Psalm 50:7-15

7 ¹“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. ²I am God, your God.

8 Not for your sacrifices ³do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.

9 I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.

10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

11 ⁴I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, ⁵for the world and its fullness are mine.

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

14 ⁶Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, ^[a] and ⁷perform your vows to the Most High,

15 and ⁸call upon me in the day of trouble; I will ⁹deliver you, and you shall ¹⁰glorify me. ”

Psalm 50:7-15 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.

Cross References

• 1. 50:7 Ps. 81:8; [Ps. 49:1]
• 2. 50:7 Ex. 20:2
• 3. 50:8 See Ps. 40:6
• 4. 50:11 [Matt. 10:29]
• 5. 50:12 See Ps. 24:1
• 6. 50:14 ver. 23; Ps. 27:6; 69:30; 107:22; Heb. 13:15; [Hos. 14:2; Rom. 12:1]
• 7. 50:14 Ps. 22:25; 61:8; 65:1; 76:11; 116:14, 18; Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21; Job 22:27; Eccles. 5:4, 5
• 8. 50:15 Ps. 81:7; Zech. 13:9; [Ps. 107:6]
• 9. 50:15 Ps. 91:15
• 10. 50:15 ver. 23; Ps. 22:23

Footnotes

• [a] 50:14 Or 'Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God'