Psalm 50:3

3 God, our God, shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him there shall be a very great tempest.

Psalm 50:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 50:3

Our God shall come
That is, Christ, who is truly and properly God, and who was promised and expected as a divine Person; and which was necessary on account of the work he came about; and believers claim an interest in him as their God; and he is their God, in whom they trust, and whom they worship: and this coming of his is to be understood, not of his coming in the flesh; for though that was promised, believed, and prayed for, as these words are by some rendered, "may our God come" ^F18; yet at his first coming he was silent, his voice was not heard in the streets, ( Matthew 12:19 ) ; nor did any fire or tempest attend that: nor is it to be interpreted of his second coming, or coming to judgment; for though that also is promised, believed, and prayed for; and when he will not be silent, but by his voice will raise the dead, summon all before him, and pronounce the sentence on all; and the world, and all that is therein, will be burnt with fire, and a horrible tempest rained upon the wicked; yet it is better to understand it of his coming to set up his kingdom in the world, and to punish his professing people for their disbelief and rejection of him; see ( Matthew 16:28 ) ( Hebrews 10:37 ) ;

and shall not keep silence;
contain himself, bear with the Jews any longer, but come forth in his wrath against them; see ( Psalms 50:21 Psalms 50:22 ) ; and it may also denote the great sound of the Gospel, and the very public ministration of it in the Gentile world, at or before this time, for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom in it;

a fire shall devour before him;
meaning either the fire of the divine word making its way among the Gentiles, consuming their idolatry, superstition or rather the fire of divine wrath coming upon the Jews to the uttermost and even it may be literally understood of the fire that consumed their city and temple, as was predicted, ( Zechariah 11:1 ) ( Matthew 22:7 ) ;

and it shall be very tempestuous round about him;
the time of Jerusalem's destruction being such a time of trouble as has not been since the world began, ( Matthew 24:21 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (aby) "veniat", Junius & Tremellius; so Ainsworth.

Psalm 50:3 In-Context

1 The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.

2 Out of Sion comes the excellence of his beauty.

3 God, our God, shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him there shall be a very great tempest.

4 He shall summon the heaven above, and the earth, that he may judge his people.

5 Assemble ye his saints to him, those that have engaged in a covenant with him upon sacrifices.

6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge. Pause.

7 Hear, my people, and I will speak to thee, O Israel: and I will testify to thee: I am God, thy God.

8 I will not reprove thee on account of thy sacrifices; for thy whole-burnt-offerings are before me continually.

9 I will take no bullocks out of thine house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks.

10 For all the wild beasts of the thicket are mine, the cattle on the mountains, and oxen.

11 I know all the birds of the sky; and the beauty of the field is mine.

12 If I should be hungry, I will not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness of it.

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

14 Offer to God the sacrifice of praise; and pay thy vows to the Most High.

15 And call upon me in the day of affliction; and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Pause.

16 But to the sinner God has said, Why dost thou declare my ordinances, and take up my covenant in thy mouth?

17 Whereas thou hast hated instruction, and hast cast my words behind thee.

18 If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest along with him, and hast cast in thy lot with adulterers.

19 Thy mouth has multiplied wickedness, and thy tongue has framed deceit.

20 Thou didst sit and speak against thy brother, and didst scandalize thy mother’s son.

21 These things thou didst, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest wickedly that I should be like thee, but I will reprove thee, and set thine offences before thee.

22 Now consider these things, ye that forget God, lest he rend you, and there is no deliverer.

23 The sacrifice of praise will glorify me: and that is the way wherein I will shew to him the salvation of God.