Title: Psalm 50 (2010.7.21)
Contents
Title: Thanksgiving
Main text: (Psalm 50:1~23)
Hymns: 80. of the names in heaven
Date: July 21, 2010 (Wednesday) 5 am
Venue: Jeonju Yebut Church Small Worship Room
Today's Psalm 50 is about the Israelites offering good sacrifices to God. However, it is a lament that the sacrifices brought for the sacrifice are sufficient, but there is no thanks. We need to know what God is looking for through this psalm. It is a person who offers sacrifices to God in thanksgiving.
(Psalm 50:23) "He who offers a sacrifice with a grateful heart gives me glory; to him who walks in the right way I will show my salvation."
How amazing is it that God is looking for people who give thanks to God and that they are glorified by the sacrifice of thanksgiving? Gratitude is the greatest key to making God God.
Then, what is gratitude in the life of faith?
1. Without thanksgiving, the sacrifice is in vain (verse 12).
According to (Psalm 50:8-12), the Israelites made good sacrifices. God also acknowledged how well the burnt offering was.
(Psalm 50:8) "I do not blame you for the sacrifices you have made. You have never missed a burnt offering to me." But God continued to say, saying that the reason to bring the sacrifice was not to avoid hunger by taking the sacrifice and accepting the sacrifice. Rather (Psalm 50:12), "If I say I am hungry, will I ask of you? Did not the whole world and all that it fills be mine?"
Since all things belong to God, the fact that God's sacrifices are brought is not because we are interested in goats, rams, and calves, but because we are receiving thanks from those who bring them. Because they did not know this, the Israelites kept their offerings before God in accordance with the sacrificial law, and they did not give thanks in their hearts. While thinking in vain, they denigrated it as a God who told them to bring only sacrifices rather than being hungry. The sacrifices were offered as alms to feed God as if they were beggars. Therefore, God also demands that we offer sacrifices to God with thanksgiving and ignores sacrifices without thanks. Therefore, God accepts the sacrifice only when it contains thanksgiving.
2. Without thanksgiving, complaints prevail (verses 14-15).
If you look at (Numbers 21), the Israelites were heartbroken as they were going through the land of Edom. Then they complained about God and Moses, but they denied God's guidance and Moses' hard work and complained that they had to die in the wilderness. They complained about no plants, no water, and about the stinky plants, their diets that were not seasoned to taste. Eventually, they were judged by fiery serpents, and many people died from the venom of fiery serpents.
Gratitude is light in life, and resentment is darkness. When gratitude is full, darkness does not permeate. However, without gratitude, the darkness of resentment will strike itself. Therefore, gratitude is the antidote that drives out resentment and complaints, and even the poison of the snake bite. Where there is gratitude, joy, joy, and peace abound, and the joy of life is given.
3. Without thanksgiving, we become unhappy wicked people (verses 16-20).
A person who lacks gratitude is no different from a person without God. Without gratitude, even the Word of God is not important. Without gratitude, your heart will be controlled by Satan, and it will become more and more hardened. Gratitude is the flower of faith, but those who live without gratitude gradually go down the path of the wicked.
Without gratitude, you become a wicked person. Gratitude is the medicine for happiness. It is the treasure of a good life. That is why God commands a life of gratitude, saying, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Even under compulsion, God instituted the feast of thanksgiving and commanded the sacrifice of thanksgiving, even with the harvest fruits from the field, "Keep the Feast of Harvests and the Feast of Ingathering."
If you have gratitude, you don't become a villain. After all, if there is thanksgiving, God will be glorified.