It’s Not About The Money

“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.” Psalm 50:10-11.

That passage and many others in the Bible remind us that God owns everything and we’re only stewards of what He gives us and that only for a time, but is there a deeper meaning in these verses?

To be sure, the message that God owns everything— and we don’t— is something we need to hear over and over again. That’s probably why the Bible repeats this teaching several times.

• Job needed reminding. Job 38:1-5 reads, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know!’”
• Psalm 24:1-2 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
• Colossians 1:16 reads, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

This is a message that we need to hear all the time. It frees us from getting too attached to our money and possessions, because they’re not our money and possessions— they belong to God.

You may have heard the story about the believer who really took this to heart. He’d saved and saved to buy a new car, but soon after taking possession, he got into a fender bender. He was not upset, however. He just shrugged it off and thought, “I wonder why God wanted His car to get into an accident?”

Having that attitude is easier to do if you think of yourself only as a steward and not an owner. That covers stewardship, but what about a possible deeper meaning in those verses?

For that, we need to consider the larger passage** of Psalm 50:10-15:

“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. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

The psalmist is really warning Israel that they’ve become legalistic with their sacrifices. They had come to put value on the actual sacrifices, and by extension, themselves.

God already owns the beasts of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills— indeed all the cattle on all the hills. He owns all creatures wild and tamed, the fowls in the mountains and beasts of the fields.

That said, how could He possibly be impressed with the burnt offerings of the Israelites? They were just giving him back a tiny bit of what He already owned— and then patting themselves on the back for it.

Nonetheless, God did require Israel to make those sacrifices to temporarily cover sin, but also something else. Note verse 14 again, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High.”

This gives us the context we need to put things in perspective. That verse and others like it are really about giving and the attitude of our hearts. They’re not about legalism and checking boxes.

Galatians 2:16 reads, “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

When we give purely out of gratitude, expecting nothing, taking no pride in it, and certainly not to earn our way into heaven, only then are we giving Him the loyalty of our hearts.

God is a spiritual being. What use does He have for earthly things? None, of course. He wants our hearts. He wants us to worship him in spirit and truth.

Our tithing and gifts must only be tributes of our gratitude for what He has already given us, not just material things, but the priceless gift of His Son Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation.

We must search our hearts to make sure we give for the right reason because He is the God most High. He sees right through us and takes no pleasure in giving that isn’t joyful and done out of gratitude.

2 Corinthians 9:7 teaches, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

You can also listen to the related podcast on this topic.