Psalm 50:7-15

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

In the Psalm before us we have one of those sublime addresses which Jehovah occasionally makes to the whole creation, to hear and judge between him and his offending people, Isaiah 1:2-3. Micah 6:2. The images are taken from his appearance on Mount Sinai, which was with solemn majesty, insomuch that “Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake! Exodus 19:16-18 with Hebrews 12:18-21.”

The scene is “Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty,” even that Zion from whence the Gospel has proceeded, and from whence Jehovah speaks to us as our Covenant-God; and this circumstance adds ten-fold weight to his accusations against us. The people whom he arraigns before his tribunal are of two descriptions:

1. Those who rested in mere ceremonial observances for the obtaining of God’s favor—formalists.

2. Those who, pretending to higher principles, dishonored by their conduct their high and holy profession—hypocrites.

It is the formalists whom God reproves in our text; and the testimony which he bears against them sets forth in very striking terms:

I. The worthlessness of mere formal religion.

Men are apt to imagine that by their observance of external religious duties, they lay God under obligation to them.

God had appointed many rites and ceremonies; and he required the observance of them on the pain of death, Numbers 15:30; but he enjoined them for the people’s good, and not for any benefit that could accrue to himself. What pleasure could he take in the blood of bulls and goats? Or, if he did, what need had he to be indebted to his people for such offerings, when the whole world was his, and all the cattle on a thousand hills were at his command! It was absurd therefore, and impious, in his people to think that they conferred any obligation upon God by their offerings and oblations.

But the very same error prevails among us at this day. If we comply with the external commands of God in an observance of the Sabbath, an attendance on ordinances, and a performance of certain duties in the family and the closet—we think that we have a just claim on God, and that he must of necessity feel as much delight in us, as we do in ourselves. We adduce these services as a clear evidence of the goodness of our hearts, and as an indisputable title to the divine favor.

But external religious services are of no value in the sight of God, any farther than they are accompanied by vital piety.

On many occasions God declared his contempt for outward observances, in comparison with spiritual obedience, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken, than the fat of rams.” By the Prophet Isaiah, God replies to those who boasted of “the multitude of their sacrifices;” and tells them, that the whole course of their services, unaccompanied as they were by real piety, were an utter abomination in his sight! Isaiah 1:11-15. Even while bringing his people through the wilderness, he had explicitly declared to them, by Balaam, that it was “not by offering thousands of rams, or rivers of oil, or by giving their first-born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul, that they were to please him—but by doing justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly with their God. Micah 6:6-8.” In like manner we are told by our blessed Lord, that it is “to no purpose that we pay tithes of mint and anise and cummin, if we neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth, Matthew 23:23;” and that to draw near to God with our lips, while our heart is far from him, is nothing but vile hypocrisy! Matthew 15:8.

Indeed a moment’s consideration may convince us, that outward religious services, of whatever kind, cannot be of any value in the sight of God, except as expressions or vehicles of inward piety; for they may be performed without any good principle in the soul. Yes, they may proceed from extremely vile and corrupt principles, such as pride, and ostentation, and self-righteousness; and they may most abound, not only where all manner of iniquity is harbored, but as a cloak and cover to that iniquity! Matthew 23:14. In a word, “a form of godliness, where the power of it is denied,” is the consummation of all ungodliness! 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

This is an offensive truth indeed, but it is indispensably necessary to be received.

How offensive a truth this is, may be seen, by the way in which the hearers of the first martyr, Stephen, resented it, even before it was actually declared, and when they discovered it only as the ultimate scope of his argument. Stephen had given a summary view of God’s dealings with his people from the very beginning; and the scope of his argument was that as God had a people before the Mosaic dispensation commenced, so he would after its termination; as had been intimated by the Prophet Isaiah, who represents God, as pouring contempt even upon the temple itself, in comparison with a broken and contrite heart!

This passage having been cited by Stephen, the whole audience were filled with indignation, which was visibly manifested in all their countenances, and which gave occasion to that exceedingly abrupt change in Stephen’s address to them, “You stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you! Compare Isaiah 66:1-2 with Acts 7:47-51.”

Similar offence is given at this day, when we declare the worthlessness of all external religious duties as detached from the feelings of the heart! But the very circumstance of God calling Heaven and earth to hear his testimony against his people, sufficiently shows that his accusations, against whoever brought, involve in them the deepest criminality, and subject the accused to the heaviest condemnation.

Contrasted with mere ritual observances, we behold in our text:

II. The religion which alone is pleasing and acceptable to God.

True religion consists not so much in actions, as in the habit of the mind towards God. Holy actions of every kind spring from it; but they are only as the fruit, which originates in, and bears testimony to, the vital energy of the root. Wherever true religion exists in the soul, it will have respect to God in all things, and will induce in us a habit towards him:

1. Of genuine gratitude.

He is our Creator, our Benefactor, our Redeemer; and the very first motions of true religion will lead us to view him under these relations, and with feelings suited to the obligations he has conferred upon us.

Can we reflect on the faculties with which he has endowed us, so far superior to all the brute creation, and not adore and magnify his name?

Can we contemplate the innumerable blessings with which we are loaded by him from day to day, and not feel how greatly we are indebted to him?

Above all, can we survey the wonders of redeeming love, and not have our whole souls penetrated with an overwhelming sense of gratitude? So infinitely does this love surpass all human comprehension or conception, that if our minds were filled with it as they ought to be, we should scarcely be able to think or speak of anything else!

Such, we are sure, is the religion of Heaven; for there “they rest not day nor night” in ascribing all possible praises to their redeeming God, Revelation 4:8-11; Revelation 5:11-13; and such, according to the measure of grace given to us, will be the dispositions and habits of all who are truly alive to God, “We shall offer him the sacrifice of praise continually, Hebrews 13:15,” and “render to him the calves of our lips, Hosea 14:2.”

2. Of willing service.

All true Christians are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, 1 Peter 2:9.” As the holy angels are “doing God’s will, hearkening to the voice of his Word,” so we shall be studying to know his will, and be standing ready to execute it to the utmost of our power.

It is astonishing what an alteration which saving grace makes in the soul in a person! The natural man lives only to himself. The spiritual man lives, or at least endeavors to live, wholly to the Lord—to have no will, no way, no desire, no thought, but what will be pleasing and acceptable in God’s sight. That which was the first expression of piety in Paul, is the first of every converted soul, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” A view of God as our Master and our Father will ensure this, Malachi 1:6; and in proportion as religion increases in the soul, will be our endeavor to “glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are his, Romans 12:1. 1 Corinthians 6:20.”

3. Of humble dependence.

True religion leads us to realize in our minds the thought of God’s superintending care and effectual agency in our behalf. It does not bring us only to a sense of our obligations to him—but, if we may so speak, to a sense of his obligations to us. For, if “we are his people, he also is our God;” and he, by virtue of his covenant and oath, is as much bound to employ all his glorious perfections for us, as we are to improve all our faculties and powers for him.

What a blessed thought is this! In what an exalted view does it place true religion, which, if it calls us to duties, invests us also with the most glorious privileges! It teaches us to “call upon him in every time of trouble,” persuaded that “he will hear us,” and give us ever increasing occasion to “glorify his name.” This realizing sense of his presence, this assurance of his effectual interposition in every time of need, is the crown and summit of the gospel; it most of all glorifies God, and ensures beyond a doubt the richest testimonies of his approbation!

Let us learn then from hence,

1. How to rightly estimate our own character.

It is not by negative virtues, no, nor by positive virtues of an external kind, that we are to judge of ourselves, but by the disposition of our minds towards God. We may be able to say with the Pharisee, “I am no extortioner, not unjust, no adulterer;” and may be able to add with him, “I fast twice in the week, and give tithes of all that I possess”—and yet be odious in the sight of God! If we would not deceive ourselves, we must inquire into the sense we have of our obligations to him, the determination we feel to approve ourselves faithful to him in the whole extent of our duty, and the confidence with which we are enabled to cast our care on him for body and for soul, for time and for eternity. Without this, whatever else we may possess, we are only “as sounding brass, and as tinkling cymbals;” and “if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. We must therefore prove our own selves, so that we may have rejoicing in ourselves and not another, Galatians 6:3-4.”

2. How to secure a favorable testimony from God.

Man may easily be deceived; but God will assuredly judge according to truth. He “weighs,” not the actions only, but “the hearts” of men. And when he shall come at the last day, as he certainly will, in majesty and glory infinitely more solemn than that displayed at Sinai, he will testify of us before the assembled universe; and it will be a small matter that he has not to lay to our charge a neglect of outward services—if he has to accuse us of a lack of those holy dispositions which we should have entertained and exercised towards him.

We entreat you then, brethren, to look well to the state and habit of your minds; see to it, that you “delight yourselves in God;” that your whole life be a life of faith in him, of love towards him, and of zeal for the glory of his name; and, while you are presenting to him your own bodies and souls as a living sacrifice, present to him that great Sacrifice which was once offered on Mount Calvary for the sins of men, and which alone can avail for your final acceptance with him.

As much as he despises the blood of bulls and goats, he will not despise the blood of his only dear Son; but will, for the sake of it, pardon all your sins, and accept, yes and reward too, with everlasting happiness and glory, all your imperfect services!

Charles Simeon