Psalm Fifty

by Dr. Henry M. Morris

(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)

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A Psalm of Asaph.

Asaph. This psalm is the first of twelve attributed to Asaph, one of David's chief musicians (1 Chronicles 15:19). Note also Psalms 73-83.

Psalm 50:1 The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

The mighty God, even the Lord. “The mighty” is actually a name of God—that is El; “God” is Elohim; “the Lord” is Jehovah or Yahweh. Thus, God under three names—El, Elohim, and Jehovah—reflecting the Triune Godhead, is here seen as summoning His entire creation to a great assembly, probably referring (Psalm 50:4) to the great judgment day (Revelation 20:11-15).

Psalm 50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

Psalm 50:3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

Psalm 50:4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Psalm 50:5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

my saints. At the great judgment, all the “saints,” those who have come under the New Covenant by the sacrifice of Christ for their sins, will be gathered together unto the Lord. They will not be judged at this last great judgment, for Christ has already borne their judgment (Romans 8:1).

Psalm 50:6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah

Psalm 50:7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

Psalm 50:8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

Psalm 50:9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

Psalm 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Psalm 50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

Psalm 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

the world is mine. This is another assertion that the entire earth as well as all its living creatures (e.g., Psalm 50:10-11) belong to God as their Creator. No man really owns anything that has not been loaned him, as it were, by God, who expects an accounting some day (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Psalm 50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

Psalm 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Psalm 50:16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

unto the wicked. The “wicked” are simply those who “forget God” (Psalm 50:22). They may, at the judgment, seek to offer their works as tantamount to “tak[ing] my covenant” (Psalm 50:16), but no one can be saved by works, and even their “righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), not to mention their many overt sins against God, which will be recounted at the judgment (Revelation 20:13).

Psalm 50:17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

Psalm 50:18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

Psalm 50:19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

Psalm 50:20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

Psalm 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

Psalm 50:22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Psalm 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.

shew the salvation. The Lord offers a final invitation to those yet living, before they have to come to the final judgment.