When It Comes To Treasure, God Is The Owner, We Are The Managers...

This week, we are addressing a tension and frustration that can arise when it comes to money, finances, and treasure. Where we get off track, frustrated, and in trouble when it comes to finances is when we try to fulfill roles and responsibilities that belong to God, or ignore or fail to fulfill responsibilities that belong to us.  So, in Psalm 50, we are looking at what roles and responsibilities are God’s and what responsibilities are ours when it comes to money and finances.

Yesterday, we saw a man named Asaph, who was being used by God to confront the Jewish people for selfishness and rebellion that was arising in their lives, explain that the Jewish people did not need to be corrected because they were failing to show up for church. The Jewish people did not need to be set straight when it came to their worship activity for God. Then, if that was the case, what was the problem? Asaph reveals the problem for us in verse 9:

"I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds.”For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. "I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

In other words, God is explaining to the Jewish people “My issue with you is not your acts of worship. My issue with you is the motivation that is driving your worship. You are not offering your sacrifices and offerings to Me because you recognize that your selfishness and rebellion requires a sacrifice that atones or provides a covering for your sin and rebellion. You are not offering your offerings out of thanksgiving to Me because of who I am and what I have done in your life. Instead you are offering these acts of worship because you think that I am needy and dependant on you to provide something for Me. But, here’s the deal. I do not need to take any of your animals for my sake, because I own everything. You do not need to give Me anything, because I am the One who has given you everything you have”.

You see, what the Jewish people were guilty of was thinking that God was dependent upon them.  The Jewish people were offering worship to God as though He needed animals to be provided for Him and they were afraid that they would experience God’s judgment if they did not provide for Him. The Jewish people failed to recognize that the purpose of these acts of worship was to fulfill their responsibility that flowed from their selfishness and rebellion against God. The Jewish people made a fundamental mistake that we can make today, which is that they Jewish people thought that they were the owners and that they needed to fulfill the responsibility provide for God in order to meet His needs. And God wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that they needed to be set straight. The Jewish people needed to have a correction in their perception when it came to their role and responsibilities. God then proceeds to set them straight in and correct their misperception in verse 12:

"If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats?

In verse 12-13, we see God, through the Psalmist, set the Jewish people straight when it came to their roles and responsibilities through a statement and a rhetorical question. First, God makes a bold and blunt statement: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, For the world is mine and all it contains”. In other words, God is saying, if I was hungry, I would not need to tell you so that you could go down to the store to buy Me some food to eat. I am not dependant on you to provide for Me, because I own it all. If I was hungry, I am quite capable of providing for Myself.”

 God then asks the Jewish people a rhetorical question designed to reveal the ridiculous nature of the motivation that was driving their worship of God. "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats?” In other words, God is saying, “Do you even know who I am? I am a Spiritual Being; I do not eat food and I do not need to eat food in order to survive. I have existed for all eternity, before the universe even existed and I was able to survive without you”. You see, God wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that He owned everything. God was not dependant on the Jewish people and their acts of worship in order to survive. Instead, the Jewish people needed to come back to the reality that they were totally dependent on God for their survival. The Psalmist then closes this section of this psalm of worship by revealing the motivation that should be driving their acts of worship in verses 14-15:

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."

To understand what Asaph is communicating here, we first need to define some terms. When Asaph refers to sacrifice of thanksgiving, this phrase, in the language that this letter was written in, refers to thanksgiving in the form of praise. When Asaph refers to vows, he is referring to an oath or a promise that one makes to another. So when Asaph calls the Jewish people to pay your vows to the Most High, he is calling the Jewish people to keep the promises that they had made to God. The psalmist is saying “what God wants from you when it comes to worship is that you offer up praise and thanksgiving to Him as your provider, your protector, your rescuer, and your deliverer. What God wants from you when it comes to worship is that you are faithful to follow God’s word and keep the promises and commitments that you make to Him. God wants you to recognize that He is the all powerful and self sufficient owner and provider of everything that you have.”

You see, the Jewish people failed to recognize that they were to worship out of a response of their desperate need for Him and to bring Him glory as the owner of everything. The Jewish people failed to recognize that their worship should be a response of thankfulness for His activity in their lives. And it is in this Psalm that we are able to discover a timeless truth that provides clarity about our role and responsibilities when it comes to money, possessions, and treasure. And that timeless truth is this: When it comes to treasure, God is the owner and we are the manager.

The timeless reality is that we never really own anything. We only manage God’s money, possessions, and treasure for a period of time. We are only on earth for a finite period of time and, when our time on earth is over, all of the money, possessions and treasure that we accumulate while on earth stays here. But what can tend to happen when it comes to our role and God’s role in money, possessions, and treasure, is that we can find ourselves falling into some faulty theology. Throughout history, when it comes to theology, which simply means the study of the nature and character of God, human beings have tended to fall into one of two extreme and faulty views of how God and money relate and interact with humanity.

Tomorrow, we will look at the first of two faulty theologies when it comes to God and money...