Expository Sermon on Psalm 50
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 5/117/2025
©2025 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep2xRFNi6U8&t=5139s
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 50.
If you’ve been joining me in our read-through-the-Bible plan this year, we’re nearing the halfway mark. This plan is a chronological one, which means we are still going through the Bible from one end to the other, but stories are carefully moved around sometimes to follow the flow of what seems to be their proper historical order. Psalms are inserted, and parallel passages in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are grouped together, and the same will be true with the gospel parallel stories.
Anyway, at the end of June we will be halfway through. I would encourage you to look in your bulletin and note the Bible readings listed there, and follow along with me this coming week, because I will again be preparing another sermon from one of those passages.
Actually, the Bible passages we’re reading through right now are some of the Bible’s most gripping reading. You have spy stories, action-adventure, murder, governmental coup attempts, grasping for power, adultery (plus an attempted adultery cover-up). But this week, one of the Psalms that was inserted by whoever arranged the reading plan caught my attention. This is Psalm 50, the one about judgment.
I happen to love most bumper stickers I see on the backs of cars. (However, I am actually a bumper sticker hypocrite, because even though I enjoy seeing them on the backs of other people’s cars, I have never stuck one on mine, and never plan to.)
Most of the time the bumper stickers I see are good-humored ones, often tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at the owner.
But this past Thursday at a stoplight, I came up behind a red Ford Escape car, which had bumper stickers on it. So I grabbed for my smart phone and snapped a couple of pictures.
Later, when I pulled up the photos, I got a really ugly feeling about them. Because these weren’t the usual joking stickers – a few of them were frankly blasphemous. A large red and yellow sticker said, “Satan loves me!” Just to the right of the license plate was a drawing of a goat-like demon with two horns and a long tongue. Around the goat’s head it said “Not today, Jesus.” Then there were some other stickers too ugly to mention in a sermon!
According to what Psalm 50 tells me, this bumper-sticker-applier (like all the rest of us) is going to be judged. And while Jesus insisted that we ourselves not try to judge people, the bottom line is that each one of us will be facing judgment.
The good news is that while Psalm 50 is a serious Psalm, it is also an encouraging one. Let’s go through it together for the next few minutes, and let me show you why I think it’s encouraging.
Studying through it, I’ve come up with four truths I need to remember about this judgment.
Psalm 50:1 – 3 [NKJV]: The Mighty One, God the LORD, Has spoken and called the earth From the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him.
If you like to take down sermon points, here comes Sermon Point One. What’s the first thing God wants me to remember here in Psalm 50?
I must remember that God is arriving in person.
And that is hugely important. Every since the garden of Eden, God has not arrived in all His glory. Jesus the Son of God revealed some of God’s glory as He walked through Palestine. But except for what happened on top of the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus looked like just another ordinary Jewish man. The only reason He attracted attention was because of what He said and did.
But of course, this isn’t the only place in the Bible where it talks about God’s judgment being dramatic. The last part of the Revelation chapter 20 mentions the Great White Throne judgment, when the both the earth and the heavens will actually flee away at the presence of God.
And Revelation 6:15 -17 describes what will happen when the Son of God returns in the clouds: “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
This past Wednesday was Shelley’s and my wedding anniversary, that always brings to mind the day we first met, July 17 of that previous year. We had written to each other, talked on the phone, exchanged photographs, but on July 17, 1977, we would be meeting in person.
So before I left for the airport, I took all of Shelley’s letters and laid them out side-by-side in the little trailer house I was living in. Because those letters – maybe 50,000 words or more – were the way we got to know each other.
And I think that as we look forward to meeting Jesus, and then our Heavenly Father, in person, we need to spread His Word out before us every day. Because that’s the only way we know who He really is. We can’t learn about him from snarky bumper stickers, or even from well-meaning but incompletely-informed religious teachers. We need to read what He really says about Himself. Because it won’t be long, and He will be here in person.
What’s something else Psalm 50 tells us to remember about God’s judgment? Let’s take a look.
Look at verse 4:
Verse 4: He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people:
And now verse 6:
Verse 6: Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge.
Here comes Sermon Point Two. What else does this Psalm tell us about God’s judgement?
Here in Psalm 50, we’ve learned that God is arriving in person. And not only that, but God is judge of all.
Isn’t that interesting? A lot of times we seem to think that the judgment is mainly for human beings. But here, in these two verses, God is calling to the heavens to declare His righteousness. Why would that be?
Well, if you know the Bible, you know that evil didn’t begin on earth, but in heaven. Lucifer the glorious, talented angel spread doubts among the other angels about God’s fairness. As a result, God’s name has always needed vindication. In first Corinthians 4:9, Paul insists that he and the other apostles were “made a spectacle” to men and to angels. “Spectacle” is the Greek word theatron, which is where we get the word “theater.” Angels in the theater audience have been looking on as the gospel went forward. And in 2 Corinthians 11:14, Paul says that Satan is still able to change himself into an angel of light, and is still his deceptive self.
I just checked in this week on where the two Voyager spacecraft are. As you probably know, for many years they have been sailing out into space, and surprisingly both are still able to send back radio signals. Voyager 1 is 15 billion miles out, far beyond the last planet’s orbit in our solar system. Voyager to is 12 billion miles out, also out beyond the farthest planet.
But wherever the two Voyagers end up, God is the judge there. And that is good. Because He judges righteously. And because of how He has dealt with our planet in rebellion, the entire universe will finally declare that God is good.
Have you ever heard of the “ABG Fallacy”? Actually, you probably can’t look it up on Google that way, because I think I came up with the “ABG” part of it. But the ABG fallacy is not a new one.
What do I mean by “ABG”? ABG stands for Anything But God. A lot of people let themselves be handcuffed by this fallacy, maybe even the driver of the red Ford with all the bumper stickers.
How does the “Anything But God” fallacy work? Well, I talk about that fallacy on today’s Daily Photo Parable on our church website. A couple of days ago I was taking my morning walk, which I always take after breakfast, and I walked under a very handsome maple tree about three blocks away from where we live. Shelley and I call it the “glory tree,” mainly because how it looks in autumn when its leaves start turning gold.
Anyway, a couple of days ago I came past that tree, and I noticed on the sidewalk that a leaf had fallen from it, and near the leaf were hundreds and hundreds of those maple seedpods which look like little boomerangs.
So I got out my smart phone and snapped the picture of that leaf and the little boomerang seed pod, and you can see it if you go to BellevueAdventist.org and click on the Daily Photo Parable link.
I don’t know what the driver of the red Ford would say if he or she – and I think it was a she – could look at that photo. But I think that our conclusions would be quite different. Because it’s possible that this Ford owner has succumbed to some form of the ABG fallacy.
What do I mean by that? I look at that leaf, and I look at that little boomerang -shaped seed pod, and I look at that wonderfully symmetrical maple tree which hovered benignly above me as I took the picture, and I say that these are wonderful works of a Divine Creator.
I don’t know what the Ford driver would say, but I do know that a lot of people choose to look at the world and say “anything but God” created this. Macro evolution over millions and millions of years? A fertile soup of chemicals struck by lightning? Years ago I read of a scientist who had decided that aliens had arrived on this planet and created life here.
“Anything But God.” I was horrified when I first discovered that this actually has been an under-the-radar scientific approach, stated out loud among unbelieving scientists who feel threatened by the idea that there might be a divine Creator. To them, God cannot be considered as an origins option. Somehow He doesn’t seem to be scientific. And if He did exist, there just might be the chance that He wants to have some input on how we live the lives He has given us.
Satan of course doesn’t want people to focus on God. He’s probably delighted with the Anything But God fallacy. But even if people do include God in their thinking, Satan wants them to believe the wrong things about God. Back in Genesis chapter 3, Satan’s first words to Eve tried to convince her that God was selfish, God was a liar, and God was withholding wisdom from His human family.
Because Satan doesn’t want you and me to know about how we can face God’s judgment with calmness encourage. But Psalm 50 tells us how to do this. Let’s start with verse 4 again.
Verses 4 – 5: He shall call to the heavens from above, And 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.”
Sacrifice? Does that still apply to us? Should we still be offering animal sacrifices on little altars in our backyard? In the little courtyard between the church office and the two-story wing, out through that set of double doors, is a large rock. Should we offer weekly sacrifices on that rock?
Of course not. But then why does God want to gather His saints who have made a covenant with sacrifice?
Well in just a few verses, God is going to insist that He does not have the need for bulls and goats and other kinds of sacrifices which He had earlier required.
But there is a sacrifice that applies to anybody down through history, and that is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world.
You might know the verses as well as I do. In Matthew 1:21, an angel told Joseph to name his stepson Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins.” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” In John 1:29 John the Baptist sees Jesus approaching, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
And in Revelation 1:4 – 6, the disciple John introduces his letter to the seven churches by saying, “John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
So it is Jesus’ sacrifice we must take part in. In fact, that is Sermon Point Three. What else does this Psalm tell us about God’s judgement?
Here in Psalm 50, we’ve learned that God is arriving in person, and that God is judge of all. And now we’ve learned that we need to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
How do we do that?
1 John 1:8 – 9: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So that’s how to take part in Jesus’ sacrifice. And now that we know that, we can keep moving through Psalm 50.
Psalm 50:7 – 13: “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God! I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, Which are continually before Me. I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?”
The answer, of course, is “Of course not.” So what does God want from us? Look at verse 14:
Verses 14 – 15: Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Let’s bundle these two verses into the final sermon point about the judgment:
Here in Psalm 50, we’ve learned that God is arriving in person, and that God is judge of all. We’ve learned that we need to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for us. And now we’ve learned that we need to welcome Him into our lives.
It’s really as simple as that.
First of all, give God thanks. From all I can tell, that is something that the driver of the Ford is not able to conscientiously do, for God. When you give someone full-hearted thanks, you let them know how generously they have blessed you.
And of course the main reason we give thanks to God is for His Son Jesus, who came to so unselfishly rescue us from ourselves.
If you go down to the WINCO foods store in Kent, as you are putting food in your bags after shopping, you can glance up and see a large orange sign hanging from the ceiling. That sign says “No One Saves You More in Kent.”
Of course, I know what they’re getting at. But that sign is not quite accurate. There is One (with a capital “O”) who does save you more in Kent, and in Bellevue, and up in Everett, Monroe, Bothell, Issaquah, Renton, Seattle. And Jesus deserves our highest gratitude for being out Savior.
“Offer to God thanksgiving,” the psalm says, “And pay your vows to the Most High.” In other words, take God into partnership with you. Let Him help you with what you need to do. Ask Him for guidance, and remember to keep up your part of the bargain.
And finally, verse 15 says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” There is a specific promise we can claim, too. Trouble lies ahead of us this coming week, or at some point in the year ahead. But we can memorize verse 15, and follow through on it. Notice the last part says “You shall glorify Me.”
That’s important, of course. If you can consistently behave as though God is your ever present help in trouble, maybe the driver of the Ford will see you as time goes along, or maybe she will see somebody else who is as confident in God as you are, and maybe she will peel those bumper stickers off, the way people try to get tattoos removed which they no longer believe in.