Scripture Reading : Psalm 50
Theme : God is Judge
- God is Judge (1–6). God appears as a judge to those who say they have made Him as their king and savior. His appearance is described as fire and tempest in order to illustrate the fierceness of His righteous judgement against sin.
- God’s Charge against Formalism (7–15). Some people are worshipping God with lifeless formalism. They just go through the motions of ritualism and biblical knowledge and laws. God rebukes these people because their worship is not worthy of God, who is great and deserves to be worshipped with thanksgiving and joy. Also, God can truly be trusted in the day of trouble. If you don’t trust in God in the day of trouble, you are not worshipping Him, but something else that you think can deliver you.
- God’s Charge against Hypocrisy (16–23). There are some people who profess to worship God and read His Bible, but deep inside, they hate God’s righteous laws. They are evil doers who love thievery and adultery. They are lustful, greedy and unfaithfulness. Both the formalist and the hypocrite will be punished by God unless they repent.
Praying the Scripture
You must understand that God hates a evil hypocrite as much as a formalist, who worship God with lifeless routines even though they know a lot of Bible and theology (Rev. 2:4). One way to discern whether you are worshipping God with lifeless formalism is to see whether you are thankful and joyful in God. A life that lacks complete thankful and joy in God is a dead life. Pray to God for a change of heart to love Him because of His great gospel. Even for believers, you still need to constantly pray that God will renew your heart every day to worship Him with joy. We must worship God not only according to truth about God’s greatness, but also worship God with our spirit by responding to God’s greatness with thanksgiving and joy from our spirit/heart (John 4:23-24).
经文：诗篇50
主题：神是施行审判的
- 神是施行审判的（1-6）。神以审判者的身份出现在信靠祂为君王和救主的人面前。祂的出现被形容为火和暴风，是为了显示祂对罪的严厉审判。
- 神对外在形式的控告（7-15）。有些人以死气沉沉的外在形式来敬拜神。他们只不过是用仪式和圣经的知识和律法敷衍了事。神训责这些人因为他们的敬拜是不配神的。神是伟大的，是配得我们以感恩和喜乐来敬拜祂。此外，我们也可以在患难的日子里完全信靠神。如果你在患难的日子里不信靠神，你就不是在敬拜祂，而是信靠其他事物来拯救你。
- 神对假冒为善的控告（16-23）。有些人在外表上声称他们敬拜神又读圣经，但内心里却憎恶神公义的律法。他们是喜爱盗窃和奸淫的恶人。他们充满淫欲、贪婪和不忠。除非他们悔改，否则神将审判那些只在乎外在形式和假冒伪善的人。
用经文祷告
你要明白神憎恨假冒为善的恶人，也同样憎恨只用死气沉沉的形式来敬拜神的，纵然他们熟读圣经和神学（启2:4）。如果你要辨明自己是否也用死气沉沉的形式敬拜神，就要审查自己是否对神有感恩和喜乐的心。一个在神里完全没有感恩和喜乐之生命的是一个死了的生命。请求神给我们一颗新心来爱祂，因为祂的福音是伟大的。即使是信徒，我们还是需要时时刻刻地祷告，请求神每天更新我们的心，让我们以喜乐来敬拜祂。我们对神的敬拜不但要按照神伟大的真理，也要用心灵敬拜神，就是以发自内心的感恩和喜乐来回应神的伟大（约4:23-24）。
