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Psalm 50:9

I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.

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.
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← Psalm 50:8Psalm 50:10 →
Notice

The bull in your stall may be yours to offer, yet God's lack of need unsettles any sense that worship supplies something he lacks.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

How does God's lack of need change the way you think about what you offer him?

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What difference do you notice between animals in human pens and animals God calls his own?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

6 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
Micah 6:6–8How shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?Both passages concern animal offerings brought before God, with Micah asking how to approach him and the psalm declaring his lack of need.
Micah 6:7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body …Micah questions whether vast offerings please God; the psalm states that God has no need of sacrificial animals.
Hebrews 10:4–6For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.Both name bulls and goats while setting limits on what animal sacrifices can provide.
Acts 17:25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.Both declare God's freedom from need: human gifts and service supply nothing he lacks.
Isaiah 43:23–24You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor …Both passages show God addressing his people about animal sacrifices, though Isaiah speaks of withheld honor and the psalm of God's lack of need.
Psalm 69:31It will please the LORD better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.Both challenge the importance assigned to sacrificial cattle: God needs no bull, and something else can please him more.
Where this verse fits

Praise and worship. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about worship →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read verses 8–11; underline what belongs to God

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Encouragement

God has no shortage for your offerings to fill. He speaks to Israel as their God, and the animals they bring already belong to him.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 50:9. 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).