Singing Psalm 50 you learn who decides where you fit
To learn where you fit, you learn that it is God who gives you what you need to fit where he has placed you. Consider that he gives you each breath providing every good thing you need for each day that you need them.
He not only offers all of this but offers hope beyond the grave as he restores you who follow Jesus through death to live in a body that will last forever.
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’” ~ 1 Corinthians 15:54
It helps to rank the order of beings right and to know your place in this order: the triune God first, then angels, next humans who are all created in God’s image, and last animals.
It is the Lord who validates so you know where you fit. He overrides if others are invalidating so that you get to give and receive as he determines.
Singing Psalm 50, you get a glimpse of who God is and come to a crossroads to assess your motives in sacrifices.
You see the distinction between two kinds of sacrificing. One is an attempt to appease, bribe, or buy out God (as if he needed anything from his creation). “I’ll keep commands I’d rather not for you, God, and then you keep your end of the bargain by giving me whatever I want.”
A different sort of sacrificing is one that engages the heart in thanksgiving, responds to his welcome, depends on him who is unseen, and makes a practice of dealing justly with others even when it hurts.
The Lord is not only interested in your outward actions but also in your inward motives. Both are visible to him in his relationship school where each of his people learn how to collectively be his bride, his church.
What makes a person get the sense that they belong in a church? Is it the welcoming ways of the current members? Or is it the Lord who makes a place for each one of his little lambs? How do you know where you fit?
What if one who needs to feel welcomed is the one who helps bring welcoming ways to an unwelcoming group? What if God sends that one little lamb to teach that group how to welcome others into his flock?
Singing Psalm 50 you find what blocks the way to where you fit
What is blocking your way to where you fit?
Closing Matthew 13, you learn that the crowd was offended by Jesus because they thought they knew where Jesus was from and who he was related to. Based on these two pieces of information, they came to the conclusion that he was no one special and begrudged him the attention he was getting.
In John 6, you see the crowd was again offended by Jesus because they didn’t want to depend upon him to the extent that he said they needed him, even to the point of consuming him.
John the Baptist was questioning what was happening to him because it did not line up with what he came to expect, namely, that blessing follows obedience and cursing follows disobedience.
Zechariah questioned God’s ability to do what he said he would do with his life and the life of his wife, Elizabeth.
Jonah rejected God’s commission to save Nineveh and went as far from it as he could to Tarshish where he thought he fit until God appointed a large fish to transport him to where God said he fit.
Job blessed God at first in his afflictions, but like John the Baptist, was questioning that bit about bad things happening to upright people.
Look at ways you might be offended by one or more persons of the one triune God. In what ways has God crossed your will? Can you happily say, “Thy will be done.”?
Singing Psalm 50 will help you grapple with whether or not you realize that it is always far better than, “My will be done.”
“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” ~ Matthew 11:6
The centurion and the bleeding woman were not offended by Jesus as evidenced in their trusting him at his word.
The Syrophoenician woman was not offended by Jesus as she didn’t miss a beat in aligning her request with his purpose and character.
Mary, as opposed to her sister, Martha, who questioned Jesus about her larger chore load, was not offended by Jesus as she sat at his feet to learn from him.
Abraham, called the father of faith because he was not offended by God but rather, trusted the Lord that he would receive Isaac back from the dead as he all but sacrificed him at God’s command until God stopped him.
You get the point. Now how can you not be offended by, but instead trust the one who determines where you fit? You come to learn in your dealings with him over time and as you take in the stories of others who have had dealings with him over time that he is worthy of your complete trust.
You are learning that God is not like you. He is love. You can’t be ‘love’ unless you are more than one person. Love goes beyond self. He is triune.
It is right for each person of the godhead to love and desire that others praise the other two persons. There is no competition or jealousy among the three persons of the one God.
Our neighbor thanked me for our support to her and her husband who has recently been ill. Because I love my husband, I delighted to hear from my neighbor next door that my husband had mowed their lawn. He never mentioned it to me, but as my neighbor gave me words of thanks and praise for what my husband did, I beamed inside and out because I love him and I love that he did well.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son and delights in inspiring the written record of the splendor of their actions in the Word of God. He wants them to be glorified by the praises that come from our lips as we learn of these marvelous works that come from a unified heart of love. He knows that we were made to sing his praises, and our lives actually run on doing so.
You were made in his image and were created to love him and to love your neighbors, not to compete or to be jealous of them. You want to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. You want to be there to support them and cheer them on.
You want to be happy when they succeed. You don’t want to compare yourself with them or play one-upmanship with them. When you act contrary to these ways, you sense that you are going against who you were created to be. For this reason, his focus in his word is primarily on rescuing his people.
Singing Psalm 50 helps you balance things by putting your mind in order. You learn where you fit as you give him the deference that he is due as the owner of all the world and its contents.
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” ~ Matthew 10:28
“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” ~ Ezekiel 33:11
Singing Psalm 50 gives you a loving warning so that this condemnation does not happen to you. The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of anyone and desires that all would repent and be saved instead.
God sets the rules for your good. If you forget God, hate his discipline, and reject his words, nothing and no one else can save you from his judgment.
Yet he wants a relationship with you (Psalm 8). He wants to make his home with you (John 14 and 17). Since he made you, and you did not make yourself (Psalm 100), he gets to decide how things are to go with you.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” ~ 1 John 4:18-19
If you love him, you know that he loved you first before the beginning of time when he foreknew you. You can trust that he has fixed it so that it will ultimately go well for you.
Because he is who he is, he is able and willing to rescue you. He is in the preeminent place. Once he is there in your mind’s eye as he is in reality, you will know where you fit. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Singing Psalm 50 you know where you fit like an angel
“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” ~ Hebrews 2:9-11
Extrapolate it out. Order your thinking and your emotions will follow suit. You were made a little lower than the angels. What are the angels doing?
“Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!’” ~ Isaiah 6:2-3
You will be like the angels in the new heavens and the new earth in your imperishable, immortal, pure body and soul.
“But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” ~ Matthew 22:29-30
Why not do what they’re doing? Why not start now? Ask the Lord of glory to open your eyes to what a delightful prospect it is to get to worship the creator of all things. It is anything but boring to learn to be humble, to be sober, and to wait on the Lord, venerating and serving him wholeheartedly.
It is fitting to worship the Lord of hosts. Where you fit is on your face before the triune God, the continual posture of a pure heart. Singing Psalm 50 is a way of working through whatever reservations you might have about doing that.
The psalms help you regulate your emotions as they help you connect emotionally with God who is not only king of kings but also your best friend. With him, you know where you fit in every aspect of life. He provides the identity and safety you need in a relationship with him that supersedes all others.
You matter to him. He values you.
He chose to restore a people to himself gifting them with repentance rather than starting over from scratch. There is value to his restoring you rather than ending you and starting fresh with someone else.
He matters to you. You value him.
His is the foundation that sets the stage for all other relationships and satisfies you even when that stage is bare. He condescends himself to walk with you. Walking humbly with the triune God like the angels do, you will learn where you fit. You will know where you fit – where you belong – and that you have all you will ever need.
“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!” ~ Psalm 50:23
July 28 – August 5, 2022
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