PSALM 50 THE ARGUMENT The design of this Psalm is, partly, to reprove and protest against the common miscarriages of many professors of religion, who satisfied their own consciences, and fancied that they pleased God, with their external and ceremonial performances, notwithstanding their gross negle... [ Continue Reading ]
The place where he was supposed to reside, and where he would now sit in judgment; or from whence he would come to a more public and conspicuous place, where all the world might see and hear the transactions. THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY; the most beautiful and amiable place of the whole world, because... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR GOD: these words are used here, as they are also HEBREWS 12:29, emphatically. The prophet speaks this in the person of the Israelites and worshippers of God, whereof he was one, and thereby takes off their fond pretence, as if because God was _their God_, in covenant with them, and nearly relate... [ Continue Reading ]
Either to _heaven and earth_ themselves, and so it is a figure called _prosopopoeia_; or to the inhabitants of them, all angels and men, whom he calls in for witnesses and judges of the equity of his present proceedings. Compare DEUTERONOMY 4:26 DEUTERONOMY 31:28, DEUTERONOMY 32:1. That he may judge... [ Continue Reading ]
O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal; which is poetically spoken; not as if they were actually to do so, but only to continue the metaphor and representation of the judgment here mentioned. MY SAINTS; the delinquents, the Israelites, whom he calls _saints_; partly, because they were all... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEAVENS SHALL DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS; which they were called to witness, PSALMS 50:4. So was the earth also. But here he mentions the heavens only, as I humbly conceive, because they were the most impartial and considerable witness in the case; for men upon earth might be false witnesses, eit... [ Continue Reading ]
Having brought in God as coming to judgment with them, he now gives an account of the process and of the sentence of the Judge, whose words are contained in this and the following verses. I WILL TESTIFY AGAINST THEE; I will plead with thee, and declare my charge or indictment against thee. EVEN THY... [ Continue Reading ]
I do not charge thee, or at least this is not the principal matter of my charge, that thou hast neglected sacrifices which thou shouldst have offered; for although thou hast many times omitted thy duty in that kind, yet I have greater things than these to charge thee with. TO HAVE BEEN; or, _they ha... [ Continue Reading ]
But be not so vain and foolish as to imagine that thou dost lay any obligations upon me by thy sacrifices; or that I required them because I had need of them, or took any pleasure in them for themselves, or for my own satisfaction by them.... [ Continue Reading ]
I would command or dispose them at my pleasure, without thy leave or assistance, even the cattle which feed upon innumerable hills, or in valleys and fields.... [ Continue Reading ]
I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE, and whence I can easily fetch them when I think good. THE FOWLS OF THE MOUNTAINS; not only tame and domestic fowls, but even such as are wild and fly up and down upon mountains; which though out of man's reach, are at God's command.... [ Continue Reading ]
If I wanted or desired any thing, as I do not, being the all-sufficient God, I WOULD NOT TELL THEE, that thou mightest supply my wants. THE FULNESS THEREOF, i.e. all those creatures wherewith it is replenished.... [ Continue Reading ]
If I did want anything, hast thou such carnal and gross conceptions of me, that I need or delight in the blood of brute creature.... [ Continue Reading ]
If thou wouldst know what sacrifices I most prize, and indispensably require, in the first place, it is that of thankfulness and praise proportionable to my great, and glorious, and numberless favours; which doth not consist barely in verbal acknowledgments, but proceeds from a heart truly and deepl... [ Continue Reading ]
And make conscience of that great duty of constant and fervent prayer to me; which is an acknowledgment of thy subjection to me, and of thy trust and dependence upon me, and therefore is pleasing to me. IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE; when trouble comes, do not avoid it by sinful shifts, not trust to creatur... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE WICKED, i.e. the same ungodly and hypocritical professors whom he calleth saints, PSALMS 50:5, in regard of their profession, and here wicked in respect of their practice, and the truth of the thing. God saith: he told them what he would not reprove them for, PSALMS 50:8, and why, PSALMS 50... [ Continue Reading ]
Seeing thy practice contradicts thy profession, and makes thee a notorious and impudent liar. Though _with thy mouth thou showest much love_ (as is said of them, EZEKIEL 33:31) to my statutes and counsels, yet in truth thou hatest them, as they are curbs to thy beloved lusts, and instruments of thy... [ Continue Reading ]
SAWEST; or, _didst observe_, or _consider_; when he came into thy presence and company, and thou didst understand and consider his ways, and his success and impunity, and he invited thee to a participation of his profit. THOU CONSENTEDST with him; or, as many render it, _then didst run with him_; th... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU GIVEST, Heb. _thou sendest forth_, to wit, free; for the word is used of men's dismissing their wives or their servants, whom they left to their freedom. Thou hast an unbridled tongue, and castest off all restraints of God's law, and of thy own conscience, and givest thy tongue liberty to speak... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou dost not only speak evil in a sudden passion, or upon some great provocation, but this is thy constant and deliberate practice and business, which thou dost pursue with great facility and complacency; all which this phrase implies. THY BROTHER; strictly so called, as the next clause explains it... [ Continue Reading ]
I KEPT SILENCE; I did not express my displeasure against thee in such grievous judgments as thou didst deserve. Or, _I was deaf_; I carried myself like one that did not hear thy sinful speeches, nor see or take any notice of thy wicked actions. And thou didst misconstrue and abuse this my patience a... [ Continue Reading ]
YE THAT FORGET GOD; ye hypocritical and ungodly Israelites, who have _forgotten_ (as Moses foretold you would do, DEUTERONOMY 32:18) _the God that formed you_, and made you his people, and forgotten his mercies and judgments, by which you should have been instructed, and the covenant which you made... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAISE; or, _thanksgiving_ as this word is rendered, PSALMS 50:14. SEE POOLE ON "PSALMS 50:14". GLORIFIETH ME; he and he only gives me the honour that I require and prize, and not he who loads my altar with a multitude of sacrifices; whereby you vainly and falsely conceit that you please and glorify... [ Continue Reading ]