Psalm 50: Sacrifices of Thanksgiving

Psalm 50:23 "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Let me give you a quick two-question quiz this morning, and see how you do. Question 1: What is the purpose of man's existence? Got your answer? Okay, good. Don't forget it. Question 2: How does man go about fulfilling that purpose? Got your answer? Perfect. Don't forget it.

The Psalm in which we turn to today, Psalm 50, is all about making right sacrifices to the Lord. Oftentimes we make sacrifices to God, but are these the right sacrifices? Let us find out this morning.

In the Old Testament, there was this thing called the sacrificial system. In the books of the law, God laid out a correct system by which the Israelites were to make sacrifices. In the New Testament under the New Covenant, we no longer have to offer physical sacrifices but rather spiritual sacrifices, that is, living sacrifices instead of dead sacrifices. Instead of sacrificing animals on an altar, we sacrifice our bodies to do God's will (see Romans 12:1-2). Nevertheless, oftentimes we still offer wrong sacrifices, just as the Israelites did.

In verses 7-13 of Psalm 50, the psalmist actuallly shares with his reader that the Lord does not need the sacrifices that the Israelites were offering. This shouldn't surprise us, the Psalmist tells us, because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (verse 10). In other words, all of the cattle that were being sacrificed to God, God already owned. Why then, did the Israelites have to offer sacrifices?

You see, the purpose of the sacrifices were to show the heart of the Israelites, and it is the same for us. At the end of this Psalm, the psalmist tells us to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. Note here that in the middle of the Psalm God didn't need any sacrifices, but now God appeals to us to offer him sacrifices of thanksgiving. This teaches us an utterly important principle: that God only takes delight in the sacrifices that spring up from our heart. If we simply sacrifice to the Lord (that is, obey his commands) because we know we should but not because we want to, the Lord tells us that he does not take pleasure in this, and furthermore that it does not glorify him.

Remember the quiz from earlier? Let me grade you now. The answer to question one was to glorify God. I sure hope you got this one. The answer to question two was to offer him sacrifices of thanksgiving. Now, this is certainly not the only way to glorify God, but it is a big one. But here's the point this morning: how many of us consider thanksgiving something of such great importance? How many of us merely shove it off and accept all that God has for us, not thanking him?

So, how can you thank God today? How can you offer him right sacrifices, that is, those of righteous thanksgiving for all that he's done for you? Stop obeying God because you have to, and start obeying him because you want to, that is, because he has done so many great things for you that you ought to be thankful for. Amen.