Psalm 50

The Mighty One Calls

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹The Mighty One, God Yahweh,

speaks and summons the earth

from where the sun rises to where it sets.

• PS 50:1[NOTE]ASAPH. David's music leader, 1 Chronicles 16:5. Twelve psalms carry his name: 50 and 73 to 83.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty,

God shines forth.

³Our God approaches and will not be silent!

Consuming fire precedes Him,

and a tempest rages around Him.

⁴He summons the heavens above,

and the earth, that He may judge His people:

⁵“Gather to Me My saints,

who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

⁶And the heavens proclaim His righteousness,

for God Himself is Judge.

Selah

⁷“Hear, O My people, and I will speak,

O Israel, and I will testify against you:

I am God, your God.

⁸I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,

and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall

or goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every beast of the forest is Mine—

the cattle on a thousand hills.

• PS 50:10[NOTE]THE CATTLE ON A THOUSAND HILLS. God does not need our sacrifices. He wants thanks and a changed life, 50:14 and 50:23.

¹¹I know every bird in the mountains,

and the creatures of the field are Mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls,

or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God,

and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁶To the wicked, however, God says,

“What right have you to recite My statutes

and to bear My covenant on your lips?

¹⁷For you hate My instruction

and cast My words behind you.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you befriend him,

and throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹⁹You unleash your mouth for evil

and harness your tongue to deceit.

²⁰You sit and malign your brother;

you slander your own mother’s son.

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent;

you thought I was just like you.

But now I rebuke you

and accuse you to your face.

²²Now consider this, you who forget God,

lest I tear you to pieces,

with no one to rescue you:

²³He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me,

and to him who rightly orders his way,

I will show the salvation of God.”