice. That sacrifice said , “I belong to God, and I will live for him.” Yet in reality, the covenant was too easily forgotten in the ritual of sacrifice. So why “thanksgiving”? Because it truly puts our focus back on God. It reminds us that everything belongs to God, and everything we have is a gift from Him.
It’s not the other way around, where our giving gifts to God is the most important. No, God could make anything happen that he wanted to, the whole earth is His, and if he needs something, he can take it. For that matter, if God needed anything, He could just make it. Again, it is about recognizing the gifts God has given us, which ought also to lead to obedience.
Because when we realize everything God has given us, we also realized our talents and abilities are gifts as well, and that we need to use them wisely. Anything less would be an ungrateful display. So today, as the psalmist tells us, take stock of the gifts God has given you. Thank Him for all of it, big or small, then use them for His glory.