“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we find ourselves in Psalm 50, one-third of the way through. Now, David was the most prolific of the psalmist.
We have Psalms by a number of different writers, but David wrote more than 70, about half of the Psalms, the Book of Psalms, that we know of for sure. But next only to David is Asaph, or Asaph, who wrote 12 Psalms. And we encounter the first of his Psalms here in Psalm 50.
Now, what is unusual, as you see here, it says it’s a Psalm of Asaph, is that why isn’t this Psalm grouped with the other 11 that he wrote in Psalms 73 through 83? Why did the redactors and the organizers of the Book of Psalms decide to take this one Psalm of Asaph, pull it away from the other 11, and put it here between Psalms 49 and Psalm 51? I think as we go through this, and as we look in our next episode at Psalm 51, you’ll see the incredible wisdom there was in putting this Psalm here.
We’ll talk about that when we get near the end of the teaching.”
“Now, Asaph was one of the Levitical singers. We are told that in 1 Chronicles 15, and 2 Chronicles 29 tells us that he was also a seer.
And I think we see some of that prophetic gifting of Asaph’s in this psalm. And I look forward to getting into Psalms 73 to 83. But this psalm can be divided cleanly into two halves.
Now, recall that in Psalms 49, the psalm is addressed to the whole earth, to all of the citizens of the world, Jew, Gentile, to the entire creation. God is talking to them. But in this psalm, he’s speaking only to his people.
And it’s divided into two halves because his people, God’s people at this time, had a problem. And for some of the people, it manifested one way. And for others, it manifested in a different way.
And so this psalm addresses both groups and the error in which they find themselves. So we have this introduction in verses one through six. It begins this way.”
“El Elohim Adonai. This order of these words, these titles for God, El Elohim and then Adonai—that’s his actual name, Yad He Vav He.
This is found only one other place in the Bible. It’s over in Joshua 22:22. And there it’s found twice.
And it seems to be a formula for when people are taking a very serious oath. And they address El, which basically is a Hebrew word for power—the great power. Who is the great power? Elohim, our God. What is his name? Yad He Vav He, El Elohim Adonai.
So here it says, El Elohim Adonai speaks and calls to the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes and does not keep silent. 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 beloved ones, those covenanting with me by sacrifice. The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
And then we have the selah there to mark the end of this section.
Now, as you look into this and how the words are used and where we find similar words and descriptors in the scripture, it’s almost as if this is a second Sinai event. The first Sinai event—God establishes his covenant with his people. And when he did that, there was a fire on the mountain.
It was a terrifying time. And God spoke aloud to all of his people, and he establishes his covenant. And now in Psalm 50, it’s like we’re moving ahead to the end of time, when God for a second time speaks to them from the mountain—those who covenant with him through sacrifice.
But this time it’s Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai. And we see the whirlwind, we see the tempest, we see the fire, and you see this dramatic setting for God speaking.
So at Sinai, God establishes his covenant with his people. Then here in Psalm 50, God is now judging his people. How did they do keeping this covenant? How did they do over the centuries of walking with him?”
“And we’ll get into it. We’ll see how they did. And as we look at the failures of God’s people and the two ways in which they stumble, it’s very instructive for us because I think each of us—and I myself, I know which one I am—we each have a weakness.
We tend to fail in one direction or the other. So let’s take this first group. This first group I call the ones who, they’re the doers, not so much the speakers.
They’re the ones who are producing works and activities. They kind of remind me of the letter Yeshua dictated to the church at Ephesus. And he praises them for all these things they’re doing.
He says, But I have this one thing against you: You left your first love. And that’s kind of what is being described here in this first section.”
“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.
In other words, I’m glad you’re bringing sacrifices. It’s wonderful you’re doing these things that I commanded. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. So they haven’t slacked off in their obedience in bringing sacrifices.
Verse 9: I shall not take a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand mountains. 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. In other words, I’m glad you’re doing the sacrifices, but don’t think for a moment I need them. You need to eat—I don’t need to eat meat.
And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you because I own all the animals in the world anyway.
Verse 13: Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Now here’s the thing that God wants: Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
It’s almost as if God is saying, this is what nourishes me. It’s not the animal you put on the altar. It’s the thanksgiving that arises out of your hearts when you put that animal on the altar.”
“It’s that thanksgiving. It’s the love, the affection, the joy you express toward me. That is what nourishes my soul.
But the people had gotten into the practice of just doing the practice. And their minds could be a million miles away. Have you ever caught yourself doing that?
But if you pray liturgy, if you pray the Lord’s Prayer or whatever you do, you find yourself saying the words and your mind’s thinking about the groceries you have to buy or the work you have to do when you get to the office or what time you have to pick up the kids after school. Your mouth is just like a parrot. It’s saying words, but your mind is elsewhere.
It’s a very human weakness. But it’s one God draws our attention to because this human weakness can become a religious lifestyle. Of doing the things that religiously are required of us.
Even doing the commandments. Yet our hearts are far from God. Now as it goes on here, it says, 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. So don’t take glory in your obedience and in your sacrifices.
Bring glory to me. Call on me. The animals and the others aren’t going to answer your prayers.
Call upon me. Bring me a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Make sure your heart is in what you do.
because it’s not the meat you bring, it’s not the tithes you bring. It’s your hearts that I want. What would you rather have?
A spouse who gives you lots of gifts, but has no affection for you? Or a spouse who’s very poor, can’t afford to give you gifts, but loves you with all their heart? I think all of us would agree, we’d rather have that second kind.
And that’s what God is saying here. Then in 16 to 21, we come to the other group. And God calls them the wicked.”
“But to the wicked, God says, why do you recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? In other words, these are the people who are talking. They’re saying all the right stuff, but there’s no sacrifice.
They talk, but they don’t do. They talk the talk, they do not walk the walk. And he says, for you hate Mussar.
Now, I’m not sure what word your English translation may use there, but I’m using the original Hebrew word Mussar. I love this word. Mussar is a word that’s used 30 times in the book of Proverbs.
It’s used over and over and over again. And Proverb uses this word more than any other book in the Bible. But this is the only place it’s found in the book of Psalms.
Now, what is Mussar? It’s sometimes translated instruction, but it’s more than instruction, merely. It’s also discipline, because any real instruction, I don’t care what it is you’re trying to learn, it’s going to require discipline.
But Mussar also requires a teacher who’s going to, is going to inflict just the right degree of punishment when you don’t achieve the proper results, the desired outcome. So it’s instruction and discipline with just a sprinkling of punishment. Whenever I think of Mussar and I talk about it, I think of my beloved piano teacher, Mrs. Estelle Thomas.
She gave lessons until she’s far into her hundreds. I think she’s about 104 when she finally quit giving piano lessons. But she would come to the house and she was old school, and she’d give us all the standard classical exercises to do.
If you didn’t do them right, she gave you a chewing out. And if you continue to do it wrong, she took her big yellow number two pencil and give you a whack on the knuckles to try to train that finger to hit the right note at the right time. So she had instruction and discipline, and just every once in a while, she pulled out that number two pencil to give you a little smart whack across the knuckle.
It wasn’t going to kill me, but it did help that finger remember what it was supposed to do. So you put these ingredients together and you have Mussar. And I suggest if you have the tools to go through the Book of Proverbs, find every place this word is used and highlight it.
And again, you’ll find different English words used to translate this word, but Mussar includes all of these elements. So to the wicked, God says, you’re always reciting my statutes. You’re talking about my commandments and you’re very detailed in your theology and in your teaching, but you hate Mussar and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you’re pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free reign for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother.
You slander your own mother’s son. Now, he’s already said, you speak against your brother. Why does Asaph go on to say, you slander your mother’s son?
It’s almost as if to say, because you slander your brother, you are also slandering the mother who raised them. You are showing disrespect and dishonor to your parent. These things you have done, and I have been silent.
You thought that I was like you. I’ve put that in green. I don’t know how well it shows up, but that to me is a very telling remark.
You thought that I was like you. How many people think God is like them? That’s a horrible mistake to make.
It is true that we are made in God’s image, and there are similarities that we reflect back. But to think that God values what we value, that he excuses what we excuse, and he endorses what we endorse, it’s a terrible mistake to think that God’s like us. Instead, we are to remember we’re made in his image.
We should not try to make him into ours. It says, but now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. Now, though the first group was wrong and that their hearts had drifted from God, they were still doing the right practices.
But the second group isn’t even doing the practices. They’re just talking about it. They’re just talking about God’s statutes.
They’re discussing the scriptures. It’s just all head knowledge, but they’re not doing anything. In fact, what they are doing is very sinful.”
“Now, what I find interesting is when it says here that when you see a thief, you are pleased with him. You keep company with adulterers. I think paul was thinking of Psalm 50 when he was writing the Book of Romans.
Let me read you a passage from Romans chapter two, verses 17 to 23. Look for the parallels with what we’ve just read in Psalm 50. Romans two, 17 to 23.
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the Torah and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, excuse me, because you are instructed from the Torah, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, and having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? Now, he’s talking to these people who are talking about the Torah, who are flaunting their knowledge of the Torah, who are comparing how skillful they are in the use of the Torah. But then he rebukes him.
Listen to what he says. While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
These are the same things are mentioned here. Thief, adulterer. And then he says, you who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the Torah dishonor God by breaking the Torah. What a rebuke. It’s very similar to this.
By the way, you may have a question about that robbing temples. I’m not sure exactly what paul had in mind when he wrote that, but it may be this principle. In Deuteronomy, we are instructed that when we find an idol, maybe it’s an idol that’s covered with gold or silver, we are to destroy that idol, including the gold and the silver that it’s plated with.
And God very specifically instructs, you’re not to destroy the idol and then save the gold and silver, because it’s valuable. You destroy the gold and silver with it. And that is a principle that I think applies to our own lives.
How many times do we watch a movie and then we endorse the movie to someone else? And the movie has theft and violence and adultery and perversion. And it has all these things that are against the Torah.
But we say, but it has this one really good scene in it. Or the way it’s photographed is really great. Or the way it was written, or the way this person acted this part.
What we want to do is strip off the bits of gold and silver that have some value to us. And then use that to endorse the movie. And God is saying, if it’s an idolatrous thing at heart, then get rid of the silver and gold as well.
And I’ll leave it to you to figure out how this principle may apply in your life. But ask yourself, what are the things, the large things I excuse because of the small bit of value that is contained in it? Instead, let’s look at things that are basically big and good.
And though nothing’s perfect, there will be some flaws. There will be some things that are like, ah, we have to wink at and kind of say, well, I wish they hadn’t done that. But overall, it’s something really good.
That’s different. But when there’s something that’s basically foul, it’s idolatrous, let’s not excuse it by the little bit of silver and gold that it may contain. And I’m not making a hard and fast rule here.
I’m gonna leave it to you and your wisdom to apply this in your own life and the lives of your children as you feel directed by God.”
“And then we have the closing lines, verses 22 and 23. Understand this, then, you who forget God. Lest you I tear apart.
And that word tear apart is the word taraph. That’s where we get the word treif. If you’ve ever hung out with Jewish people and they refer to foods that they cannot eat or meats that are forbidden to pork or something that’s not prepared correctly, they call it treif.
And it comes from meat that is torn because any meat that dies because another animal kills it is called treif. Even though it might be a kosher animal, if it dies from natural causes or because something tore it apart, it’s called treif. We don’t eat that.
And so, lest I come and 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 Yeshua the salvation of God.
All through the Psalm, we see that the problem with both of these groups is a lack of gratitude. They both acknowledge God. They both acknowledge his word.
They both acknowledge his commandments. Some do them. Some merely discuss them.
But what was lacking in both groups was a heart of gratitude. And I’ve come to believe that a lack of gratitude is a foundational problem throughout the body of Messiah. And it’s the most foundational problem, I think, in most people’s lives.
I think that when we bemoan our condition, when we whine to God and call it prayer, when we are always sharing how lousy life is with others, I think we’re giving praise to the enemy more than we know. And we’re basically saying God hasn’t kept us into the bargain. God hasn’t done what God should do.
God has been lying down on the job. I may have shared this before in a teaching, so forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but I remember at Beth Tikkun years ago, there was a lady there who just looked real downcast. And I said, what’s wrong?
You don’t look very happy today. And she started to moan about how awful everything was. And I said, well, let’s do a little exercise.
And I said, let’s start at the top of your head and let’s see the things you have to be grateful to God for. And she said, I have nothing to be thankful for. I said, well, let’s just begin.
I said, first of all, you have a full head of hair. I said, I know a lot of people, and even women, who are losing their hair. But God’s blessed you with a full head of hair.
And I said, I notice you don’t wear glasses. You can see out of both eyes. And she said, yeah.
I said, do you know how many people suffer with poor eyesight or who are blind altogether? I said, can you hear out of both ears? She said, yeah.
And I said, I know our daughter Lindsay would love to have a pair of working ears. She was born deaf. And I said, do you have all your teeth?
She said, yeah. I said, I know people would love to have a full set of teeth. And then we started talking about skin and shoulders and two arms and two hands and ten fingers.
And as we kept working down, she started kind of smiling. She just couldn’t hold it back. And I said, keep on going.
Just keep thinking about all the things, your body, your internal organs, you’ve got two feet, you’ve got two legs, you can walk. And by the time you get to the soles of your feet, you’re going to be laughing out loud, so full of gratitude for all the gifts God’s given you. What happens when we get used to being healthy, we get used to being saved, we get used to having these gifts of fingers and toes and lips and ears and eyes, and we take them for granted.
And then we whine about something that doesn’t feel just right or isn’t going the way we think. Instead of thinking God for that unpleasant thing as well, realizing that unpleasant thing is also our teacher, it’s God’s tool in our lives. We should be giving God thanks in all things, because this is His will concerning us.
We should see God pervasive in every area of our life. I want to finish up with just a few things here. This word tear apart sounds pretty severe, but here’s a reference you can put in the margin of your Bibles.
And it comes from Hosea, Chapter 6, Verse 1. God says, come let us return to Adonai, for He has torn us, tarah, there’s our word. He has torn us, that He may heal us.
He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. That is what God’s spirit is speaking through the prophet Hosea. Yeah, God may tear you, He may strike you down, but He does it so that He can heal you and raise you up.
Not to leave you scrunched and crushed in the dirt, but so that He can rebuild you into the better man, the better woman that He wants you to be.”
“Early in the teaching, I posed the question, why is this one Psalm of Asaph taken away from the rest in Psalms 73 to 83, those 11? Why is this one taken out of the group and placed here, right between Psalms 49 and 51? Well, this Psalm describes people, or we could even think, let’s think of one person, describes a person who maybe was doing a lot of the right things, but their heart had drifted from God.
And then the person who, even though they know the scriptures, they know God, they’ve begun doing wicked things.
And God had Asaph write this psalm, not so that there would be no hope, but so that the people would recognize where they’ve fallen, what they lack, what they have become, and repent and turn around and do things right. And I believe this psalm is placed here because if you turn the page, and look at Psalm 51 and read the attribution, you see that it is a psalm of David, a psalm that David wrote when Nathan the prophet came to him and rebuked him for his sin with Bathsheba. And you know the story, how David’s eyes were opened and he realized what he had done.
He had stolen a man’s wife. He had stolen a man’s life. He had committed adultery.
And though he had brought sacrifices, though he knew the Torah, even though he’s writing Psalms, he had done a very wicked thing. And so as you read the Psalm 50, it’s very important you turn the page and go to Psalm 51 because here’s King David himself, who is guilty of the things described here in Psalm 50. And God did kind of tear David apart, but he healed him.
And so as you read Psalm 51, you will find some connections in the wording and in the way the Psalm is constructed that go right along as a beautiful, a beautiful follow up to Psalm 50. And this is just something I never really seen in the Psalms before as I would quickly read through them. But as I’ve taken time to study them, I see the arrangement and the ordering the Psalms is done with incredible skill and wisdom and insight.
So I hope you catch on to this as well, because each Psalm leads you to the next one. And the next Psalm we see is the remedy and the antidote to the issues here in this Psalm, Psalm 50. I’m going to close finally with this.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences. And over the last week, as I just actually the last three or four days, as I’ve been preparing to record this teaching, a book has come to my attention that I want to highly recommend to you.
It’s by Eric Metaxas and it’s called Religionless Christianity. You could call it Religionless Messianic Judaism if you want. And this term, Religionless Christianity, comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In fact, Eric Metaxas back in 2010 wrote a wonderful biography about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Maybe some of you have read it. And much of this new book is based on the writings of this godly saint and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And as I read this book, it’s almost like a commentary on Psalm 50, where in Psalm 50, we see people who are practicing religion, but it was religion devoid of a proper spirit.
So let me just read a couple of excerpts.
One of the core points about religion and the way we are using the term in this book is that it does not oppose the God of the Bible openly in the way that atheism or paganism do. On the contrary, the thing we are calling mere religion always aims to give the appearance of following God, but it is actually a counterfeit.
Religion in God’s name, but actually divorced from God, is a satanic counterfeit.
A few pages later, Metaxas says this,
If our faith exists apart from the rest of reality, then it is meaningless. If our faith exists apart from the rest of reality, then it is meaningless.
In other words, our faith needs to be like Bonhoeffer’s. It needs to be like Yeshua’s. It needs to be a faith that is there 24-7, and that infuses every part of our reality.
From the time we get up in the morning, till the time we go to bed at night, and everything we do should be done in cooperation with God, yoked to him. But if your faith is something you practice during a particular time of the day, and then leave it there as you go on about your business, or something you practice on one day of the week for a couple of hours, and then go on with your life, your faith is meaningless. God is calling us to a faith where we walk with God moment by moment, every single day.
Not just throw him a few sacrifices, not just talk about him, but we bear the image of God and live out the life of Messiah. That’s what God is calling us to. So I hope that this brief study of Psalm 50 helps encourage you to be more serious about your faith, and to be more joyful in your faith as well.
So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”
CLICK HERE to Print Notes
A Psalm of Asaph
1-6 El Elohim Adonai speaks and calls to the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 3 Our God comes and does not keep silent. Before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest. 4 He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people: 5 “Gather to me My beloved ones, those covenanting with Me by sacrifice!” 6 The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge! Selah
7-15 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. 8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before Me. 9 I shall not take a bull from your house or goats from your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand mountains. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is Mine. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
16-21 But to the wicked God says: “Why do you recite My statutes or take My covenant on your lips? 17 For you hate musar, and you cast My words behind you.
מוסר (musar) = “instruction + discipline + punishment”
18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. 19 You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. 21These things you have done, and I have been silent. You thought that I was like you. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
22-23 Understand this, then, you who forget God, lest you I tear 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!”
טרף (taraph) = “tear/tear apart”
REFERENCES:
Approbation
1Chronicles 15:16-17 David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari, their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah.
2Chronicles 29:30 And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to Adonai with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
Verse 1
Joshua 22:22 “El, Elohim, Adonai! El, Elohim, Adonai! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against Adonai, do not spare us today.”
Verse 3
Exo 24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of Adonai was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.
Verse 4
Deuteronomy 4:25-26 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of Adonai your God, so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.”
Deuteronomy 32:1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.”
Isaiah 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Adonai has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against Me.”
Verse 16
R’ S.R. Hirsch: “This is the most instructive and significant description of the character of a רשע [evil person], who is condemned here in the sharpest terms by God himself.”
Verse 17-21
Romans 2:17-23 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the Torah and boast in God and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the Torah; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Torah dishonor God by breaking the Torah.
Verse 22
Hosea 6:1 “Come, let us return to Adonai; for He has torn (טרף, taraph) us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.”