A psalm of Asaph
50:Title On “Asaph” see 1 Chron 15:16-17, 19; 1 Chron 25:2; 2 Chron 29:30. He was of the tribe of Levi, a great musician, poet, and seer. In this remarkable and powerful psalm God strikes at three great evils of religious people – formalism, spiritual ignorance (vs 7-15), and hypocrisy (vs 16-21).⚜
50
📚The mighty God, the LORD,has spoken,
and called the earth from the rising
of the sun to its going down.
2 📚Out of Zion, the perfection
of beauty, God shines forth.
3 📚Our God will come and
will not keep silence.
A fire will devour before him,
and it will be very tempestuous
around him.
4 📚He will call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth,
that he may judge his people:
5 📚“Gather 📖 my saints together
to me,
those who have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice”.
50:5 Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant were inaugurated by sacrifice. The first by animal sacrifices, the second by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus (Ex 24:4-8; Matt 26:26-28; Heb 9:11-15).⚜
6 📚And the heavens will declare
his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah
50:1-6 The picture in these verses is God coming out of His city Jerusalem as judge and calling the whole world to hear His verdict on Israel’s behavior.⚜
50:6 All is now ready, and God the judge speaks in the rest of the psalm.⚜
7 📚“Hear, O my people, and
I will speak.
Listen, O Israel, and I will testify
against you.
I am God, your God.
50:7 God speaks to those who are called here His people – to those who belong at least outwardly to their community.⚜
8 📚I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings,
which are continually
before me.
9 📚I will take no ox from your house,
or male goats from your folds.
10 📚For every beast of the forest
is mine,
and the cattle on
a thousand hills.
11 📚I know all the birds
of the mountains,
and the wild beasts of the field
are mine.
12 📚If I were hungry,
I would not tell you;
for the world and its fulness
is mine.
13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
50:8-13 The Israelites brought the sacrifices commanded by the law. But evidently some of them ignorantly supposed that God needed them, and foolishly imagined that formal ritual satisfied Him in some way. The apostle Paul criticized the same error at Athens (Acts 17:22-25). The Lord spoke through Isaiah too about the uselessness of religious rituals when the heart is not right with God and the life is unholy (Isa 1:11-17). The Lord Jesus sharply criticized the Pharisees for the same thing (Matthew chapter 23). In this age many Christians go through the forms of worship at the communion service who have no spiritual life, no obedience to God, and no love for His Word. Such worship is all in vain.⚜
14 📚Offer to God thanksgiving,
and fulfil your vows
to the Most High,
15 📚And call to me in the day
of trouble.
I will deliver you,
and you will glorify me”.
50:14-15 God here reveals what He wants from His worshipers – heartfelt gratitude, fulfilling one’s promises to God, true prayer which honors Him. On thanksgiving see Ps 7:17; 56:12; 107:21-22; 116:17-18; Lev 7:12-13; Micah 6:6-8; Rom 12:1; Eph 5:20; 1 Thess 5:18; Heb 13:15. On vows see Ps 56:12; 61:8; 76:11; Num 30:2; Deut 23:21; Eccl 5:4-6.⚜
50:15 Ps 91:15; 107:6, 13. God wants us to call on Him in times of trouble. He loves to hear prayer and to help those who pray in spirit and in truth. God answers the faithful believing prayers of His people, and new answers to prayer will give fresh reasons for them to glorify Him. But is God hungry for man’s praise and honor? No. See note at Ps 33:1.⚜
16 📚But to the wicked God says,
“What right do you have
to declare my statutes,
or to take my covenant
in your mouth,
17 📚seeing that you hate
instruction,
and cast my words behind you?
18 📚When you saw a thief,
you were pleased with him,
and have taken part with adulterers.
19 📚You give your mouth to evil,
and your tongue is joined to deceit.
20 📚You sit and speak against
your brother.
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 📚These things you have done,
and I kept silent.
You thought that I was altogether
like you.
But I will rebuke you,
and set them
in array before your eyes.
50:16-21 The disobedient, the thief, the adulterer, the deceiver, the slanderer has no business trying to preach God’s truth to others. If he tries to do so he is a hypocrite, and God’s judgment will come on him (Matt 23:1-3, 33; Rom 2:8-9, 21-24; 1 Cor 6:9-10). In spite of such clear warnings many preachers who live in such sins seem to think they will escape. They may speak about God’s holiness and righteous judgment but in reality they are ignorant of them (v 21). Sin has deceived them (Heb 3:13), and they abuse God’s grace (Jude 4) and misunderstand His patience (Eccl 8:11; Rom 2:4-5). They think God is like them – that is, without a hatred of sin, without the fire of holiness, without a loathing for hypocrisy. Sinful men can hardly slander God more than by saying He is like them.⚜
22 📚Now consider this,
you who forget God,
lest I tear you in pieces,
and there be
no one to rescue you.
50:22 All along it seems God has been speaking of forgetting God and not merely about formalism and hypocrisy. From this we might learn that formalism and hypocrisy are really the same as forgetting God. Hypocritical formalists can practice their religion with hardly a thought of God. They will be occupied with rituals, with self, and with sins. See in this verse what God thinks of such people! See how dangerous a sin forgetting God is!⚜
23 📚Whoever offers praise 📖
glorifies me,
and to him who directs
his conduct rightly
I will show the salvation of God”.