Psalm 50:10 “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”
Would it surprise you if I told you that I received a $1000 suit for Father’s Day? (Do you sense a loaded question?) Receiving an expensive suit as a present would be a good thing, but which of my three kids would buy it? Would you suspect my independently wealthy twelve-year-old, my nine-year-old, or my five-year-old? The truth is, if I did receive a $1000 suit for Father’s Day, I would be the guy buying it!
On the same note, what do you think you have given God in the past seven days that really impresses Him? Do you think God needs anything you could give Him? Verse 6 reminds us that “God is judge himself.” God was not chiding His people over the things they had given (verses 8-9) because He was the One who commanded the sacrifices. God says in verse 12, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” If God were hungry, you and I would be the last people He would tell! For God to be hungry is an impossibility, and for God to be in need is equally an impossibility. God is not in need-ever. God is not panicked-ever. God is not in debt to anybody-ever.
When the Rices (my grandparents) first came to Murfreesboro, they lived in a little flat-roofed, two-room block building. They had no running water; and instead of cooking on a stove, my grandmother used a one-burner hot plate. Do you think God was impressed by that? Would God be impressed because Bill and Cathy Rice were doing what He had made them to do? It is important to remember that “the world is mine [God’s].”
Actually, for Father’s Day, I did receive a few things that I did not pay for myself. My kids gave me things that I would only keep because they are from my kids! If you gave me a card, it probably wouldn’t hang on my fridge, but you can bet your boots that a couple of hand-made cards written by my kids will! I would much rather have those hand-written cards than any $1000 suit they (I) could buy. Do you see the correlation to Psalm 50?
Now, there is something you can give God than no one else can give for you. Verse 14 says, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:” Did you know that it is impossible to complain and give thanks at the same time? Complaining and thanksgiving are mutually exclusive!
I owe God a debt I could never repay. My giving thanks is not a matter of “breaking even” with God; it should be an automatic response to a God that has been so gracious to use what I have given Him (after all, He gave it to me in the first place!). Thus, we should “call upon [God] in the day of trouble. . . .” (verse 15) Anything you are going to give, you must first get from God. God is glorified, not by your giving, but by your receiving and knowing it. So ask Him for what you need, then thank Him when He gives it!
Prayer Requests:
– Bill Rice Ranch New York City Evangelistic Outreach this week (1/4-8)