Psalms 50:14-23

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;

20 you sit and speak against your kinsman, you slander your own mother's son.

21 When you do such things, should I stay silent? You may have thought I was just like you; but I will rebuke and indict you to your face.

22 Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to save you.

23 "Whoever offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; and to him who goes the right way I will show the salvation of God."

Psalms 50:14-23 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.