My title refers to the Psalms we are reading as the Psalms of David, but some of them are attributed to Asaph. The name Asaph may refer to a single person, or to the community of Asaphites who were part of the guild of worship musicians in David’s time.

When King David put the priest Heman in charge of the singers, he appointed Asaph to be Heman’s right hand man, and Asaph may have transcribed David’s poems for the singers. The various ways these psalms were written and preserved is hidden in the distant past now, but we are so blessed that they were handed down to us intact.

Psalm 50

What a magnificent beginning this psalm has . . . Attention, people of the earth!

“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.” Psalm 50:1

Everyone, from the east to the west, is called to look toward Jerusalem because from out of Zion . . .

“Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.” Psalm 50:3

Why is there so much commotion around God?

“He summons the heaven above and the earth, that he may judge his people: ‘Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.” Psalm 50:4-6

Giving An Account to God

When God is quiet for a time, people forget that they have to answer to him. They may even forget that he created them, but God never forgets and at the right time he will hold people to account for what they have done in their relationship with him. In Psalm 50 God Almighty promises that he will come to judge the people of earth, and in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus Christ makes the same promise.

“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great gory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Matthew 24:30-31

The time is coming when everyone on earth will be summoned to meet God and face judgment.

Who Will Face God?

Psalm 50 tells us about two groups of people God summons to the time of judgment.

The first group is obedient people of faith. God commends them for their sacrifices –  but not because the sacrifices meet some kind of need God has. He is not hungry for the flesh of burnt offerings. If God were hungry, he wouldn’t mention it to people, he would simply help himself to whatever delicacies he fancied in his creation.

Sacrifices don’t satisfy God’s appetite for food, but they do satisfy his desire to find faithfulness among people. To those people God says,

“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:14-15

The second group of people is the wicked, and God is indignant toward them. They are hypocrites who recite his laws while simultaneously disobeying them. They consort with thieves and adulterers, practice lies and deceit, and slander their brothers and sisters. They think they’re getting away with their sins because God doesn’t immediately call them to account. But at some point he will.

“When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.” Psalm 50: 21

Time Will End

The world we live in is headed toward an end point. Christ will return, judgment will be pronounced, and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. People need to get ready – and it’s not as if they haven’t been told. The message of the Bible has been available for thousands of years.

“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you: Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.” Psalm 50:22-23

Psalm 73

The psalmist gets off to a nice start in Psalm 73 . . .

“Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” Psalm 73:1

But then he reveals the purpose of his psalm and things get interesting. This psalm is a confession of jealousy and resentment toward people who are not “pure in heart,” but who prosper anyway. It’s judgmental, angry and condemning — and most of us can probably identify with it.

Jealousy has a way of turning other people into monsters in our eyes. We minimize their struggles and exaggerate their flaws while blowing up the facts about their lives into evidence of their ungodliness.

“They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts come iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits . . . This is what the wicked are like – always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.” Psalm 73:4-7, 12

Meanwhile, the psalmist laments that no matter how good he is, he is constantly afflicted and punished.

“Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.” Psalm 73:13-14

The Psalmist Comes to His Senses

The psalmist suspects his thinking is wrong, so he turns to God for help and perspective. He’s concerned about saying or doing something that will cause his fellow believers to stumble. It’s so easy to dishearten others when we complain and criticize.

“If I had spoken like that I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Psalm 73:15-17

When he is in the presence of the Lord, the psalmist understands things he couldn’t get on his own. God is the master of everyone’s destiny and, if he chooses, he can put sinful people on a slippery slope to ruin. He can make them disappear in an instant, like a dream that goes away when one wakes up. But who has the right to question God if he doesn’t act?

The psalmist suddenly regrets getting so worked up over the prosperity of people he thinks don’t deserve it. He realizes that when he became jealous and resentful he gave in to his lower nature.

“When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” Psalm 73:21-22

The Lord Restores Relationships

Amazingly, the Lord is willing to forgive and restore this man. The Psalmist confesses his sins and regrets and when he looks up the Lord is smiling at him. He hasn’t lost the relationship!

“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” Psalm 73:23-24

Nothing has been lost in this detour down the dark path of resentment. The Lord stayed near and when the psalmist repented, all was well again. His heart is filled with gratitude and love for God.

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” Psalm 73:25-28

God thinks About Us

Most of the Psalms are about people talking to God in prayer, but God talks back in these passages, too. As David told us in Psalm 139, God has so many thoughts about people they can never be numbered. It’s no wonder that he speaks up and tell us what he thinks.

The Psalms inform us quite frankly that we are dust, no more substantial than a blade of grass withering in the hot sun. How can there be any value in a pile of dust?

Only God knows.

He touches that pile of dust, lovingly breathes on it and it takes on eternal life. It becomes a person whom God loves to think about and have a relationship with. You and I are dust-people, but God loves us, and puts his glorious image inside us – then we come to life as he breathes his life into us.