If we continue to read this chapter, we will realise that God wants to guide His people. If we read from Psalm 50:7 onwards, we see that God was telling them what their spiritual problems were. If today someone tells us that we have a spiritual problem we may say, “Really? Do I have a spiritual problem?” Because in our minds, if we have a spiritual problem, we may commit adultery or do some very strange thing. Obviously, the Pharisees had spiritual problems. That was why Jesus said to be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees. Why did Jesus tell His disciples? Because the spiritual problems in the heart of the Pharisees could also be in the heart of the disciples. Because every heart is the same, isn’t it?

We should not be surprised if we have a spiritual problem. Today if we do not love God with all our hearts, do we not have a spiritual problem? If we are not completely obeying God’s commandments from the heart, do we not have a spiritual problem? It is a spiritual problem, because it affects our relationship with God. Therefore, today we should not be surprised if we have a spiritual problem. This is why God speaks to His people. Usually, when we think about salvation we think about getting baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. But salvation is not just like that.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11-14)

How do we achieve this?

“not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5)

We know that the washing of regeneration is baptism. That happens once in our lives. But here it tells us that we need to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. Is it just once in our lifetimes? No—the Bible says it is the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This is continual. The Holy Spirit is meant to renew us day by day. If we feel that there is nothing inside of us that we need to change urgently, perhaps we have a spiritual problem. Because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is given to us to renew us. According to the Bible, we are supposed to be blameless and spotless.

“the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:22-23)

Verses 22 and 23 are connected together. Verse 22 is what God wants to do for us, to make us holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight. But because we need to give ourselves to God, so that we continue in the teachings, not just a few teachings, but for the spiritual teachings God has given to us. Salvation is when God makes us holy like He is holy. But we need to understand that we are not doing it by ourselves. God will help us. This is what Psalm 50 is doing for God’s people.

““If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”” (Psalm 50:12-15)

What is missing in their relationship with God? They do not offer to God thanksgiving. Today we say, “We give thanks to God.” But do we know that giving thanks to God is God’s will?

“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Sometimes when you teach your child to pray, you will teach them to give thanks to God for the spaghetti, the spaghetti bolognaise, the juice, and we name each thing. And we tell them where the rice comes from, to bless the farmer, the ground, the sunshine, and that is why we have rice to eat. But when we become a little bit older, we say, “Hallelujah we give thanks, amen.” We take for granted what we have. The Bible says in everything give thanks. We can give thanks more easily in good times than bad times. But when we have bad days? It is not easy to give thanks. But this is the will of God. We know that the will of God is not difficult. Maybe it is because we do not see life through God’s truth. Why can’t we give thanks in everything? Because God is not our center; we are our own centers. That is why we are narrowminded and we cannot give thanks in everything. We feel uncomfortable so we ask ourselves, “How can we give thanks?” It is very difficult. But this is the will of God. Actually, the will of God is good and perfect. It is good for us.

Sometimes when you have a conversation with someone who does not believe in God, and he may tell you how his family has this and that or how he is not so well, but they say, “But I’m okay.” Then they are able to be thankful. Even though they don’t believe in God, they can be thankful. What a pity. They can give thanks without God. Therefore, today we need to learn to give thanks in everything. Because it is God’s will. This is not God forcing us. It is the right thing to do. Imagine your children moaning about everything. We may say, “You’re not the one that cooked the food you’re moaning about. I cooked it. Many children do not have enough to eat.” Have you heard of stories about how some students share their lunchboxes with very poor students? Many teachers see poor children who are very hungry and are malnourished in the UK. Today, if we open our eyes and go into the various different levels of societies, we can see who are impoverished. The speaker thinks that sometimes it is because we are in the middle-class, which is why we cannot give thanks for what we have.

In Psalm 50:14, God points something else out: “pay your vows to the Most High.” If we have made vows to God, we must pay.

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”” (Psalm 50:15)

This is a great verse. God is saying that when we are in trouble, it is an opportunity to glorify God. We may say, “What is the value of that?” If you are a self-centered person, you would say, “If I glorify God, what would that do for me? Does it make me happier? Does it change my situation?” We mustn’t forget what is said in Isaiah: God created us so that we glorify Him. Especially since we are now the new creation. Our whole purpose in life is to glorify Him. So God arranges everything in our lives. Let us turn to Acts 17:24-26.

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,” (Acts 17:24-26)

We believe these verses. That God created everything. God gives life to everything. Verse 26 tells us God has determined our preappointed times to be able to turn to God. So we if we believe in verses 24-26, we must believe that when we are in troubled times, it is for us to glorify God. This is the faith we need to adopt because this is our proper relationship with Him.

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

Don’t push away from your trouble. We mustn’t murmur or complain. We mustn’t become or stay ungrateful towards God. We mustn’t be an ungrateful child of God. We must learn to pray to God and trust Him. Because He always has the goodness for us at heart. He wants to give us a future and a hope. He does not plan our lives for evil.

Let’s go back to Psalm 50. So trouble is an opportunity to glorify God and that was missing in the people of God. Let’s look at verses 16-17. God is speaking to the wicked.

“But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you?” (Psalm 50:16-17)

God is angry with the wicked. These wicked have God’s covenant. They have God’s statutes. They speak of God’s covenant and statutes, but God says, “What right have you to do that? You hate instruction! You like to teach, but you don’t like to be taught. And when the word of God is spoken, you chuck it behind you. When the word of God is spoken, then you say it’s not to me, I’ll just throw it behind my back.” God describes this kind of attitude as wicked. How has their wickedness progressed?

“When you saw a thief, you consented with him, And have been a partaker with adulterers.” (Psalm 50:18)

What it means to be a partaker with adulterers may be that they have fellowship with men who have committed adultery. So that means that they do not see anything wrong with those who have committed adultery. No problems! What about the first part, “When you saw a thief, you consented with him”?

““Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor.” (Jeremiah 23:30)

“Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:32)

From Psalm 50, we realise God is against those who sees a thief and consent with them. God is against those who are partakers with adulterers. These are the wicked that God is against. Therefore today, these are the people who are outside of Zion. Today we can see that a thief is not just a thief who steals people’s possessions. A thief is also one who spiritually steals the word of God from a person’s heart and tells lies. If we consent with such thieves, then God is against us.

“You give your mouth to evil, And your tongue frames deceit.” (Psalm 50:19)

Verse 19 tells us that they will twist words, twist reality.

“as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:16)

Today, we must be very careful not to twist words and change reality.

“You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son.” (Psalm 50:20)

This means that these people are not willing to abide by God’s law of loving your neighbor as yourself. You despise and you are willing to tell lies to harm people. They mock and slander. Such are those whom God is against. Everything in Psalm 50:18-20 tells us that these people have a moral issue. If you look at Verse 21, we see that these people think that since God has not punished them, they think that everything is okay.

“These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.” (Psalm 50:21)

The people definitely had a spiritual problem. They had a false belief. They believed that God was like them, since God had kept silent. They use what they feel to interpret what they have done. That is a big problem. Every child will think they are right If they feel okay. When a person is proud, they do not see that what they have done is wrong. When a person is stubborn, they cannot sense what they have done is wrong. So in verse 21, God says, “But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.”

When you read this Psalm, you may think, how is this Psalm possibly edifying? Because you feel it is negative, right? When you read it, it makes you feel uncomfortable. You don’t have peace. You have a guilty conscience. How can that be edifying?

““Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, And there be none to deliver: Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”” (Psalm 50:22-23)

The speaker says that the Chinese version is good because it says, “I will show My salvation.” Verses 22-23 are the edifying points. Do we want verses 22-23? We may say I like verse 1-2; I’m uncomfortable about verse 3; in verse 4-6 I feel a little bit guilty; verse 7-11, I feel like I’m in danger of having not done enough; verse 12-15, it seems that I have focused on the wrong thing; verse 16-21, it seems that I have been sinning against God. The whole meaning of the psalm includes verse 22-23.

God is not wanting to humiliate us. He wants to humble us. He wants us to come to terms with our true spiritual condition. He wants to bring us out of Zion, into Zion. So therefore today, when we hear the word of God, we feel a little bit disturbed and uncomfortable. If you believe that the word of God is the word of God, and you have been affected, then we should be happy. Why? Because God is speaking to us. Two, you’re spiritually alive. Because if you are spiritually dead when the word of God is spoken, there will be no effect. We have no feeling. But when the word of God is spoken and it enters our hearts, moving in our hearts, God is calling us. He is calling us to come into salvation and out of judgment. And that is how God saves us. If you think that the Old Testament is the Old Testament, and the New Testament is the New Testament, that is not right. They both move together to tell us the message of salvation.