Day 111

Psalm 50 part 2 

Vs7-15 is a rebuke of ritualism, of empty repetition of religious ceremonies. Asaph declares that this is a violation of the first 4 commandments. God spoke to their ritualism first, because it was under ritualism that they excused the sin of hypocrisy described later, and thought themselves approved before God. God is not interested in formal religion, but a relationship. The practice of sacrifice under the Old Covenant had become an empty formality. The one bringing the sacrifice might forget the principle of transferring sin to an innocent victim and how the lifeblood had to be poured out in death as a substitute. This was the true meaning of the entire sacrificial system that was a ‘shadow of the cross.’ (Col2:16-17) 

Believers under the New Covenant no longer offer animal sacrifices, but they are still tempted to practice their Christian duties in a spirit of ritualism. This must be actively avoided; God is not pleased by our spiritual gymnastics! I preached a sermon once called “I stopped praying 10 years ago,” because I came to realize that God wanted me in a constant relationship, not in a mechanical religion that REQUIRED that I pray and read my Bible. 

God described in v14 what He wanted more than rituals. He wanted a thankful heart, a life of obedience, and a living trust in Him. In Defoe’s novel, after the shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe was about to die from an illness. He is ready to perish. He had been accustomed to sin and had all the vices of a sailor, but his hard case brought him to think. He opens a Bible which he finds in his wooden chest, and reads, Ps50:15, ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.’ That night he prayed for the first time in his life, and ever after there was in him a hope in God, which marked the birth of the heavenly life.   

What an incredible promise! The infinite Creator of the Universe, the God of infinite power and might, invites us to call upon him in our troubles. God doesn’t want us to try to make it on our own.