03.05. Conclusion
CONCLUSION The significance of Psalm 50 has been very well summed up by Peter C. Craigie as follows: "Just as the covenant was the very heart of the religion of Israel, so too Psalm 50 lies at the heart of the meaning of the covenant." The reality of the access of sinful men to the presence of God is not a thing that must be lightly estimated. Often man forgets the gravity of this truth. Man is forever doomed by his own sinfulness to eternal separation from God. It was His grace and provision that has brought us closer to Him. A price was paid. In the Old Testament, it was the sacrifice of the animal, which was but a portrayal of the great sacrifice that was going to occur in the fullness of time. Most often, we as Christians lose the sense of sublimity, gravity, and significance associated with this sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ that bridged the gap for us to gain access into the presence of the Father. It often happened so with the Israelites. It happened with Moses. He got so familiar with God that, perhaps, he thought that God need not need to be obeyed verbatim. He struck the rock twice when, in actuality, he was commanded just to speak to it (Numbers 20:2-12). He had to learn that obedience has no substitute. Saul had to learn this lesson: "...to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." The sacrifices and offerings were meaningless to God without the heart-attitude of gratitude towards what all He had done to them in His gracious disposition. They were even more worthless if they were not attended by an act of remorse and repentance of all unworthy acts and thoughts, and a decision to live according to His will. The Greek word for worship is proskuneo (its counterpart in the Hebrew being shachah). And it means "to fall down, prostrate oneself, adore on one’s knees...do obeisance." It denotes reverence to, submission to, and adoration of the one worshipped. And where these qualities are not included in the act of ’worship’, ’worship’ becomes only an empty-shell-word. The other word for worship, in the Greek, is latreia, and "relates to the worship by priestly service that every believer can now offer to God through prayer and personal adoration." It is when His will and service become our happiness that worship actually takes place.
Psalm 50 explicitly declares that a confession of our gratitude to Him for all that He had done in our lives, a cheerful giving out of all that He had given to us, a prayer of faith and trust in Him alone is what God desires as the true service to Him. This dynamic relationship shows that we are the people of a living God and positions us as living witnesses of His marvellous deliverance in this dark and dying world. The essence of worship lies in the recognition of God’s character and an understanding of our relationship with Him. We were not worth it at all. It was only by His grace that we are brought nigh into His presence. An honest adoration of Him through an expression of praise and gratitude in speech, and an expression of love through the observance of His commands is what constitutes real worship. This is how Archbishop William Temple summed up the meaning of worship:
"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God, it is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, submission of will to His purpose, all this gathered up in adoration; it is the greatest of expressions of which we human beings are capable. Let me take that all and put it in one statement: worship is the sense and the service of God." The knowledge of God and His will with a sense of responsibility are vital to our relationship with Him. The wicked, in Psalm 50, underestimated this. They limited God in their thinking and became lax and frivolous in their actions, speech, and thoughts. God reproves them for that and warns them of the impending Judgement. They had taken the Covenant of Grace lightly and needed to be taught that this Covenant was also a Covenant of Judgement. He who breaks the Covenant will bear its consequences but he who offers praise and thanksgivings to God honours and glorifies Him; and he who walks according to His will prepares the way for the manifestation of the salvation of God.
Psalm 50 is, surely, a very instructive Psalm. It displays the factuality of the truth that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," the gravity of the command "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," and the imperativeness of the call "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." God desires His people to worship Him -- to love, adore, praise, thank, and serve Him with a total submission of themselves to His will. The twenty-four elders, in the book of Revelation, are shown as falling down before God and worshipping Him and casting down their crowns before His throne, saying,
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." For every beast of the forest is His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He knows all the fowls of the mountains. The world is his, and the fullness thereof. He alone is worthy of all praise, honour, and glory. He alone is worthy of all worship. Man can give nothing to Him except worship. God is not desirous of vain-glory. He is worthy of all glory.
’God did not need thanksgiving to bolster his own self-esteem, as if (in the words of C. S. Lewis) he were "like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who had never met him or heard of him"[Reflections on the Psalms,79]. God wanted thanksgiving, for that in turn emerged from human lives full of joy; it was the joyful lives of the covenant members, expressed so vividly in the sacrifices and the words of the ceremony, which fulfilled in God the richness of relationship which he had given to his people.’ The significance of worship is well summed up by Jack Hayford in the following words:
’God requires no more of us in our doubts than He did of those early apostles. He only calls us to worship; to offer up all glory, honor, and praise...
’For it is there, as we exalt and lift up on high the Name of Jesus, that doubts like shadows will fade away.
’For it is there that His power will be poured out like new wine; and that Kingdom Authority will freshly flow through us.
’For it is there that Jesus Who died, now glorified, will be revealed among us in all His Majesty.
’So, MAGNIFY, come GLORIFY Christ Jesus the King -- WORSHIP HIS MAJESTY!’
Let us , therefore, offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name. May we not forget to do good and to communicate: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. And may the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13:15-16, Hebrews 13:20-21).