Psalm 50:22-23 English Standard Version
22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
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!”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
In the classic autobiography, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells of her sufferings at the hands of the Nazis during the evil reign of Adolph Hitler.
Corrie and her sister, Betsie, were among the thousands incarcerated at the Nazi concentration camp, Ravensbruck, experienced terrible atrocities there.
On one occasion, they were forced to disrobe before the German soldiers.
In that awful, humiliating moment, an amazing discovery came to Corrie’s mind: “They took Jesus’ clothes too. He hung naked for me.”
When she relayed that wondrous thought to her sister Betsie, she gasped and said, “Oh, Corrie, and I never thanked Him for it.”
For me especially, one of the things that made Corrie and Betsie such dynamic Christians was the truth that they both chose to see life from God’s perspective.
In those worst of situations, they found new insights to praise and thank God.
And for me, I cannot imagine those “the worst of the worst possible situations.”
The collection of those Psalmists in Bible tells us that we are to give thanks in everything, the good things AND the bad things AND the very worst of things.
In Psalm 50:23, God says, “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me.”
Our choice of faith, our choices to live, to move, then to act, in that faith in God pleases Him while our thanksgiving glorifies Him, and the one that glorifies the Father is the true worshipper who chooses to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Genuine thanksgiving to the Lord is a freewill offering, a sacrifice of praise, a coming to God in our nakedness as His Son did at Calvary, a living sacrifice, a gift of un-yielding love which is a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord our God.
Such a sweet smelling offering is not meant to merely be an external display of reverent homage or a gesture of pious religiosity, but an inner spirit of genuine deeply rooted gratefulness, a heart overflowing with maximum adoration that springs from the man or woman or child that is so deeply in love with the Lord.
Indeed, no act of thanksgiving nor any form of worship that does not spring forth from the inner being that utterly loves the Lord is acceptable to Him.
The whole of Psalm 50 is a song that shows forth the greatness of God, His never-ending righteousness, and His long-suffering grace, but it is also one that is a severe rebuke to His people, Israel, for their disinterested complacency and hypocritical attitude into which their external acts of sacrifices had fallen.
Humanity may look on the externals, but God looks on the internal heart, and He knows all of the inner thoughts and the hidden attitudes of the mind, which can so often mask hidden insincerity in the worship of a double-minded man.
God, Who judges the hearts of all, is not to be mocked and warns all that are so inclined to cleanse their hearts, alter their ways, and dress themselves in the robe of Christ’s righteousness in sincerity and truth – in one word – to Repent!
Psalm 50:22-23 New Living Translation
22 Repent, all of you who forget me,
or I will tear you apart,
and no one will help you.
23 But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.
If you keep to my path,
I will reveal to you the salvation of God.”
And so we read: “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright, I shall show the salvation of God.”
It is never too late for any believer who has adopted a form of complacency or has put on a necklace of hypocrisy to change his ways, for God is gracious and long-suffering, He is slow to anger and abounding in mercy and forgiveness.
But He also is quite stern with His Children as He warns us to recognize all the errors of our ungrateful attitudes, and to change our ways, and return to Him.
Our faith in God pleases Him, while our genuine thanksgiving glorifies Him.
Let us be those that seek the renewal of our minds, glorify the Father through a bare naked sacrifice of praise as, day by day, we worship Him in spirit, in truth.
Remember in the hard times, thanksgiving is difficult.
In those impossible to imagine – very worst of times – is so nearly impossible.
It was definitely a “bare naked” sacrifice to thank God in a Nazi concentration camp, but it is so very necessary – In the very best of times and down to the very worst of times possible – Thanksgiving honors God, and when you and I strip off our garments of our forgetfulness, ingratitude, to honor God, He honors us.
(1 Samuel 2:27-30 The Message).
27-30 A holy man came to Eli and said: “This is God’s message: I revealed myself openly to your ancestors when they were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose your family to be my priests: to preside at the Altar, to burn incense, to wear the priestly robes in my presence. I put your ancestral family in charge of all the sacrificial offerings of Israel. So why do you now treat as mere loot these very sacrificial offerings that I commanded for my worship? Why do you treat your sons better than me, turning them loose to get fat on these offerings, and ignoring me? Therefore—this is God’s word, the God of Israel speaking—I once said that you and your ancestral family would be my priests indefinitely, but now—God’s word, remember!—there is no way this can continue.
I honor those who honor me;
those who scorn me I demean.
How is your thanksgiving factor?
Are you living is the very best of times, facing the very toughest of all times?
Have you been griping, grumbling and complaining about the things in your life that are hard, harder and hardest, hardcore lonely and impossibly frustrating?
Why not try praising and thanking God for your difficulty.
He knows about it, He is all over it, stripped, He died naked, to care for you.
Without room for any questions, He has a purpose in every trial and tribulation.
The Lord IS 100% Your Shepherd – You have All You Will Ever Need in This Life!
Start today off with the Lord of Hosts – and LIVE into HIS life of thanksgiving.
If you will do it, I promise you on the living authority of the Word of God, your world will be stripped bare of that which distracts you away from God and your mind will be renewed, your attitude will change, the people around you will be blessed, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be max glorified and honored.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Let us Pray,
My Heavenly Father, I confess that I have not always had the right attitude of true thanksgiving toward You. I pray that from now on, my life would be a living sacrifice that is pleasing to You and glorifies Your name. Help me to identify and correct any wrong attitudes within my heart, and begin anew to worship You in spirit and truth. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Psalm 16 The Message
16 1-2 Keep me safe, O God,
I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.
3 And these God-chosen lives all around—
what splendid friends they make!
4 Don’t just go shopping for a god.
Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
like brand-names.
5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 