Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We open today with Psalm 50, which is a strong rebuke against people who

misunderstand God's heart. There were Israelites who viewed the sacrificial

system as a trade-off for sinning, like a penalty you pay and

then everything is fine again, like some kind of speeding ticket. But God says that's never

been what this is about. In verses 8 through 15 he basically says I don't want your

bulls and goats and birds I want your heart. For some of them this may have been

very confusing, like,

then why did you spend so much time telling us about the sacrifices?

They weren't paying attention.

And because of that lack of attention,

they missed the very details that would reveal God's heart to them.

Instead, they just viewed him as greedy, as though he needed food to eat like all the pagan gods.

Meanwhile, their hearts are far from him. They're doing wicked things, or proving of others who do wicked things,

or even just sitting by idly complicit when sin is committed.

God rebukes them for this.

He wants them to remember him. And one way to do that is to bring

him their gratitude and Thanksgiving. Psalm 53 is a lot like a

Psalm we've already covered, Psalm 14, so he won't spend too much time here, but I just want to point

out one thing. This chapter is about the fool, the person who dismisses God and does his own thing.

When that's how a person operates removed from the understanding of God's

sovereignty and goodness, it becomes easy to think you're in control of your own future.

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