Psalm 50:3-6 - June 2, 2009

Ps 50:3-6 "Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him and around him a tempest rages. 4 He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: 5 "Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." 6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge." NIV

Though too often God’s people are silent in the face of injustice our God will not remain silent! Ps. 50:3-6 is the sounding of an alarm. It is the announcing of God’s justice. It is the warning of his coming. In Psalm 119:84 a cry is raised before God as an appeal for justice: “How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors?” This cry is an intercession for the release of God’s coming. In every situation there is an appointed time of God’s coming. That moment in time when the bowls of prayer in the heavenly realm reach the tipping point and God arises to stand on behalf of the cries of his people to deliver those who call out to him in their time of need. But there is an even greater cry arising! There is a sound rising from underneath the altar of God, a cry from the blood of the martyrs that is arising into the heavenly realms and this cry demands justice. This cry is recorded in Rev 6:9-11 as a vision of John the beloved and he states, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’”
Throughout the pages of scripture the Lord reminds us over and over again that he hears and answers the prayers of the upright. He has promised us very specifically in Ps 4:3 “Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.” If this is indeed the promise of God, that He will hear and answer prayer then we can be assured that if He has recorded a prayer from the hearts of the martyrs we can know that the answer is assured. There will be a time of justice. There will be a day when the Lord comes to avenge the blood of His saints that has been shed because of their testimony. There will come a day when all men stand before Him and are held accountable for their deeds in this life.
God is coming and will not stay silent. Those events in our lives that in our pain we feel have gone by us with no answer from the Lord will have a day of reckoning. Those injustices that have touched us will all have a day of vindication and Psalm 50:3-6 is a reminder of that coming day. It is a reminder to live in the light of God’s eternal justice. Too many people live casually throughout their days, never reflecting on the fact that there will be a time when both the natural and spiritual consequences of their deeds will catch up to them, a day when they will present their case before the living God and He will ask an account of them. Ps. 50:3-6 is a call from God to come into His presence and to live in the light of His eternal justice with a holy fear guarding our hearts from presumptuous actions. Draw near to God today and let Him renew your conscience so that each decision is made in the light of eternal reward and consequences!