What Cain and Abel teach about worship as a matter of taste, Part 4 - Pivot to Psalm 50

January 14, 2022

(I've had us look at Abel, Cain and how God viewed their worship. The next two posts will Pivot to Psalm 50 as an application.)

Psalm 50 is instructive. I encourage you to read it.

God judges his people and rebukes them.

Why? What have they done? How are they displeasing to God?

They continually bring costly worship before God.

How? In what way?

In the form of sacrifices, burnt offerings, recitation of texts and confession of covenant. They follow the prescribed forms of sacrificial worship “to the ‘T’”.

But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
²¹These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Psalm 50.16-21

In Psalm 50, the forms of worship to God are not the problem.

Offering sacrifices to God, is not a problem.
Making a vow to God is not a problem.
Public recitation of God’s statutes or public confession of God’s covenant is not a problem.

Only a stunted understanding of worship blames the forms of worship for the failure of worship. “The wicked” know the forms of worship all too well.

They are latter-day Cains.

(I’ll explain ‘why’ in the next post in this series.)