Sacrifice of Thanksgiving: Psalm 50-Supplication through the Scriptures

Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Psalm 50

Our whole lives should be ones of continually giving thanks. Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do—it is the moral will of God. Failure to give thanks due Him is sin.
Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins 

Thankfulness is the grateful acknowledgment of past mercies. As believers we are commanded to give thanks in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and truly the believer has an abundance of spiritual and temporal blessings for which he ought to give thanks to the Lord. In fact, our thankfulness should be abounding and overflowing (2 Corinthians 4:15; Colossians 2:7). 

What hinders our thankfulness? Discontent hinders thankfulness, since discontent stems from a heart that thinks it deserves better than what it has received. Discontent is not satisfied with the Lord’s provision. Discontent leads to grumbling and complaining rather than giving thanks. 

Martha Peace in Attitudes of a Transformed Heart says, “Their [believers’] gratitude is irrespective of their circumstances” and “As we submit to God’s plan for our lives, we are to thank Him daily not just for the food we eat but for every small or large test or trial that comes our way.” 

Thankfulness is easier to practice when we are sure that our God is good, loving, and wise and is ordering all things for our good and His glory. Any doubt as to the goodness of God or His faithfulness and ability to bring about His purposes will cause us trouble, and discontent, fear, and grumbling will follow. Let us purpose to accompany every prayer with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6) and see that “the Christian privilege is to find reason for gratitude in all things” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, emphasis mine). Listen to God’s message to us from Psalm 50, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Pray and give thanks through Psalm 50.

Gather the Faithful Ones

50:1-6 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah 
Give thanks to Him for:
▫️He is the Mighty One—nothing is too difficult for Him!
▫️He rules over all the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting.
▫️He is God incarnate—He came to us.
▫️He is the righteous Judge of all the earth.
▫️He has given us the light of His presence.

Let’s pray:
▫️We would seek after Him to behold His beauty (Psalm 27:4).
▫️We would be counted among the faithful ones who display kindness and godliness flowing from God’s mercy to us.

Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

50:7-15 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” 
Give Him thanks because:
▫️The whole earth is His. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, because the whole earth and all its fullness are His.
▫️When we call to Him in our day of trouble, He delivers us.

Let’s pray:
▫️We would rest in His provision knowing every beast of the forest, the cattle on a thousand hills, all the birds of the hills, all that moves in the field, indeed the world and its fullness are His.
▫️We would begin today to be more thankful, offering daily a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Him and walking in obedience to His commands.
▫️We would call on Him when we are distressed or troubled, and He would deliver us and we would give all glory to Him.

God Rebukes 

50:16-21 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. 
Thank the Lord this morning because:
▫️He is not like us, He is wholly set apart from us and there is none like Him.
▫️He will not remain silent in the face of wickedness. 

Let’s pray:
▫️We would not be like the wicked who hate discipline, and cast God’s Word aside, and keep the company of evildoers.
▫️We would bridle our tongues, and not gossip or slander others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
▫️When the Lord rebukes us, we would humbly repent, turn from our sinfulness, and direct our ways according to His Word. 

Ways Ordered Rightly

50:22-23 “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! 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’s thank Him because:
▫️He is patient with us, warning us and calling us back to Himself.

Let’s pray:
▫️Our hearts would be filled with thankfulness and we would increasingly give thanks to God for His spiritual and temporal blessings which He has abundantly supplied to us.
▫️We would order our way rightly and He would show us His salvation.

May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Psalm 50 quoted from the ESV.
Photo credit to hannynaibaho.

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