Read
Psalm 50:17
since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
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.
Notice
Throwing God’s words behind you is a stark picture of rejection, made sharper by the surrounding charge that those rejecting his instruction still speak of his covenant.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What difference do you see between struggling to understand instruction and throwing it behind you?
Write on thisWhere, if anywhere, might your speech about God exceed your willingness to receive his correction?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Nehemiah 9:26“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them …Both describe rejection through the same gesture: casting God’s words or law behind the back.
2 Timothy 4:3–4For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts,Both describe resistance to instruction, with Timothy naming listeners who choose teachers to suit their own desires.
Proverbs 12:1Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.Both name hatred of correction as a serious fault, and Proverbs contrasts it with love of knowledge.
1 Kings 14:9but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me …Both use the image of casting something behind the back: God’s words in the psalm, God himself in Kings.
Proverbs 1:28–29Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me,Both sound warnings, though the psalm names rejected instruction while Proverbs describes unanswered calls and a failed search.
2 Thessalonians 2:10–12and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.Both connect wickedness with refusal to receive what is true, expressed as rejected instruction in the psalm.
Isaiah 28:9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?Both concern receiving instruction, though Isaiah asks who will be taught while the psalm confronts those who reject teaching.
Romans 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;Both describe rejection of God’s authority, through discarding his words or refusing to have him in their knowledge.
Proverbs 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.Both name contempt for instruction, with Proverbs identifying that contempt as the mark of the foolish.
Jeremiah 8:9The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?Both confront rejection of God’s word, and Jeremiah questions the wisdom of those who reject it.
Romans 2:21–23You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?Both expose a gap between declaring God’s commands to others and accepting those commands for oneself.
John 3:20For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.Both describe active hatred toward what exposes wrongdoing: instruction in the psalm and light in John.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
This warning deserves your attention even when it is uncomfortable. God sees the gap between speaking his words and rejecting their authority; his instruction has a claim on your life.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 50:17. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).