Psalms 50:1-10

A Psalm of Asaph.

Whether this means that Asaph wrote it, or that it was committed to him to sing, we do not know. Certainly Asaph did write some Psalms. There are twelve ascribed to him in the book of Psalms. He wrote some, and it is equally certain that some ethers were dedicated to him. He had the leadership of the orchestra, who sang the Psalm in the temple. This is a very marvelous Psalm. If we only consider the poetry of it, it is one of the chief of the Psalms, but its matter is very deep august. It should be read with great reverence of spirit. The Psalm begins with a prologue in which the scene is introduced. God is represented as coming forth out of Zion to judge those who profess to be his people to discern between the precious and the vile to separate between mere professors and pretenders. The first six verses represent God as coming.

Psalms 50:1. The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

The Hebrew hath it, «El Elohim, Jehovah hath spoken» three names of God great and mysterious the strong God, the only God, the self-existent God. He speaks calls upon the whole earth from the east to the west to listen to his voice.

Psalms 50:2. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

There he dwelt. Now in this scene he is represented as shining forth from it. As he had described the earth as being lighted by the sun from the east to the west, so now God himself, who at first speaks and demands a hearing, now shines forth with beams of glory which altogether eclipse the brightness of the sun. «Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.»

Psalms 50:3. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

The voice was heard saying that God would come, and then the beams of glory which warned men that he was coming; and here his people stand attentive, expecting him to come. «They expect him to speak.» Fire and rushing wind are usually used in Scripture as attendants of the throne of God, fire representing justice in action, and the tempest representing his power when it is displayed. Think of God's coming thus. The poet here pictures it, but it will be so in very deed. «The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon thee that know not God.» He will even came after this manner, «for our God is a consuming fire.»

Psalms 50:4. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Do you catch the thought? There comes the great Judge with the fire burning before him. He rides upon a cherub yea, rides upon the wings of the wind, and then he calls heaven, with all the angels and glorified spirits,

and he calls to earth, with all its inhabitants, to stand and witness what he does while he judges his people.

Psalms 50:5. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

God has a separated and chosen people. It will be a part of the proceedings at the last great day to gather these together unto God. There will be a day when he will make up his jewels a time when he will gather his wheat into his garner. But as this Psalm stands, this is a large gathering. It refers to a picture of all professing saints being brought before the throne of God true saints that made a covenant with God by sacrifice. They see Jesus Christ, who ratifies the covenant of grace by blood, and they have laid their hands on Christ, and the covenant made between them and God. But there were others in the Psalmist's day who had offered sacrifice and pretended to have made a covenant with God, and there are their representatives in these days. They are now to be gathered before the throne of judgment, for God has come to judge them.

Psalms 50:6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

The very heavens, as they look down upon the august assize where God himself, not by deputy, but in the person of his dear Son, shall sit and judge the heavens shall declare his righteousness. Now I doubt not the heavens often wonder how it is that God permits the ungodly to be mixed with the righteous in his Church. But ah! when the fan shall be in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his floor when he shall lay justice to the line and righteousness to the plummet the angels shall wonder at the exactness and accuracy of the divine judgment. «Selah.' Pause, rest, consider, admire, adore, humble yourself, pray. It is good to have a pause when such a scene as this is before us. Now from the 5 th verse down to the 15 th verse you have God's dealing with his people. The Judge is sitting on the throne. He begins to speak thus:

Psalms 50:7. Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

It is with his national people, the Jews; it is with his visible Church, God is now dealing. He himself has seen the ways of his professing people: he need not, therefore, call any witnesses. He who cannot err will testify against us; and he declares himself here not only as God, but under that name, «thy God.» It was thus the law began. «I am the Lord thy God that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage.» It is thus the judgment and rebuke begin: «I am God, even thy God.»

Psalms 50:8. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

He is going to deal with weightier matters than that. Whether they have, or have not, offered abundant sacrifices, that is not the thing which God looks at. «I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices. Nay, I have done with thy sacrifices.»

Psalms 50:9. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

«Do you think that these things in themselves are of any value to me. O ye formalists? I will not even take them.»

Psalms 50:10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Though men call them theirs, yet they are thy God's.