In Psalm 50 we see a sad, but perhaps not all-too-unfamiliar image of God’s people: though they profess their belief in God, they are disobedient and are lacking in true thanksgiving to God.

Psalm 50:16-21 makes this explicit. Here we see Israelites who are outright disobeying God. They call themselves believers in God, but their lives are antithetical to God’s ways. Thus, in God’s eyes, they are wicked.

Not Walking the Walk

Listen to God’s assessment of them: God is angry with these so-called believers because they talk about God’s word but they do not live it out. They can talk the talk, but they do not walk the walk. On the holy days, these Israelites are at the temple, but the rest of the week they are taking part in sinful, self-centered pursuits. They are engaging in unjust practices. They even speak evil, slanderous things against people of their own family. Do you see the problem? They profess the name of the LORD God with their lips, but they deny Him by their actions.

Does the same happen today? Absolutely.

Professing Christians are good at bearing the name of Christ, while not truly following Jesus. We know of Christians like this. Perhaps, you are one of them. We profess our submission to God but are quick to greed, are addicted to pornography, and are swift to slander, reject and even oppress others. Just as with these professing believers under the Old Covenant, God is not pleased with Christians who are Christians in name only.

Judgment is Coming

Do you see God’s judgment in verses 21 and 22? God’s patience has run out with these Israelites and now He is going to judge them. They thought that because God had been silent so far that somehow He approved their behavior. But God won’t have any more of their idolatry.

Now, notice the heart of the issue in verse 23a. The issue, again, is thanksgiving. In God’s eyes, it always comes back to thanksgiving. Here’s why. For these Israelites who disobeyed God, their understanding of God was wrong. They did not realize how much they are dependent on God. They failed to see how God is the Giver of all things. They failed to see how God sustains their every breath, and because they failed in these areas, they did not give God thanks.

The result? Judgment is coming their way, and the same is true today.

A Fundamental Lack of Thanksgiving

The fundamental problem of humanity is their lack of thanksgiving. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1. While discussing unbelievers, Paul offers the root problem of idolatry in Romans 1:20-21: “Unbelieving Gentiles experienced God’s wrath because they ‘neither glorified Him…nor gave thanks to Him.” And here is what a lack of thanksgiving equates to: To not give thanks is to insist on one’s self-sufficiency.

You don’t thank someone for something you did. So, when humans do not thank God for His daily blessings, humans are essentially telling God, “God, I don’t need to thank You because I’m here by my own power.” Do you see the problem with that? In biblical terms, to insist on one’s self-sufficiency is an idolatrous act. To give thanks, by contrast, is to acknowledge one’s dependence on the Creator and thus to transfer the center of one’s concern to God. May this be the posture of our heart today and always.

To give thanks is to acknowledge one’s dependence on the Creator and thus to transfer the center of one’s concern to God. May this be the posture of our heart today and always. Click To Tweet