Call Upon Me

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

August 24, 2025

Psalm 50:1-15

 “Summer in the Psalms: Call Upon Me”

When everything starts to unravel and fall apart in life, who is your go-to person? Who can you reach out to anytime, day or night? Who is that individual who has your back, no matter what? We all need someone like this in each of our lives. If no one immediately comes to mind, that probably means you don’t have such a person in your life. This is something each one of us can and should have at the ready now, so that when the day of trouble does come upon us, we have that support person, or even better, support team, in place. The closing verse of today’s psalm speaks of this, and not just about any individual, but the Lord himself, who says to each one of us: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). Our summer preaching series, “Summer in the Psalms,” continues today as we look at Psalm 50:1-5, under the theme, “Call Upon Me.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Psalm 50, together with the appointed Scripture lessons for this day, all speak of the coming judgment of God. Listen to what some of these verses say about this:

•  From Psalm 50, we read: “Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people” (Psalm 50:3-4).
• From the Old Testament lesson (Isaiah 66:18-23): “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory” (Isaiah 66:18).
• From the Epistle lesson (Hebrews 12:4-24): “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).
• From the Gospel lesson (Luke 13:22-30): “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:28-30).

In truth, we’d rather not think about this coming judgment. We try to downplay it; avoid it altogether, if we can. But it is there in the Scriptures. It is there in the promise made through the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament. It is there in the New Testament in Christ Jesus who came to fulfill all that is written in the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17); who took upon himself God’s righteous judgment against our own sin.

Psalm 50 begins with descriptive praise of God’s almighty power, but then it becomes words that God himself speaks. God reminds his people that he is the Maker and Owner of all creation: “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine” (Psalm 50:10-12). The idea that we own the earth and its resources is a lie. It is a lie that we are all too ready to believe, which inevitably leads to exploitation of God’s good creation for our own short-sighted and selfish purposes. The truth is that we are but stewards of what belongs to the Lord. Everything we are and have is on loan to us for a time. Whether that time is short or long, the Lord calls us to manage wisely and faithfully what he has placed into our hands, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit and blessing of others, including the next generation. When God’s righteous judgment does come – and it will come – how will we answer the Lord God about how we have managed his gifts?

In spite of our unfaithfulness, God is faithful. On that day of judgment, when heaven and earth will pass away, it is the sprinkled blood of Jesus that is our only hope (Hebrews 12:24). That sprinkled blood calls to mind the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies within the temple of Jerusalem. That sprinkled blood points us to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). God’s righteous judgment against our sin, our unfaithfulness, our imperfections, the evil we have done and the good we have failed to do – it has all fallen upon Jesus, who willingly took that judgment upon himself. It is all covered by the cleansing blood of Jesus. The good news is that judgment day for our sin has already taken place. That happened on a hillside outside of Jerusalem on a Friday long ago. And so we have confidence on that coming day of judgment when Christ will be revealed in glory and power. He is coming as our Judge and our Savior. He is coming to make public proclamation that we are his own precious possession, purchased with his own blood.

When everything starts to unravel and fall apart in life, who do you go to? Who can you reach out to anytime, day or night? Who has your back, no matter what? Not as a last resort, but as first response, hear again the Lord’s invitation: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). Let it be so with us for Jesus’ sake. Amen.