Psalm 50

Psalm 50:1-23 English Standard Version

Psalm 50:title

1. A Psalm

2. of Asaph.

a. Psalm 50 is a psalm of Asaph. He was among those whom David placed over the service of song at the house of Yahweh after the ark was brought into Jerusalem (1 Chr 6:31, 39; 15:16–17). In 1 Chr 16:5 Asaph is referred to as the chief of these ministers (cf. 1 Chr 25:2). In 2 Chr 29:30 Hezekiah ordered the Levites and singers of his day “to praise Yahweh with the words of David and of Asaph the seer.” Here the author of Chronicles seems to present Hezekiah interpreting the psalm superscriptions as indicating authorship of the psalms. Psalms 50 and 73–83 have “Of Asaph” in their superscriptions, and 2 Chr 29:30 appears to interpret this to mean that these psalms constitute “the words of … Asaph.”[1]

b. The other Asaph psalms are Pss. 73–83; perhaps this psalm in isolation from those was given a link with Asaph because of his being a seer. It is the kind of prophecy he might have uttered, and he is the kind of person who might have uttered such a prophecy.[2]

The individual psalmist’s woe in Pss 42 and 43 was shared by the believing community in Ps 44, but then the king came in Ps 45 and established his city in 46. All peoples were summoned to celebrate the great king in Ps 47, then the glory of God in the city was extolled in 48. The wealth of the nations was exposed as a false hope of redemption in Ps 49, and now in Ps 50 Yahweh comes forth for judgment.[3]

Because of its references in vv. 5 and 16 to the covenant (berîṯ)and because of the alternation of voices within the psalm between first plural and first singular, many understand it as a liturgy that was used as part of a covenant renewal ceremony in ancient Israel, perhaps during the Feast of Tabernacles.[4]

Introduction – Court is in Session (Psalm 50:1-6)

Psalm 50:1

1. The Mighty One, God the Lord,

a. The Mighty One – el

b. God – Elohim

c. Lord - YHWH

d. The appellation God, God the Lord employs three names for God—ʾēl, the traditional name for the Canaanite high god; ʾelōhîm, a common name for God in the Hebrew Bible; and YHWH, the personal name for the God of the Israelites.11The phrase could also be translated, “God of gods, the Lord,” emphasizing YHWHas God over all.[5]

2. speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Psalm 50:2-3

1. (v.2) Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

a. Psalm 48:2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.

b. Lamentations 2:15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

2. God shines forth.

a. “Shining forth” is what Yhwh does when coming to act, not coming to speak (e.g., 80:1–2 [2–3]; 94:1–2).[6]

3. (v.3) Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.

a. Verses 2 and 3 invoke images of the Mount Sinai theophany of Exod. 19:16–19: the noise, the fiery light, the all-consuming presence. Indeed, the reader will find that it is because of the Sinai covenant with the people of Israel that the Lord is calling the people to account in Psalm 50.[7]

Psalm 50:4

1. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

a. Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

b. (cf., e.g., Deut 30:19; 31:28; 32:1; Isa 1:2; Mic 6:1–2)[8]

Psalm 50:5

1. “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

a. The verb literally means “cut,” apparently alluding to a rite associated with sealing a covenant: see Gen. 15:7–21. As one cuts up the animal, one wishes such a fate on oneself if failing to keep one’s commitment.[9]

b. And then God speaks. Gather to me, my hesed ones. For a full explanation of hesed, see the commentary for Psalm 43. In its context in Psalm 50, the word conveys the idea of “those who participate in the covenant relationship that God has established with Israel.” A further definition of my hesed ones comes in the second bicolon of v. 5—the ones who keep my covenant by offering up a sacrifice. The word keeptranslates the Hebrew root word kāraṯ, which means, lit., “cut” and describes the practice of covenant-making ceremonies in the ancient Near East. Thus a better translation for this phrase is “the ones who cut my covenant.” God, the one judging (v. 6), summons the people to account for their breach of the covenant.[10]

c. Thus we surmise that covenant-making in the ancient Near East involved the slaughter and placement of animal halves on either side of an altar and a ceremony in which each participant in the covenant walked between the slain carcasses and declared their intent to observe the stipulations of the covenant. If any of the participants violated the stipulations, then they swore they would receive the same fate as the slain animals. The verb used in the Hebrew Bible to describe covenant-making—kāraṯ, to cut—is thus appropriate and descriptive.[11]

d. V. 5 is direct divine address, a special call to worship (see Joel 2:16; Isa 48:14–16) inserted into the preacher’s opening statement. Since there is no citation formula or messenger formula, we may assume that this call to worship is a well-known liturgical phrase.[12]

Psalm 50:6

1. The heavens declare his righteousness,

2. for God himself is judge!

3. Selah

Section One – Charge One (Psalm 50:7-15)

Psalm 50:7

1. “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;

2. O Israel, I will testify against you.

3. I am God, your God.

a. Psalm 50:3 OurGod comes;

Psalm 50:8

1. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

2. your burnt offerings are continually before me.

a. The two terms cover two main set forms of offering, sacrifices that were shared by offerer and Yhwh, and *whole-offerings that were totally given over to Yhwh (see Lev. 1; 3). [13]

Psalm 50:9

1. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.

a. Accept - to take, capture, buy

Psalm 50:10

1. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalm 50:11

1. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

Psalm 50:12

1. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.

Psalm 50:13

1. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

a. God rebukes Israel not for failing to offer sacrifices in 50:8–15 but for their mistaken assumptions about those sacrifices.

b. The first mistaken assumption appears in 50:9–11 and concerns the source and ownership of the animals to be sacrificed. In 50:9 the Lord declares that he is not taking/receiving animals from Israel: neither bulls from their houses nor goats from their sheepfolds. Verse 10 asserts the reason this is so, namely, that every animal in the world already belongs to God. Psalm 50:10–11 declare that every beast of the field, the cattle on a thousand hills, every bird of the mountains, and the zyzzyva of the fields all belong to God. They are his creatures. He made them. This counters the mistaken notion that by offering sacrifices Israel provides for God’s needs.

c. Supplying provender for God was never the point of the sacrifices. God did not need them; Israel did. The sacrifices did not bring God something he lacked but satisfied his justice against sin by making atonement. God prefers holy obedience over sacrifice. When those aiming at holy obedience failed to accomplish it, the sacrifices were provided so that those who failed in their attempt to obey could avoid the death due transgressors. Israel was not enriching Yahweh from their flocks and herds. He had no lack but an overflowing abundance. It was not Yahweh who needed the sacrifices but Israel.

d. The refutation of the false assumption about the source and ownership of the sacrificial animals—they already belonged to Yahweh before Israel offered them—is extended into a second related false assumption in 50:12–13. This second mistaken notion holds that Yahweh somehow depends upon the sacrificial animals for his sustenance. He repudiates this idea in 50:12 with the declaration that if he were in need of food he would not tell Israel of his need, for the world and all its fullness exist for him. He has everything. Why would he need Israel to provide his food? Then to guard against the idea that his ownership of all things might imply that he does need to eat and drink to be sustained, he scornfully asks whether he eats flesh and drinks blood—the question obviously expecting a negative answer. Yahweh is the creator. His creation does not in any way sustain him. He did not create to meet some need he had, nor did he ordain sacrifices for Israel to meet some need he had.[14]

Psalm 50:14

1. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

a. Or Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God[15]

2. and perform your vows to the Most High,

a. Psalm 50:5 “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

Psalm 50:15

1. and call upon me in the day of trouble;

2. I will deliver you,

3. and you shall glorify me.”

Section Two – Charge Two (Psalm 50:16-21)

Psalm 50:16

1. But to the wicked God says:

2. “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?

Psalm 50:17

1. For you hate discipline [instruction],

2. and you cast my words behind you.

a. This opposition to Yhwh’s instruction involves throwing Yhwh’s words over one’s shoulder as one goes along, so that they lie behind us and we cannot see them making demands on us or accusing us.[16]

Psalm 50:18-20

1. (v.18) If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,

2. and you keep company with adulterers.

a. Exodus 20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.

b. Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal.

3. (v.19) “You give your mouth free rein for evil,

a. Give: to stretch out v. — to extend or stretch out to a greater or the full length.

4. and your tongue frames deceit.

5. (v.20) You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.

a. Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

b. Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Psalm 50:21

1. These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself.

a. God announces in 50:21 that as he kept silence about the evil of their actions and words, they concluded that God would be like them. Sin does not bother them. They assume it will not bother God. They do not rebuke or punish sinners. They assume God won’t either. God, however, now announces his rebuke, setting the case out before their eyes. Their guilt is evident and inescapable.[17]

2. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

a. Psalm 50:3 Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.

b. Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Conclusion - Verdict (Psalm 50:22-23)

Psalm 50:22

1. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

Psalm 50:23

1. The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

a. Psalm 50:14-15

2. to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

a. Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Hebrews 13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

[1] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 498. [2] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 110–111. [3] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 498. [4] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 447. 11 See Exod. 3:13–15. [5] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 449. [6] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 112. [7] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 449–450. [8] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 500. [9] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 113. [10] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 450. [11] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 450. [12] Erhard Gerstenberger, Psalms Part 1: With an Introduction to Cultic Poetry, vol. 14, The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 207. * indicates that the word appears in the glossary [13] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 114. [14] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 500–501. [15] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016). [16] John Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Psalms 42–89, ed. Tremper Longman III, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 117. [17] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 503.