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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee.

18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.

21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

I like to read the Psalm for the day several times on my own first and sort out my thoughts and impressions of what I think it is teaching before checking myself against someone else, usually C. H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. Spurgeon summed up the divisions of this Psalm nicely in this paragraph: “The Lord is represented as summoning the whole earth to hear his declaration, Ps 50:1-6; he then declares the nature of the worship which he accepts, Ps 50:7-15, accuses the ungodly of breaches of the precepts of the second table, Ps 50:16-21, and closes the court with a word of threatening, Ps 50:22, and a direction of grace, Ps 50:23.” For an expert study of this Psalm, see the rest of Spurgeon’s commentary on it here: in fact, I wonder what in the world I am doing saying anything about this Psalm when so many others have done a much better job thatn I ever could! But it is an exercise in studying the passage for me, and I do get a lot from it in thinking through it this way.

I won’t go over it verse by verse or section by section this time, but here are just a few thoughts.

— Sometimes these days people forget this view of God as the righteous Judge. He is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and ready to forgive. But as the Creator and as God alone, He has the right to “make the rules,” so to speak, and to deal with those who won’t come to Him for forgiveness for not following His way. Even His warnings may be seen as merciful because they are designed to lead people to repentance before it is too late.

— Like Israel, we can sometimes forget to do what’s required of us or do it in a way that is just “going through the motions” without any heart behind it. God doesn’t “need” our service any more than He “needed” Israel’s sacrifices, but He requires the service out of a right heart of gratitude. I like what Spurgeon said about this:

No longer look at your sacrifices as in themselves gifts pleasing to me, but present them as the tributes of your gratitude; it is then that I will accept them, but not while your poor souls have no love and no thankfulness to offer me. The sacrifices, as considered in themselves, are contemned, but the internal emotions of love consequent upon a remembrance of divine goodness, are commended as the substance, meaning, and soul of sacrifice. Even when the legal ceremonials were not abolished, this was true, and when they came to an end, this truth was more than ever made manifest. Not for want of bullocks on the altar was Israel blamed, but for want of thankful adoration before the Lord. She excelled in the visible, but in the inward grace, which is the one thing needful, she sadly failed. Too many in these days are in the same condemnation.

— Verse 15 is often quoted by itself, “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me,” but it is a continuation of the sentence in verse 14: “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

— Verse 21: “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Sometimes we mistake God’s mercy and longsuffering for indulgence. When we do wrong and there are no immediate consequences, we think He hasn’t seen, or if He has, like a kindly grandfather in the sky He will pat us on the head and overlook our wrongdoing. But forgiveness is not the same thing as overlooking sin: forgiveness involves facing up to wrongdoing and repenting of it.

— On the first part of verse 23, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me,” Spurgeon says,

Thanksgiving is a God exalting work. Though nothing can add the least cubit to God’s essential glory, yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others. Praise is a setting forth of God’s honour, a lifting up of his name, a displaying the trophy of his goodness, a proclaiming his excellency, a spreading his renown, a breaking open the box of ointment, whereby the sweet savour and perfume of God’s name is sent abroad into the world.

— The last part of verse 23 can be a little confusing: “to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” It makes it sound like we’re saved after we correct our actions, but many other verses say that we’re saved by God’s grace, and then with His power and out of gratitude we get things right in our lives. The word “salvation” in the Bible, though, doesn’t always mean deliverance from the penalty and power of our sins: sometimes it means rescue from trouble. Since the first part of this verse seems to be addressed to believers (“whose offereth praise…”) perhaps the meaning of this second part of the verse is similar to Psalm 66:18: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” A believer can’t expect God to hear and answer prayer if he is walking around with known and unconfessed sin in his life. But once we have confessed that sin to God, we have the confidence that He will answer prayer. Verse 22 is a call to those who “forget God” to heed His warning and repent; verse 23 seems to be a reminder to God’s people that He wants true heart worship, right motives behind a right life, not just a lifeless outer obedience. If you have another “take” on this verse, let me know.

Our Psalms Sunday hostess, Erica at Butterfly Kisses, does not yet have the link up for this weeks Psalm Sunday, but she probably will one day this week. I usually wait until she does so to post my Psalms Sunday thoughts, but I wanted to do it as close to Sunday as possible, even though I am a day late already.