Psalm 50:5 “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

Psalm 50:16-17 …“What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.”

There are two different people described here. They are both people in the church. There are the faithful ones. There are the ones who have God’s words on their lips, but aren’t living them out.

The faithful ones have a covenant promise they live in with God, sealed by sacrifice. That’s not just the blood of Jesus, that’s a daily taking up their cross and crucifying self to live as Christ in the world, be His voice, His hands, His feet.

The others don’t set God’s word before them. They don’t want to be corrected when they turn to the world. Yet they want to be accepted on Sundays when they have God’s name on their lips.

Psalm 50:23 “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Only one is shown the salvation of God. It’s the one with a heart full of gratitude because he understands the mercy and grace offered him, not as a means to excuse sin and worldliness, but as a way to live rightly and glorify God.