Psalms 50:7

JUDGMENT BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak;

O Israel, and I will testify unto thee:

I am God, even thy God.

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices;

And thy burnt-offerings are continually before me.

I will take no bullock out of thy house,

Nor he-goats out of thy folds.

For every beast of the forest is mine,

And the cattle upon 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 thee;

For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls,

Or drink the blood of goats?

Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving;

And pay thy vows unto the Most High;

And call upon me in the day of trouble:

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."

"Hear, O my people" (Psalms 50:7). All the world, from one end of the earth to the other, are present; but God's covenant people are the first to be judged. As an apostle said, "Judgment must first begin at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17); and so it is here. What a disappointment awaited Israel. They, no doubt, were primed to hear God's "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," but that is not what they heard.

It is unfair to call this a rebuke of "hypocrites," which is the standard approach to the passage. "The whole nation of Israel is here addressed."[14] There has been a departure of "all Israel" from what God truly desired.

"I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices.., thy burnt-offerings are continually before me" (Psalms 50:8). This means that God was aware of Israel's careful observance of the sacrifices commanded in the Law of Moses. This verse admits that they were indeed observing all such things. "God does not here condemn Israel for the neglect of the outward sacrifices of religion."[15] These they certainly had honored by their obedience; and God's approval of that is here stated.

However, something was dreadfully wrong. There was such a deficiency in Israel's sacrificial offerings that God here declared that he would absolutely refuse all of their sacrifices. Why? Only two things are cited in this whole paragraph; and that is in Psalms 50:14, where "thanksgiving" and "paying one's vows" are mentioned, with the implication that it was deficiency in those things that rendered their sacrifices unacceptable to God.

The commentaries are full of allegations about the hypocrisy, the immorality, the violence, and the evil that Israel was perpetrating at the same time they were offering all those sacrifices; but there's not a word in this text about any of that! Men have simply let their imagination run wild on that subject.

What is actually said here? It is simply this, God will abolish animal sacrifices! There is twenty-times as much in these verses regarding the inadequacy of animal sacrifices as there is regarding any deficiency of God's people. All of this points squarely to the New Covenant.

"Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving" (Psalms 50:14) . This was indeed an animal sacrifice commanded under Moses Law, called a "Thank-offering"; and why were God's people here commanded to bring such a sacrifice? It was because of the "glorious good news" that God would terminate animal sacrifices altogether. When? That was not revealed here; but the faithful would indeed receive it as a fact, despite the fact of the realization of such a promise being reserved for the indefinite future.