Psalms 50:3-13

3 Our God is coming; he won't keep quiet. A devouring fire is before him; a storm rages all around him.
4 God calls out to the skies above and to the earth in order to judge his people:
5 "Bring my faithful to me, those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
6 The skies proclaim his righteousness because God himself is the judge. Selah
7 "Listen, my people, I will now speak; Israel, I will now testify against you. I am God—your God!
8 I'm not punishing you for your sacrifices or for your entirely burned offerings, which are always before me.
9 I won't accept bulls from your house or goats from your corrals
10 because every forest animal already belongs to me, as do the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every mountain bird; even the insects in the fields are mine.
12 Even if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you because the whole world and everything in it already belong to me.
13 Do I eat bulls' meat? Do I drink goats' blood?

Psalms 50:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 50

\\<>\\. This psalm is called a psalm of Asaph; either because it was composed by him under divine inspiration, since he was a prophet and a seer, 1Ch 25:2, 2Ch 29:30; or because it was delivered to him to be sung in public service, he being a chief musician; see 1Ch 16:7; and so it may be rendered, "a psalm for Asaph"; or "unto Asaph" {o}; which was directed, sent, and delivered to him, and might be written by David; and, as Junius thinks, after the angel had appeared to him, and he was directed where he should build an altar to the Lord, 1Ch 21:18. The Targum, Kimchi, and R. Obadiah Gaon, interpret this psalm of the day of judgment; and Jarchi takes it to be a prophecy of the future redemption by their expected Messiah; and indeed it does refer to the times of the Gospel dispensation; for it treats of the calling of the Gentiles, of the abrogation of legal sacrifices, and of the controversy the Lord would have with the Jews for retaining them, and rejecting pure, spiritual, and evangelical worship. {o} Poal "ipsi Asaph", Tigurine version, Vatablus; "Asapho", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.

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