Read
Psalm 50:21
You 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.
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.”
Notice
God’s silence follows deceit and slander here, and the warning exposes how a lack of immediate rebuke can be mistaken for agreement with human conduct.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What assumptions about God might grow when harmful words seem to go unanswered?
Write on thisHow does God’s promised rebuke challenge the thought that he is “just like you”?
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
Romans 2:4–5Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?Both passages confront a mistaken response to God’s restraint: Psalm 50 exposes presumed agreement, while Romans warns against despising patience.
Proverbs 29:1He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.Both passages treat rebuke as a grave matter, with Psalm 50 announcing it and Proverbs warning against resisting it.
Ecclesiastes 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.Both passages describe God bringing human conduct into judgment, leaving no basis for treating unexposed wrongdoing as cleared.
Psalm 94:7–11They say, “The LORD will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”Both passages expose false assumptions about God that allow people to dismiss his attention to their conduct.
Isaiah 57:11“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you …Both passages connect God’s prolonged silence with a failure to regard him rightly amid deceit.
Ecclesiastes 8:11–12Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.Both passages describe a dangerous response to delayed judgment: people become confident in wrongdoing while consequences remain absent.
Psalm 90:8You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.Both passages portray wrongdoing exposed before God, whether as accusations brought before the offender or sins set in his presence.
Isaiah 42:14“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.Both passages describe God ending a period of silence, though Psalm 50 specifies rebuke and Isaiah describes an urgent cry.
Psalm 73:11They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”Both passages expose human assumptions that diminish God, either questioning his knowledge or imagining him to be like the wrongdoer.
1 Corinthians 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the …Both passages describe divine disclosure of human conduct, with God’s accusation in the psalm and the Lord revealing hidden things in Corinthians.
Psalm 50:3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.Both verses announce that God’s silence ends, with his coming in verse 3 and his spoken accusation in verse 21.
Amos 8:7The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.Both passages affirm that wrongdoing remains before God: he promises accusation in the psalm and declares in Amos that he will never forget.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession. injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
God’s silence does not make deceit or slander acceptable. His promised rebuke means harmful words remain subject to his judgment, even when no consequence has yet appeared.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 50:21. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
Keep goingPsalm 50 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms
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).