Psalms 50:15-23

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

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth,

17 Seeing thou hast hated correction and hast cast my words behind thee?

18 When thou sawest a thief, thou didst take pleasure in him, and thy portion was with adulterers;

19 Thou lettest thy mouth loose to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit;

20 Thou sittest [and] speakest against thy brother, thou revilest thine own mother's son:

21 These [things] hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself: [but] I will reprove thee, and set [them] in order before thine eyes.

22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear in pieces, and there be no deliverer.

23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth [his] way will I shew the salvation of God.

Psalms 50:15-23 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or 'instruction.'
• [b]. Or 'slanderest.'
• [c]. Or 'understand.'
• [d]. Lit. 'Sacrifice,' as Deut. 12.15; Ps. 4.5: see Lev. 7.11; 17.5-7.
• [e]. Or 'thanksgiving.'