Sermon Tone Analysis

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.