Psalms 50: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God speaks as judge, calling the whole earth together and coming from Zion with fire and storm, summoning the sky above and the earth so that he may judge his own people. He tells Israel he does not need their animals, since every creature already belongs to him, and asks instead for thank offerings, kept vows, and prayer in the day of trouble. He then turns to the wicked, who recite his covenant while joining thieves and adulterers and slandering their own brothers, and warns that he will no longer keep silent but will lay out their deeds in front of them.

Claim by Claim

1. 50:1
   • This psalm is ascribed to Asaph.
   • God, the mighty one, the LORD, has spoken.
   • God has summoned the earth.
   • God's summons reaches from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2. 50:2
   • God has shone forth out of Zion.
   • Zion is the perfection of beauty.
3. 50:3
   • Our God comes.
   • Our God does not keep silence (the Hebrew form can also be read as a wish that he not keep silence).
   • A fire devours before him.
   • Around him it storms greatly.
4. 50:4
   • God calls to the heavens above.
   • God calls to the earth.
   • God calls them so that he may judge his people.
5. 50:5
   • God says to gather his faithful ones to him.
   • His faithful ones are those who made a covenant with him by sacrifice.
6. 50:6
   • The heavens declare God's righteousness.
   • God himself is judge.
   • Selah.
7. 50:7
   • God tells his people to hear.
   • God says he will speak.
   • God says he will testify against Israel.
   • God says he is God, Israel's God.
8. 50:8
   • God does not rebuke Israel for its sacrifices.
   • Israel's burnt offerings are continually before God.
9. 50:9
   • God will take no bull from Israel's house.
   • God will take no male goats from Israel's pens.
10. 50:10
    • Every beast of the forest belongs to God.
    • The cattle on a thousand hills belong to God.
11. 50:11
    • God knows all the birds of the mountains.
    • The creatures that move in the field are with God.
12. 50:12
    • If God were hungry, he would not tell Israel.
    • The world belongs to God.
    • All that fills the world belongs to God.
13. 50:13
    • God asks whether he eats the flesh of bulls.
    • God asks whether he drinks the blood of goats.
14. 50:14
    • God commands that a thank offering be sacrificed to God.
    • God commands that vows be paid to the Most High.
15. 50:15
    • God commands that he be called upon in the day of trouble.
    • God will deliver the one who calls upon him.
    • The one delivered will glorify God.
16. 50:16
    • God speaks to the wicked.
    • God asks the wicked what right he has to recite God's statutes.
    • God asks the wicked what right he has to take God's covenant on his lips.
17. 50:17
    • The wicked hates instruction.
    • The wicked casts God's words behind him.
18. 50:18
    • When the wicked saw a thief, he was pleased to join him.
    • The wicked shares his portion with adulterers.
19. 50:19
    • The wicked sends his mouth out for evil.
    • The wicked's tongue is joined to deceit.
20. 50:20
    • The wicked sits and speaks against his brother.
    • The wicked slanders his own mother's son.
21. 50:21
    • The wicked has done these things.
    • God kept silent.
    • The wicked thought that God was altogether like himself.
    • God will rebuke the wicked.
    • God will set the case in order before the wicked's eyes.
22. 50:22
    • God commands those who forget God to consider this.
    • God warns that otherwise he will tear them in pieces.
    • God warns that there will be no one to deliver them.
23. 50:23
    • Whoever sacrifices a thank offering honors God.
    • To the one who sets his way rightly, God will show the salvation of God.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

50:1

The King James "The mighty God, even the LORD" translates a stack of three Hebrew names for God piled up in a row (El, Elohim, YHWH) a heavy, formal opening of the kind used to announce a ruler. "LORD" printed in small capitals stands throughout the King James for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. "Called the earth" is the language of a court summons: the whole world is being ordered to appear.

50:2

Zion was originally the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem, and the name came to stand for the temple hill and for Jerusalem itself. "The perfection of beauty" was a stock phrase of praise for the city. "Hath shined" pictures God appearing as a blaze of light breaking out from that place.

50:3

Fire going ahead and storm wrapped around were the standard images for God arriving in person, as in the descriptions of Mount Sinai. They are the fixed furniture of such scenes, not a description of weather.

50:4

Calling the heavens and the earth is a legal move. In ancient treaties and in Israel's law, sky and land were named as the standing witnesses who would testify if the agreement was broken; summoning them signals that a formal trial is opening.

50:5

"Saints" in the King James does not mean spiritual heroes. The Hebrew word describes those bound to God by loyal, committed love, his own faithful people. "Made a covenant by sacrifice" refers to the way binding agreements were sealed: an animal was killed and its blood used in the ceremony, so the agreement itself was said to be cut or made "by sacrifice."

50:6

"Righteousness" here is a courtroom word: it means God gives a correct verdict, not merely that he is morally good. "Selah" appears throughout the Psalms and its meaning is genuinely unknown; it is usually taken as a direction for the musicians or a marked pause, and is left untranslated.

50:7

"Testify against thee" continues the trial scene begun in verse 4: God speaks as the witness giving evidence, and later in the psalm as the judge.

50:8

A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar so that none of it was eaten by the worshiper, the most complete and costly kind of gift. "Continually before me" refers to the sacrifices offered morning and evening, day after day.

50:9

A bullock is a young bull, the most expensive animal a worshiper could bring; male goats were among the regular offerings. The point of the verse turns on their value: these were the best a household had.

50:10

"The cattle upon a thousand hills" is a figure of speech for an uncountable amount, the way we might say a million. A thousand is a round number for more than you could ever tally.

50:12

This answers a real belief held by Israel's neighbors. In Mesopotamian and Canaanite religion the gods genuinely needed feeding, and the daily temple offerings were literally set out as their meals. Verses 12 and 13 deny that the sacrifices work that way here.

50:13

Surrounding peoples commonly pictured their gods as literally fed by the sacrifices set before them, and temple ritual was described as providing the god's meal. The question here is aimed at that idea. Blood in particular was never drunk in Israel; it was poured out, because blood was held to belong to God alone.

50:14

"Thanksgiving" translates a specific offering, the thank offering, brought when a prayer had been answered; most of the meat was eaten in a shared meal of celebration. A "vow" was a promise to give God something specific if he acted, paying the vow meant handing over what had been promised.

50:16

"The wicked" translates a Hebrew word that in legal settings means the guilty party in a case. "Statutes" are the written laws; "take my covenant in thy mouth" refers to reciting the terms of the agreement aloud, as was done at public gatherings.

50:17

Throwing words behind your back was a common idiom for contemptuous dismissal, putting something out of sight because you have no intention of dealing with it.

50:18

Theft, adultery, and lying about a neighbor are the three offenses named next in the psalm, in the same order they appear in the Ten Commandments. "Consentedst with him" means more than approval: it means taking the thief's side and sharing in what he did.

50:19

"Thy tongue frameth deceit" uses the language of a craftsman assembling something. The lies are built on purpose, piece by piece, not blurted out.

50:20

"Thine own mother's son" is stronger than "brother." In a society where a man might have children by more than one wife, a brother by the same mother was the closest possible kin, the last person one would expect to be attacked.

50:21

"Set them in order before thine eyes" is the language of a formal indictment: the charges are arranged in sequence and laid out where the accused must look at them.

50:22

"Tear you in pieces" is the image of a lion killing its prey; the phrase "none to deliver" regularly follows it in Hebrew, describing prey no shepherd can rescue.

50:23

"Conversation" in 1611 English meant a person's whole way of life and conduct, not talking. The Hebrew of this second line is difficult and has been read in more than one way, either "the one who sets his way straight" or "the one who marks out a way," and translators divide over which.