Now we see here the people were keeping the letter of the law in the burnt offerings. The charge, the reproof from God is they did not offer these sacrifices with the right proper humble thanks and proper humble hearts. We could tie in Isaiah 1:11, I have had enough of your burnt offerings. God says, I do not delight in the blood of bulls.
Here in Psalm 50, verses 10 to 13, God explains He does not really need our offerings. Everything already belongs to Him. All of our sacrifices and offerings are for our benefit, but we only get the benefit if we have the right attitude. Picking up verse 14.
God is saying here to these people - us - your sacrifice and worship are really worthless because you are acting like a hypocrite. Their lack of humility resulted in verses 19 and 20, the sin of speaking evil about other brethren, and still to this day, this is one of the most prevalent sins that we have in the greater church of God. When we open our mouth and we say anything negative about a brother or sister in God's church, we are a hypocrite. Our sacrifices are blemished. God does not want them.
The burnt offering is nothing to God without the right underlying attitude, and that right underlying attitude always drives the corresponding grain offering in service and sacrifice to fellow man. What sacrifice is there when someone speaks about a brother or sister's mistake or sin? Think about it. We are not sacrificing our pride. We are actually feeding it.
It is what Satan wants. We are saying, Look at their sins, look at their mistakes! I'm pretty good. I'm righteous. I'm not like them. What we sacrifice when we speak anything bad about our brothers and sisters is actually that other person, we are killing them with our words and defiling anyone who will listen to it. Reading on in verses 22 and 23:
So Psalm 50 is a psalm of judgment to God's people under His covenant of sacrifice. The psalmist is connecting the burnt offering with the grain offering, which have to go together. They cannot be separated. They were outwardly praising God and with the same tongue, they were putting others down. We can tie into Clyde's message again.
In James 3, Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursings. It ought not be so, he says. God says, consider this deeply. You who forget how sinful you are, lest I tear you in pieces. Wow, tear you in pieces.
