Psalm 50:9,10 No Need

Psalm 50:9, 10 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalm 50 is the first of thirteen by Asaph. In it The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets (verse 1). Asaph describes God's coming in verses 2-6 then reveals how God speaks, first to his people Israel (7-15) calling on them to make sacrifices to him not becasue he needs them but because they need him, and secondly to the wicked (16-22) rebuking them for their sins. The final verse (23) sums up Asaph's main point - He who sacrifices thank-offerings honours me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God. The verses we highlight here, though very much in Old Testament language, remind us that the moment we think we are doing God a favour or giving to him in any absolute sense, then we have misunderstood. The fact is that God has no need of anything from us. There is nothing that we could possibly give him that has not already been given to us by him. One often thinks of younger children buying birthday presents for their parents in this context. First, the parent gives money to the child then the child uses that money to purchase a gift for the parent. The whole exercise seems a waste of time and effort to the cynic. In fact, as Asaph would recognise, there is something to it. The person who gives to God in the right attitude honours God and even, in one sense, prepares the way for God to show him salvation, for it is as we come to God, honouring him, that his grace is seen.