Let us first go to God in prayer. Let’s pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we indeed rejoice in coming together this morning. We do not want to take this blessing for granted, and we know that it is Your doing. You’ve brought us together and we pray that You will be in our midst to bless us and also to draw us close to Yourself. As now we come and study Your Word, we look to You once again that Your Spirit may grant enlightenment, that our hearts may be challenged by Your Word. And so we pray that You’ll instruct us and also grant us a heart of obedience, for this, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, this morning we are going to look at Psalm chapter 50. Psalm chapter 50. So please turn with me again in your Bible to Psalm chapter 50. So let me first read the psalm. Alright Psalm chapter 50, this is a Psalm of Asaph, beginning in verse 1. “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 before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him.

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 of the field are Mine.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” 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. “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver: Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.””

Now, this is a solemn psalm. I think we have a very appropriate graphic alright. Some of you might be wondering as you look at the graphic on the screen that this psalm must be about God speaking to maybe the terrorists, the murderers, the rapist. So this psalm is for them. But no, it is not. Yes, it is a solemn psalm. It is a terrible indictment. In fact, this psalm is God’s indictment against His people. And so this psalm is about us. It’s about people who profess to be Christians. Now the opening scenes make this very plain that this psalm is solemn and it is about God’s indictment against His people.

Now it begins with the focus on God. Here is a scene of God summoning His people before Him, but it begins with a focus on the person who is summoning the people. And the person is described as “the Mighty One, God the LORD”, literally in the Hebrew El (Elohim), Yahweh. Now the purpose of introducing God in this way is to show His majesty. It’s to try to impress upon us that person who is now calling His people together is none other than the supreme, the almighty God. He is the object of fear.

It’s like sometimes we want to introduce someone important. Now we have you know a way to introduce them like “Duli Yang Maha Mulia”, “Seri Paduka”, “Yang di-Pertuan Agong” alright. So it’s all long name, and it is to impress upon the people that the person I am introducing is a very important person. And so that is how the psalmist begins, calling attention to this great and almighty God. And He’s described in verse 2 as “the perfection of beauty”. The perfection of beauty. He is shining forth. And in verse 3, He’s now described as God who is a devouring fire, who is tempestuous. 

Now I say the scene here alright, the graphic that we have this morning captures in the sense that He is God. He is glorious. He is holy, but He is righteous, and He is an angry God. He is disturbed about something. He is unhappy. Here we have a scene of someone who is very important, the almighty God, the Creator of the universe, and someone who is not very pleased. Someone who is not very pleased. And so He is calling alright. So that is the person alright who is calling the people alright- the person summoning.

And then in verses 4 and 5, we now are told considering the people who are being summoned. Who are these people? Are they the terrorists, the rapists, the murderers, that God is calling these people? Look at verse 4: “He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people”. He is calling His people. Verse 5: “Gather My saints” (now in some translations “My faithful” or “My godly ones”).

But the literal word there means gather those people who have been separated for Myself. I’ve separated a people for Myself- the saints, the holy ones, the godly ones are people who are supposed to be faithful to Me. He said I’m gathering these people and people who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. Now these other people; In other words, God is gathering His people. His saints, those who have made a covenant with Him. And so here’s the almighty God gathering His people, gathering His church, gathering people like us.

This psalm is speaking to us. It’s about us. It’s about God speaking to us. And so it is for us to pay careful attention to what God wants to say here. And the purpose of gathering the people (God gathering His people, the church), what’s the purpose? Well, we are told in verse 7: “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you”. In other words, God is saying that I’m gathering these people because I have a problem with these people. He said I have something against you. It is God’s problem. It’s God’s indictment. Here God is going to lay charges against His people. Now, in other words, it matters to God what kind of people we are. It matters to God how we live our Christian life. 

And so I’d like to begin by asking you: Does it matter to you? There’s so many Christians (so-called) in the world. There may be many Christians in Subang Jaya or in the Klang Valley. We run into you know them every now and then, maybe in the bookshop alright, in Canaanland. Christians, are we concerned about how we live our Christian life? And the psalmist says here let me tell you what: God is concerned and God pays attention. 

Do you? Do you pay attention to your Christian life? Well, God pays attention, and when God sees His people, He sees some problem. And sometimes we are very happy with ourselves. Maybe that’s the problem. Many Christians are very happy about themselves. They are not critical at all. And when someone comes to them and points out some errors in their life and tells them some of their problems, they get angry. They say what? Who are you to judge? Don’t be judgmental, I’m okay. God says My people are not okay, and let me tell you why. And so we shall now look at this psalm and see the charges that God lay before against His people.

Now the first charge is this. So what is God’s problem with His people here as we see in this psalm? The first is that He says that their Christian life or their spiritual life has become ritualistic. Ritualistic. You see, the problem- the first problem. The problem, God says here, the first problem here is not that they were not active. It’s not that there is this lack of religious activities. Now that is not a problem. When God sees His people, He sees that they’re very religious. They’re filled with all kinds of Christian activities.

And so you see in verse 8, God is not saying that don’t bring your sacrifices. That’s why He says: “I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offering, which you are bringing continually before Me”. And God says I can see and I look at the temple in the Old Testament, I can see My people gathering faithfully as it were. They bring their sacrifices. And maybe they sing their hymns and do all kinds of religious activity. So God says that is not the problem that I’m saying here. In fact, God expects them to do so.

God expects them to bring the sacrifices, and God expects us Christians to bring our sacrifices. And the New Testament clearly teaches that alright. Like in Acts chapter 2, we know that the church they were faithfully alright going to church. They were devoted to the Apostles’ doctrine. They were devoted to fellowship. They were devoted to prayer. They were zealous in spreading the gospel. You see, God expects this of us. So this is not God’s problem. He says I can see that you are all doing all this kind of thing. He sees the Jews bringing their burnt offerings and sin offering and trespass offering and all kinds of offerings faithfully. And you do so continuously or repeatedly. 

Now you see when you do something repeatedly, we call that a ritual. But let me clarify here that ritual in and of itself is not wrong. We have rituals in our life, not just spiritually but even physically. Later on, we are going to take our lunch. That is a ritual. So every time around the same time, we do the same thing. Every Sunday after corporate worship, we have lunch. And then next Sunday, we repeat that. Now ritual in and of themselves is not the problem. The problem that God is pointing out here is this that these people are doing these things continually and faithfully, but ritualistically. There’s a difference between ritual and ritualistic. 

Now when you do things ritualistically, it’s to do so mechanically. It’s to do so without thinking what these things really meant, without you know you’re just what I call doing things outwardly, ceremonially. Now sometimes we say formally. Now formality, that is what God is saying about them that your Christian life, your religious life is formal. It’s just a formality. The time comes to go to church, we go to church. The time comes for us to do this, we just do this. And then we repeat and we repeat and repeat. After a while, we are just going through the motion. We will sing a hymn, and then we read the Scripture.

But do all these things really mean anything to you? Do you sing really from your heart? Do you mean what you’re singing about? And so God condemns ritualistic religion, formal religion where people are just going through the motion. Yes, they repeat the actions, but God says there is a problem here, and God hates formal religion. Now the prophet Isaiah points out exactly the same problem in his book alright. Isaiah chapter 1, now listen to this. Isaiah chapter 1, and here in verses 12 through 14 that God points out exactly the same problem here through the prophet Isaiah concerning His people.

So this is a continuous, perennial problem with these people. Isaiah 1:12, God says: “When you come to appear before Me, who required this from your hand, to trample My courts?”. You come to the temple. You come to the church and you’re trembling upon it. And God says who wants this from you? Verse 13: “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.”. Imagine that God said I cannot endure. I cannot stand your sacred meeting, your spiritual activity. I cannot stand your coming to church. He says I have enough of it. Verse 14: “Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.”.

Now the thing we should see here is this, how much this is a matter of concern to God that when we are formal in a religion, that we are doing things just ritualistically without meaning, doing things mechanically, just practicing as our religion faithfully and then calling ourselves Christians, churchgoers. Now you see, we don’t think much about these things. We don’t even condemn people about this thing. We don’t tell our fellow people: Hey, come on! Be real! Be authentic about your Christian life! We don’t. But the way God expresses His displeasure, He expresses it as you can see in the strongest of terms when He says “My soul hates”. When He tells these people don’t come. If this is how you come, you don’t come because I have enough of it. 

Now you can imagine if this is going on in the church and in the churches around the world where there are only activities, and God is thinking and God is having this intense displeasure. Oh, what the waste is all our energy as it were. Now we give our energy, we take the time to come, we take the trouble to get out of bed, and so on. And then God says I will have nothing of this. I hate it because it’s just a ritual. It’s just formality. People who come doing so-called the religious duty, and then pat themselves on the back and say: What a good boy am I. 

Maybe we’re very pleased that we’re here this morning with ourselves, but that is not the most important question. The important question is: Is God pleased with us? Is God pleased with you, your coming, your singing, your reading of Scripture, your listening to His Word? So that is the big problem to God, and that’s the first charge against His people. He says My problem with you, He says O Israel, My people is that your religion is a formal religion alright. It’s dead. It’s a ceremonial.

Now the second charge- the second charge is that God says I have a problem with My people because of their patronising attitude towards Me- because of their patronising attitude towards God. And we see that alright in verse 13. Now patronising, what does it mean? When you patronise someone, it means that you are treating someone as if He is lower than you, as if He is inferior, as if He is less intelligent. Now sometimes we say that it’s very condescending.

Now that is what patronising means. When you patronise someone, you are looking down on someone. And God is saying that My problem with My people is that they are patronising Me. They are patronising Me. They thought that they were doing God a favour. These people, they thought that they were doing God a favour by all their activities, their religious activities. And they think that by their coming to church as it were, they are doing God a favour. They were in some ways as it were conferring some kind of benefit upon God by their sacrifices, by their giving as if God needs their services; as if God needs their worship as it were.

Now, what are some indications that we might be patronising God? Now we know that that’s God’s charge against them. He says you all are coming, you’re bringing all these things, you think that you’re doing Me a favour. You’re benefiting Me by bringing the sacrifices. Now what might be some indication that we are patronising God? Now when we begin to think how good of me to come to church early today or to have come at all, we are patronising God. Or when as if we have to thank people for coming to church, for singing, or for giving to the church. Thank you, thank you for coming to church this morning. Now, thank you very much alright for singing this song. Oh, that’s very good. Thank you for your gifts and your giving to the church. 

Or when people have to be persuaded to worship God, when they have to be persuaded to serve God, when they have the impression: O poor God! What would God do without me? Where would He be? Now, this is how a person might patronise God when we have such feelings or attitudes, and God says He condemns such an attitude. He condemns people who think that by all their so-called sacrifices that they’re conferring some kind of benefit upon God or doing God a favour because God says by having such an attitude, you are making yourself too important. You are making yourself the centre of your life.

And so these people say: Well, they will worship God. They will worship God, but only as and when they like it or as and when they are free. Oh, I will go, I will serve Him. I will do that for God, but at my convenience. God, if you want my service, if you want my worship, you will have to wait. Now that is patronising God. You know what God told these people? Verse 9, God says: “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.”.

You know what? “I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. “And if I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?””. And God says come on, really? Serious? You think all the things that you gave to Me, I needed them? It will benefit me? Do you think I drink the bloods of goats that you brought or the flesh of the bull that you have brought? You think they benefit Me? You’re thinking wrongly.

And then He says, verse 14: “Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.”. It is God who is benefiting you. It is God who is blessing you, and you ought to be thankful for your life, not Me. God says not Me thankful for your coming, not Me thankful for your worship, but we should be thankful to Him. Verse 15: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you”, not you deliver Me. I will bless you, not you bless Me, and you shall glorify Me.

So you see, God is saying you need to have correct perspective, and that is a problem with these people in the Old Testament. And I dare say that is the problem with many Christians in this generation that we patronise God. We are so condescending, and we think that God needs us. And we think that by all our activities, by all the things that we do, we are conferring some kind of benefit upon Him. And God says come on, you need to think and think alright. And so that is the second charge. And so God says I’m very unhappy. In fact, that is to put it nicely about My people.

In fact, to put it what it should be is to say that God is angry. He is angry with His people firstly because their Christian life is just a formality. And secondly, they are having a wrong attitude towards God. And then thirdly- the third charge against His people is empty profession. Empty profession. Verse 16: “But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes, or to take My covenant in your mouth””.

Did they make a profession? Did they say they want to be a Christian? Yes! God says that you make a covenant with Me. You want to declare or proclaim My statutes. So they did make a profession. And for many people, that is enough. But that is enough. But is that enough? Is that enough to profess faith in Jesus Christ? Well, we know that when we read the New Testament, James tells us that that is not enough alright. 

You say that you have faith. You profess to believe in Jesus Christ. You have faith, the devil also has faith. What’s the difference? What is the difference? What is the difference between a Christian and a “Christian”? The charge here is yes, you profess alright. They make a declaration. They take God’s covenant in their mouth. But then God says, God’s charge is this: “But seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you? And when you saw a thief (verse 18), you consented with him, and you have been a partaker with adulterers.”. And your mouth, “you give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; and slander your own mother”.

Now, what is God saying here to them? It’s that you profess to be My people. You claim to make a covenant with Me. But you see, your life is so inconsistent with your profession. You take My covenant upon your lips, but your life is so very different. You hate My words. You are so disobedient in your life, but you are making with the corrupt people, with the sinners. You agree with them. You do what they do. Is it not true that a lot of Christians that we know (maybe ourselves included) that we do a lot of things that the non-Christians do? We live and our life is not any different from theirs, and then we call ourselves God’s people? Christians? God says that’s My problem with these people. Empty profession. It’s only a profession without substance, without reality. 

We see that in the Old Testament, we see that in the New Testament. That’s why Jesus said the day will come when I tell these people who call Me Lord, Lord, and Jesus said: “I will tell them that I never knew you.”. I never knew you. Why? Because you don’t do the will of My Father; because it’s only a profession, but it’s empty. God doesn’t control their life. They still run their own life. They disregard God’s Law and they live as they like. Why does God give us the Bible? To be kept in our bookshelf so that it will remain nice forever? Why does God require us to come in corporate worship like this? Why? To watch something interesting? To see a show? To sing and enjoy ourselves? Why?

Instruction. His Word, He wants us to come and listen to His Word. He wants to speak to us. That is why. But are we listening? Are we paying heed? And are we acting in obedience to what we hear? Now, these are important questions, and these are questions that anyone who professes to be a Christian, to be God’s people must ask. Why am I here this morning? To see a friend? Would there be any change after this life? Will there be any change after this? Have I come to know God’s Word and obey it and do it? And so empty professions. And then there is one last charge alright God has against His people. He says He’s displeased because they were formal, they patronise God, and they make empty profession.

And finally, God says that My problem with My people is that their worship in the final analysis- in the final analysis, their worship is self-worship. They are not worshipping God. They think that they are worshipping God, but they are not worshipping God. Verse 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 you. “And consider this, you who forget God””. Imagine God saying to this worshipper of God that you are here, you are doing all kinds of things, but God is absent. In other words, you created a God for yourself. You think that I was altogether like you. You do not want a God revealed in the Bible.

People have problems when people tell them that God is angry. They do not want an angry God. They do not want a holy God. You see, they thought that God was altogether like them. They want a God that they can accept, a God according to their own imaginations. And so when they come together, they have created something. And so God says I’m absent in your midst. You think that you are coming in this place, you’re worshipping the true and triune God. But no. You’ve created a God for yourself, you’ve created your own God. It is self-worship, and that’s why God says you have forgotten God. You who forget God, God is not in your worship. That, in the final analysis, is the big problem. That’s the problem with such worship- God is not there. 

Now is your Christian life okay? Now that is the question as we look at this psalm because God is concerned alright. God takes notice about our spiritual life. So is your Christian life okay? Is God pleased with your worship? Now let me end by saying this that the purpose of this psalm is not simply God telling His people that He has this big problem with them, telling them how wrong they are in their religious life and thereby condemns them. No, that is not the purpose. It is to awaken them. It is to make them realise. Many Christians needed to be made realised that perhaps there is something wrong with their Christian life, with their worship, with all the things that they are doing. 

So the purpose of this psalm is on the one hand to alert them, to make them realise. And on the other, verse 23: “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”. In other words, it is about hope that if you turn from your wicked ways, you turn from the errors of your life and your actions, there is hope for us. God says: I will deliver you. I will show you the salvation of God. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, again we thank You for Your Word to show us, to act as a mirror to us to help us see our true self. And Lord, we pray that You’ll grant us the humility to see ourselves as we really are and see where we have gone wrong. And help us, O Lord. Grant us the grace indeed to turn from our wayward ways and to live the life that will please You. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.