Psalms 50:16-21

God Speaks To The ‘Wicked', The More Overt Covenant Breakers, Whom He Sees As Blatantly Hypocritical, And Outlines The Activities That Cut Them Off From His Mercy. He Points Out That He Is Coming In Order To ‘Reprove' Them And Put Things Right (Psalms 50:16).

Psalms 50:16

‘But to the wicked God says,

What have you to do to declare my statutes,

And that you have taken my covenant in your mouth,

Seeing you hate instruction,

And cast my words behind you?'

God challenges ‘the wicked' for their hypocrisy in that they hate His instruction and cast His words behind them, and yet declare His statutes and take His covenant in their mouths. In Israelite society this was almost inevitable for any who wanted to demonstrate their respectability and yet had no wish really to obey God, but that gave them no excuse before God. Rather the opposite. In the same way today many pay lip service to God, but by their lives they deny Him.

The Psalmist then goes on to give examples of their disobedience to God's instruction and statutes., demonstrating how they ‘cast His words behind them'.

Psalms 50:18

‘When you saw a thief, you consented with him,

And have been partaker with adulterers.

You give your mouth to evil,

And your tongue frames deceit.

You sit and speak against your brother,

You slander your own mother's son.

These things have you done, and I kept silence,

You thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself,

But I will reprove you,

And set things in order before your eyes.'

Examples of their perfidy are now presented in detail. Instead of convicting thieves, they allow them to get away with it, and share with them in their ill-gotten gains. They have partaken in adultery and have not reproved it in others. They speak evil with their mouths, and deceive with their tongues, both by bearing false witness, and by general deception and lies. They even deliberately (they sit) and slanderously speak out wrongly and untruthfully about their own family. And foolishly they think that because God appears to do nothing about it, He is not concerned about it. They think that God is like themselves.

However, He assures them that He is not such a one as themselves. Let them recognise that He will reprove them severely and put things right in front of their eyes. Note the contrast with Psalms 50:8 where God did not reprove them in respect of their sacrifices. Now we know that He will, however, reprove them because of their sins. And we should recognise that God's reproof can be severe and devastating, especially when He sets about putting things right. Large parts of the most painful parts of Israel's history occurred because of His reproof, and because He was seeking to put things right.