Psalm 50 - The Mighty God, even the Lord has spoken

This Psalm is one of my favorites.

This song is based on a song from KJV verses 1-6. You can find that song here.

I extended the same tune for the entire Psalm.

Asaph wrote 12 Psalms. The other 11 are all consecutive: Psalms 73-83.

v1 God has spoken and called the earth, that is the human beings on the earth. From the sun-rising to the sun-setting is from the east to the west, that is to human beings of all nations (Matt 8:11; Lk 13:29).

This whole Psalm is the direct speaking of God. There is no speaking of man here and hence, no prayer.

v2 - God's speaking and calling human beings from all nations is to produce the church, the perfection of beauty - God expressed in man (Heb 12:22-24; Eph 3:8-11; 5:25-27; Rev 21:9-11)

v3 - This must be Christ's 2nd coming for His Bride. Today it seems that God is silent in the world. (v21)

Christ will come when His Wife, the perfection of beauty, has made herself ready (Rev 19:7).

v4 - At His 2nd coming, God will judge His people (2 Cor 5:10)

v5 - This is God's calling the earth from the east to the west, to rapture His saints at His 2nd coming. This includes both the living and the dead saints. They will be raptured to appear before His judgment seat (v4).

The Hebrew verb asaf translated "gather" means to gather by removing (Gen 30:23; 25:8,17). I believe it also refers to rapture in Ps 27:10 and Isa 11:12. The 1st use of the word in the Bible is Gen 6:21 referring to Noah harvesting food to take onto the ark, which is a type of the rapture (Rev 14:14-16).

"My saints" are those that have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. This refers to both the Old and New Testament saints. The Old Testament saints were dedicated to God through the Old Covenant which was consummated by sacrifices (Heb 9:18-22). The New Testament saints are given to God (Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 5:14-15) through the New Covenant which was consummated by Christ's sacrifice of Himself (Heb 9:13-17,23-28).

v6 - The heavens shall declare His righteousness because the overcoming saints will be there in the heavens with Him, raptured, and Satan will be cast out (Rev 12:5,9,12).

v. 7 Verse 7 begins the 2nd part of this Psalm.

Verses 1-6 are glorious, telling of the Lord's 2nd coming, the rapture of the saints, and the Lord being glorified.

Verses 7-23 is God's speaking to His people to get them ready for His coming and judgment.

If we, His people, will listen to Him then:

1) God will speak to His people

2) God will witness in us that He is God, and that He is our God.

v8 - Lit. Your burnt offerings are before Me continually.

You think that the Lord should be pleased with you because of the sacrifices that you have made for Him. This is wrong. The Lord does not reprove you for making sacrifices for Him, but that alone does not make you well pleasing to Him.

v10 - Lit. for all the beasts of the forest are Mine

"My father owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He often distributes it one hamburger at a time." - Tom McNaughton

v11 - Here God not only says that all the animals are His, but even that He knows each one of them. It pains Him when any of them die (Matt 10:29; Luke 12:6; Jonah 4:11). You should have this understanding when you offer to God.

v14 - You think that God should be thankful to you for what you have sacrificed for Him. You think that God is poor so He needs your offering and service. Rather we should be abounding in thanksgiving to God, knowing that everything we have and are is given to us by God, so we thankfully give a portion of it back to Him (Luke 17:7-10).

v15 - Rather than sacrifice, God wants you to do 3 things:

1) Thank Him. (v14)

2) Pay your vows that you made unto Him.

3) Call upon Him in the day of trouble.

There will be 2 wonderful results:

1) He will deliver you.

2) You shall glorify Him.

v16 - The people being rebuked here were religious leaders and teachers.

v18 - It is good to memorize this verse. It will speak to you during the day to protect you (Ps 119:11).

A thief is someone greedy for things that rightfully belong to others. A thief can be greedy for money, power, position, praise, a following, etc., and is not willing to earn them by rightful means.

Maybe you didn't do the stealing yourself, but you were glad to have someone do it for you. (Prov 29:24)

Judas was a thief (Jn 12:4-6). The chief priests were delighted to find him, because they could get him to do what they wanted (Mk 14:10-11; Lk 22:3-6).

3 sins in particular are exposed here among religious people:

1.greed - v18a

2. lust - v18b

3. slander - vv 19-20. This is the most emphasized.

v20 - To "sit" is to be at ease. You speak against your Christian brother lightly, without taking the trouble to find out if what you are saying is true.

You slander even the son of your own mother, your fellow Christians brought up in the same church (cf. Rom 16:13).

v21 - "I'll show you a thing or two" is literally, "I'll reprove you". I took some liberty with that translation, but I think that is what is meant.

You thought God was on your side because He was silent. His silence indicates He has a problem speaking to you.

"you thought that I am just like you" - the verb "am" is doubled - an infinitive followed by an imperfect. The doubled verb adds the meaning of "definitely" (Gen 18:18; 1Ki 13:32; Ezek 1:3). "You thought that I am without a doubt like you." Or "You thought that I am certainly like you."

v22 - "You that forget God" here are religious people. You think that you are serving the Lord more than others (v16). You forget the Lord in doing a Christian work, but depend on men or knowledge or assets instead. If you don't consider what the Lord says here, the result is catastrophic. Men will not be able to rescue you. Thus we are in fear and trembling before the Lord (v3, Acts 9:31; 2 Cor 5:11; Phil 2:12).

For God to tear in pieces is for HIm to scatter the Jews, or divide the church (1 Cor 11:18-19). God hates division, but would rather have division than what is described in the previous verses.

v23 - What a wonderful ending verse to this psalm. This is my favorite verse in the Psalm.

Thanksgiving is a big thing (Col 2:7;2 Cor 4:15; 9:11-12). "Lack of thanksgiving is a sign of prayerlessness." - Witness Lee (Col 4:2).

We all should spend time before the Lord to order our way before Him in all practical things (Phil 2:12; Prov 4:26). We should not just be reacting to our circumstances. To order our way is to set our priorities: Thanking the Lord for what He has done for us must be higher priority than sacrificing things for Him.

This verse relates to both matters in verse 14:

1) thanksgiving

2) paying our vows to the Lord goes with ordering our way before Him.

- Steve Miller