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Psalm 50

Psalm 50 brings God’s covenant people before his judgment, exposing hollow worship and calling for thanksgiving, trust, and obedience.

God summons heaven and earth to witness his judgment of Israel, the people bound to him by covenant and sacrifice. The psalm’s heading names Asaph. Fire and storm surround God’s coming from Zion, and then God speaks against his people. Their offerings are abundant, yet he has no need for animals he already owns. He calls for thanksgiving and fulfilled vows, then confronts those who recite his covenant while rejecting his commands and harming others.

guilt and confessionpraise and worshipsermon or Bible study notes
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1A Psalm by Asaph. The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
4He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
7“Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
10For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
12If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
14Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
18When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
20You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
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Key verses
Psalm 50:15God’s promise of deliverance places dependence on him at the heart of worship, with his honor as its end.
Psalm 50:23The closing verse returns to thanksgiving and joins the promise of salvation to a life ordered before God.
Psalm 50:3Fire and storm announce the arrival of the God whose silence can never be taken as approval.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy shares the summons of heaven and earth as witnesses, while Micah shares the scene of God bringing a case against his people. Isaiah and Jeremiah also confront worship joined to disobedience; Hebrews shares the language of praise offered to God as sacrifice.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does God’s ownership of every creature change about how you understand giving to him?

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Where does the contrast between reciting God’s covenant and receiving his instruction challenge your own worship?

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Questions people ask about Psalm 50

What does Psalm 50 mean by the livestock on a thousand hills?

The phrase expresses the scope of God’s ownership. The surrounding verses extend it to every forest animal, every bird, and the whole world. A thousand hills does not set a limit on his possessions. God uses this claim to show that Israel’s offerings supply nothing he lacks.

Why does God say he kept silent in Psalm 50:21?

God describes a period when the wrongdoing named in verses 18–20 went without an announced rebuke. Those addressed took that silence as evidence that God was like them. The psalm overturns that conclusion: God now speaks as judge and sets their conduct before them. His silence had never meant consent.

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Psalms · 150 chapters
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What the Bible says about guilt →What the Bible says about worship →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).