Pastor Billington's Blog

Psalm 51:14-19 “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise. For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart. Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.”

Psalm 50 and 51 come together here. Sacrifices without heart are useless. God wants us heart, mind and soul. When we do wrong, He wants broken spirits and broken hearts. We also have a warning here that the relationships of the individuals in the community toward God affect the well-being of the community. When all is well, God’s good pleasure shines forth.

Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

1 Corinthians 12:26 “When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

For additional worship: Just a Closer Walk With Thee (Bart Millard)

Psalm 51:8-13 “Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you.”

What a beautiful description of the joy and restoration that forgiveness brings! Both from our salvation and when our fellowship with God is restored. When we experience that joy, we want to let others know how to have a right relationship with God too.

Galatians 6:1 “Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.”

For additional worship: East to West (Casting Crowns)

Psalm 51:1-6 “For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.”

This is the result of David’s repentance in 2 Samuel 12:1-14.

Sin is an incredible affront to God, and we are sinners by nature and by choice. We need to be washed.

Titus 3:3-7 “For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love towards mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Even though we become heirs when we believe, our day-to-day relationship with God is still affected by our sin. That’s when we need to confess to make it right.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

For additional worship: Clean Heart (Bryan & Katie Torwalt)

Psalm 50:16-23 “But to the wicked God says, ‘What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver. Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.’ ”

This is a huge warning to us. It’s not as simple as the wicked don’t know God and the righteous do. Sometimes even the righteous can act wicked. Here we see that people in the covenant community who knew Him, didn’t follow Him. They ignored His Word. They stole, committed adultery, lied, slandered, and gossiped. God reminds them (and us!) that He is not like that. He is holy and pure, and expects His people to be the same. If we know Him, we have a responsibility to be like Him.

For additional worship: All People That on Earth Do Dwell (Emu Music)

Psalm 50:7-15 “Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals 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. Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

The Israelites were supposed to sacrifice. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was offering sacrifices as a means to an end. Offering sacrifices with improper motives. Offering sacrifices with impure hearts. Symbolically performing an action without meaning. Outwardly serving without inwardly loving.

Loving God is first and foremost. How can we expect Him to answer us if we don’t love Him?

Mark 12:30 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”

For additional worship: Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)

Psalm 50:1-6 “A Psalm by Asaph. The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out. Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him. He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people: ‘Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.”

Even though God’s people are special, here the whole earth is called to account. All are responsible before God, but His chosen have a greater level of responsibility and therefore judgment – at least in this life. With great privilege comes great responsibility. We would do well to remember that!

1 Peter 4:17 “For the time has come for judgement to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?”

Did you catch some of the imagery here? God is the Mighty One. A fire devours before Him. It is stormy all around Him. He is majestic and awe inspiring!

For additional worship: Psalm 50 (Koine Music)

Psalm 49:16-20 “Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself— he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light. A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.”

Envy is useless and destructive. So what if a person receives wealth and glory in this life? This life is only a small part of eternity. Understanding is more important than wealth!

Proverbs 11:4 “Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”

For additional worship: I’d Rather Have Jesus (Selah)

Psalm 49:10-15 “For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves. But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish. This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah. They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion. But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.”

All die, but all don’t go to the same place! God will redeem your soul if you’re not one of the foolish.

John 6:39-40 “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

For additional worship: There is a Fountain (Acoustic) | Reawaken Hymns

Psalm 49:1-9 “For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart will utter understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp. Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me? Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches— none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough, that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.”

Here is wisdom: no matter how much money you have, or how many possessions, you can’t live forever. We all die. There is only one thing that we can pack and have for eternity: our relationship with Jesus!

For additional worship: I Boast No More (Caedmon’s Call)

Psalm 48:9-14 “We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the middle of your temple. As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgements. Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. Notice her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation. For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.”

God is glorious because He is full of love and grace and all His judgments are righteous. His glory is reflected by the city where His temple resides!

Since we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, shouldn’t we be reflecting the glory of God too?

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

For additional worship: Breathe On Me Breath of God (Acoustic Hymn with Lyrics)