Psalms 50:9-19

9 I have no need for a bull from your farm or for male goats from your pens;

10 for all forest creatures are mine already, as are the animals on a thousand hills;

11 I know all the birds in the mountains; whatever moves in the fields is mine.

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and everything in it.

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

14 Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice to God, pay your vows to the Most High,

15 and call on me when you are in trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

16 But to the wicked God says: "What right do you have to proclaim my laws or take my covenant on your lips,

17 when you so hate to receive instruction and fling my words behind you?

18 When you see a thief, you join up with him, you throw in your lot with adulterers,

19 you give your mouth free rein for evil and harness your tongue to deceit;

Psalms 50:9-19 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.