Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Part of God's People? | The Writings | Psalm 50

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

God sees past what you do and say and looks at your heart. Do you love and serve God wholeheartedly? Are you truly with God? In today's episode, Tanya shares encouragement about life with God from Psalm 50. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 50

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Today in our passage, Psalm 50, God deals with the outside and the inside. He calls our attention to the contrast between what Christians are doing and saying versus what's going on inside the heart. Now, God has the power and the authority to speak and summons the whole earth. And the way he opens the Psalm says that. It says the mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth.

from the rising of the sun to its setting. But then the psalmist delivers an important message that God is speaking to his chosen people. It says out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Now that language God shining forth out of Zion focuses our attention on God's people, Israel, those who have a covenant relationship with him. And now that includes everyone in his church. Church with a big sea. what God says to us about our relationship with him is important and how to repair it when it's

empty and superficial. That's something we don't want and something God doesn't need. So in this Psalm, God offers us solutions. The first solution he offers is His Word. In the first part of the message, we have to understand that if we belong to God, if we are God's chosen people, then when we open and turn to God's word, we can ask him to help us hear. and receive it as he intended, so that we will grow and prosper under his instruction. The next solution from Psalm 50 is reality, a reality that leads to humility. In the following verses, God establish his position as the mighty judge. And he's not only judge of the whole earth, but he also judges his people. Now, the difference is that his judgment over his people,

it's no longer punitive, because that has been taken and covered by Christ. When we remember that, we can thank our Lord Jesus Christ for standing in our place. And that makes us more humble and more grateful for what God has done for us. It also reminds us about the nature of our relationship with God. He is the judge, we are his people. The judgment God exercises over his people, then, is one of righteousness. and the message he has is important for the way we understand our relationship with him. We should not believe that he needs our sacrifices and our burnt offerings to satisfy him

or to give us what we want in return. The psalm says, I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills, I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves is mine. See, God sees through and judges the hearts of people who do things to earn favor without devotion and without love. And our actions are meaningless to him if we have no relationship with him. What it really means to be God's people is to worship him with our hearts. What God wants us to offer him is our Thanksgiving. How does that free your mind when you think of all the responsibilities you face right now.

How does that give you peace when you feel uncertainty about the next few days or weeks? As you go about your day, carry the words of verse 14 with you. It says, offer to God a sacrifice of Thanksgiving and perform your vows to the most high. I can't really imagine anything that we're doing, any responsibilities that we have, anything that can be happening to us that doesn't. leave us room to give God our Thanksgiving, if that's all we have to offer. See, in ancient days, the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and vows was a special kind of sacrifice, and it was called a peace offering. And this was the only kind of sacrifice where the primary purpose was to eat the meal

together. So the one who brought the sacrifice would eat the meat along with the needy, with God as the host. See, being God's people, it's about being with God. being welcome in his presence. It's about depending on him. It's about engaging with him and others with all of our hearts. And God is saying that is what he truly wants. That's such a peace to this message from our Father God. When we feel scattered and overwhelmed and uncertain, we can find peace knowing we're welcome in God's presence with nothing to offer but our hearts and asking him to fill us with Thanksgiving and set our hearts on fire for more of his presence. If you feel far away from God, he gently calls you back. If you feel too busy for God, he gently calls you to rest in his presence.

In the second half of this Psalm, God calls people to examine the way we treat others. Our vertical relationship with God should seep into all of our other relationships. But God calls our attention to the ways our words about our faith contradict us. When we speak out and we sound religious and devoted, without heart change, God calls us thieves, adulterers, slanders, and gossips. See, our concept of God is far too small and our idea of self is far too large. It says, you use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother's son.

when you did these things and I kept silent, you thought it was exactly like you. Now, we confess that even though we may not be committing theft or adultery, our tongues do gossip, and we definitely shift the truth or alter the truth in our favor, right? We're not shaped as much by God's power and love as we think we are, because our relationship with him isn't as genuine as we claim. We confess that there are gaps between how we speak and how we speak and how we we're relating to God, between what's on the outside and what's on the inside. This is really important to God. And the really good news is that the Lord Jesus stands in the gap.

Verse 22, mark this then, it says, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver. That is a really scary warning about a really terrible judgment. But Jesus took that for us. He was torn to pieces. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was nailed to a cross. So that is what stands in the gap. That's the truth that empowers our Thanksgiving and our worship and our desire to have a relationship with God. His love for us is the only reason we can live a changed life of love for him and others. As you go about your day, remember who took your place before God and why he did it. Remember who stands in the gap between you and God right now if you feel that way. Because he loves you, remember who wants to have a relationship with you.

Because he loves you, bury it deep in your heart. Let his love be what motivates you to love him back and to love others well today.