Psalms 50:14-15 (CSB) 14 Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to God,
and pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in a day of trouble;
I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”
Psalms 50:23 (CSB) Whoever offers a thanksgiving sacrifice honors me,
and whoever orders his conduct,
I will show him the salvation of God.”
Psalm 50 is one that stops me in my tracks. Asaph honors the Lord in verses 1-6 as beautifully radiant and a righteous judge who deals well with his righteous. And then Asaph worships God as the one who deals correctly with the wicked in verses 16-21.
What causes me to pause is the declaration that God does not need offerings of “things” because the world and all we would even bring to him from it as a sacrifice are already his.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and everything in it is mine.” Psalms 50:12
After this, we get verses 14, 15, and 23.
What can we offer to God as acceptable worship if everything is already his? Thanksgiving! That’s right. Thanksgiving.
The connection between verses 14 and 15 implies that we are to give thanks even in the day of trouble, and because we are thankful for God even in trouble, we call to him and he will rescue us, and then what? We honor him!
He caps the Psalm off with the declaration that whoever offers thanksgiving honors God, and the ones who order their conduct rightly, sees his salvation.
The connection between the first part of verse 23 and the second part is that those who give thanks are those who will order their conduct correctly before God.
Thanksgiving is the very heart of worship and the nuclear reaction for the Christian that produces holy living.
So, make sure we daily give thanks to God for his excellencies and even for the dark providences because in them we can call on God and he will answer our prayers, and we will get to praise him publicly for his love for us.
If you are fighting to be holy, try being thankful in all things, and see if God works out holiness from the inside, out.
Play this song, and sing along. It may just be a great part of your day.
Theology in the Dirt 