Plain Instruction in Practical Holiness

Plain Instruction in Practical Holiness

Offer to God thanksgiving,  And pay your vows to the Most High.  

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you,

and you shall glorify Me.

Psalm 50:14 & 15

Asaph must have been a choice servant of God.  Out of what Asaph has written we are able to derive so much that has great theological depth, devotional warmth, and practical wisdom.  The 50th Psalm is but one example of Asaph’s spirituality.  The first passage of the Psalm sounds the theological truths of God’s sovereignty, transcendence, and immanence.  Within the verses that follow the opening passage we find a devotional call to those who are God’s people and a practical exhortation as to how their behavior is fitting to the Almighty God who owns “the cattle upon a thousand hills.”  It is with that practical exhortation that I want us to occupy ourselves for a while today.

Here God gives, through the pen of Asaph, very practical instructions for our daily maintenance of a holy life.  In fact, he records by quotation the very words of God Himself.  He begins with the matter of our praise.  Gratitude glorifies God.  We find that very idea clearly set forth in the last verse of this very Psalm.  Gratitude also gives us glowing hearts.  When we cease to praise and thank the Lord for all He is and all He does, we grow quickly cold.  How much of our time is devoted to praise and thanksgiving?

Asaph also takes up the matter of the payment of our vows.  The emphasis here is not a ceremonial sacrifice or burnt offering, but instead the devotion of a heart that has been changed and soul that now gazes on the Most High.  In the broadest sense, by our coming to Christ, we have essentially vowed to follow the Lord wherever He leads and to obey His instruction, whatever that is.  Asaph reminds us to “pay (our) vows unto the Most High.”  Paul clarifies this vow as our reasonable service to present our lives as ‘living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.’  This cannot be accomplished apart from Christ.  When Christ’s mercies have been applied so tenderly to our hearts, our only true and right response is one that pours out thanksgiving and a life that reflects our Holy God.

Are we keeping our accounts current with God?  Are we daily paying what we have vowed?  Asaph reminds us of the importance of our prayer life.  Especially when we are in any trouble, the God-inspired exhortation is for us to “call upon Me.”  We tend to call on others or perhaps to fold up under pressure; whereas, God exhorts us to quickly ascend to the Throne of Grace “to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Asaph closes this hortatory passage by reminding us that God will fulfill His promises to us.

Jehovah declares, “I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify Me.”  We are not operating in the vain hope that something will happen.  Our faith rests upon the word of our unchanging, unfailing God.  We are trusting Him to fulfill His promises.  Let us today take heed to these most practical words of exhortation to live genuinely holy lives.

Our Master and Our God,

we praise Thee for all Thy mercies.

Give us grace to obey thee fully.

Hear us when we call.

Fulfill Thy word to us

who hope in Thee.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice