Reverence, ritual, and real worship, Part II

The photo up there is of an earthly courtroom, but our psalm this week is speaking of a heavenly Judge. 

When you were in school, did you use Cliff Notes? I won't tell! Here's a Cliff Notes style summary of our psalm . . . 

In the first few verses of Psalm 50, God enters the courtroom, so to speak, and summons the heavens and the earth to the proceedings. In verses seven through fifteen, He speaks to His covenant people and tells them they have given a higher priority to fulfilling their sacrifices and rituals than they have to their relationship with Him. Next few verses? He speaks to the hypocrites who are violating His commands. In the final verses He speaks to both and gives them some instructions that will help us, too!

Let's dive in!

1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,

God shines forth.

3 Our God comes

and will not be silent;

a fire devours before him,

and around him a tempest rages.

4 He summons the heavens above,

and the earth, that he may judge his people:

5 “Gather to me this consecrated people,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,

for he is a God of justice.

I guess if we were to put a title on this, we could say, "Everyone will stand before God for judgment."

Wow! That first verse doesn't mess around, does it? We are face to face with our Almighty God. The scholars tell us that those three names for Him are very special and very significant. We see this distinction made in Joshua 22, also. 

"El" speaks of God as mighty. "Elohim" points to His work as the mighty Creator, the Sovereign of the universe. "Yahweh" is His name as the eternal, covenant God. It seems that the songwriter piled up all three names to impress us with the immenseness and the reverence of standing before God as judge.

I've only ever been in court once. I wasn't chosen as a juror and I was allowed to leave. But I can imagine it would be much scarier if I'd been accused of a serious crime! What if we were standing in front of many people and an angel spoke, "God will now hear the case of ____________." (Put your name there!) Where will this court be? The psalmist says "in Zion, the perfection of beauty." And he goes on to say that it's beautiful because God is there, in His shekinah glory -- in His holiness. What a day that will be when we are there!

I'm kinda guessing that the first time this psalm was sung, God's covenant people were probably thinking as they listened, "Yay! Finally God will judge all the wicked pagans!" I think that, because the prayer of verse three is for God to come and not keep silence. Judge those pagans and remove them so they are no longer a thorn in our side . . . . 

I expect they were surprised to hear that God was going to judge His people! He is going to judge them according to what they are supposed to be, "consecrated people." Consecrated means "set apart," and separate - for purity and holiness. God's standard of judgment is the righteousness, the holiness of God Himself. 

As believers, do we think often (or at all) about the fact that one day we will stand before Christ? Some will hear the awful words of Matthew 7:

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:23)

Some will watch in horror as everything they worked for vanishes in smoke:

12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (I Corinthians 3:12-13)

There will be some (and dear reader, I pray that you and I will be among them) who will hear the Lord say:

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Matthew 25:21)

The Bible tells us about the coming judgment; we must live daily in view of it. This coming week we will study more about that judgment and how we can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us.