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50. Psalm 50

¹ The Mighty One, God, the LORD,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
² From Zion, perfect in beauty,
   God shines forth.
³ Our God comes
   and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
   and around him a tempest rages.
⁴ He summons the heavens above,
   and the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me this consecrated people,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
⁶ And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
   for he is a God of justice. With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text for God himself is judge The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.

    ⁷ “Listen, my people, and I will speak;
   I will testify against you, Israel:
   I am God, your God.
⁸ I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
   or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
⁹ I have no need of a bull from your stall
   or of goats from your pens,
¹⁰ for every animal of the forest is mine,
   and the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
   and the insects in the fields are mine.
¹² If I were hungry I would not tell you,
   for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
   or drink the blood of goats?

    ¹⁴ “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
   fulfill your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and call on me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

¹⁶ But to the wicked person, God says:

   “What right have you to recite my laws
   or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ You hate my instruction
   and cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ When you see a thief, you join with him;
   you throw in your lot with adulterers.
¹⁹ You use your mouth for evil
   and harness your tongue to deceit.
²⁰ You sit and testify against your brother
   and slander your own mother’s son.
²¹ When you did these things and I kept silent,
   you thought I was exactly Or thought the ‘I AM’ was like you.
But I now arraign you
   and set my accusations before you.

    ²² “Consider this, you who forget God,
   or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
²³ Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
   and to the blameless Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; the meaning of the Masoretic Text for this phrase is uncertain. I will show my salvation.”

7. Hear, O my people! and I will speak. Hitherto the prophet has spoken as the herald of God, throwing out several expressions designed to alarm the minds of those whom he addressed. But from this to the end of the psalm God himself is introduced as the speaker; and to show the importance of the subject, he uses additional terms to awaken attention, calling them his own people, that he might challenge the higher authority to his words, and intimating, that the following address is not of a mere ordinary description, but an expostulation with them for the infraction of his covenant. Some read, I will testify against thee. But the reference, as we may gather from the common usage of Scripture, seems rather to be to a discussion of mutual claims. God would remind them of his covenant, and solemnly exact from them, as his chosen people, what was due according to the terms of it. He announces himself to be the God of Israel, that he may recall them to allegiance and subjection, and the repetition of his name is emphatical: as if he had said, When you would have me to submit to your inventions, how far is this audacity from that honor and reverence which belong to me? I am God, and therefore my majesty ought to repress presumption, and make all flesh keep silence when I speak; and among you, to whom I have made myself known as your God, I have still stronger claims to homage.