Psalm 50:1-6 - "Our God Shall Come..."

Remember we said that Psalm 49 is a message, a sermon. It was a message of warning and instruction about the deceitfulness of riches. Psalm 50 is similar, in that it is also a sermon type Psalm informing us that God is the “Mighty One”, Who is coming as the Judge of all the earth. From the title we learn that it was a Psalm of Asaph. This is the first of the Psalms of Asaph. But we are not sure whether a man by this name wrote this Psalm, or it was simply dedicated to him as an eminent musician, to sing and use as he led the worship in the temple.  The titles of twelve Psalms bear his name but that doesn’t mean he is the writer of all of them, because several of these Psalms are of too late a date to have been composed by the same writer as the others. The other eleven psalms attributed to Asaph are found in Psalms 73-83. There was an Asaph in David's time, who was one of David's chief musicians, and his family appear to have continued long after in their hereditary office of temple musicians. An Asaph is mentioned as a recorder or secretary in the days of Hezekiah 2 Kings 18:18, and another was keeper of the royal forests under Artaxerxes. That Asaph did most certainly write some of the Psalms is clear from 2 Chronicles 29:30, where it is recorded that the Levites were commanded to "sing praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. We know from 1 Chronicles 16:7 that other Asaphic Psalms were not of his composition but were only committed to his care as a musician. This verse tells us that David delivered a Psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. So, we don’t know for sure who the human writer is, but we are certain that Psalm 50 is a inspired prophetic message given to us to let us know that one day God is coming to judge all the people of the earth. It will also help us to remember in the Old Testament that every seventh year, during the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests were obligated to read the law to the people and explain its meaning (Deut. 31:9-18; Neh. 8).  It is possible that this psalm may have been written for such an occasion. The emphasis is on the consistent godly living that should result from true spiritual worship. Psalm 50 is also considered a wisdom psalm. This psalm contrasts the distinctions of the righteous and the wicked in the eyes of God, a constant theme of the wisdom writers. True wisdom in biblical thought is based on the “fear of the Lord,” a proper response to the awesome nature of God. A good way to look at this Psalm is from verses 1-6, we learn that God the Judge summons the court. He first confronts the formalist, the person to whom worship is a ritual to follow (vv. 7-15). Then He confronts the hypocrite, to whom worship is a disguise to cover sin (vv. 16-21). The psalm closes with a call to all worshipers to be faithful to God (vv. 22-23). This Psalm is a call for all of us to come and worship the LORD from the heart and not just from the head. In John 4:23-24, Jesus told the woman at the well, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Today, may the Lord help us to be “true worshipers” who will not be ashamed in the day of judgement! God bless!