Psalm 50
The Mighty One Calls
A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from where the sun rises to where it sets.
² From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
³ Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.
⁴ He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people:
⁵ “Gather to Me My saints, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
⁶ And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge.1 Selah
⁷ “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God.
⁸ I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
⁹ I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,
¹⁰ for every beast of the forest is Mine— the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine.
¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
¹⁵ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
¹⁶ To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you.
¹⁸ When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.
¹⁹ You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
²⁰ You sit and malign your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.
²¹ You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was 2 just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.3
²² Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
²³ He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me, and to him who rightly orders his way, I will show the salvation of God.”