This Psalm is most solemn because it brings all people whether they be saints or sinners, the Church or the world into the presence of God to be judged by Him. This judgement, however, is not taking place on the last great day but today in the House of God. In the Psalm 50 God is calling out of Zion, where the temple was located, gathering His people in Jerusalem. This reminds us that worship is not only a time for praise and the hearing of God’s Word – it is also a time for judgement. God’s Word analyses our hearts, inspects our spirits making us accountable. This is the true meaning of the famous and often quoted New Testament text which is in itself a commentary upon the 50th Psalm:

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

1 Peter 4:17

When we hear God’s Word, He is speaking to us, He is challenging and exhorting…more and more we must have the sense of divine as we assemble.

1: THE JUDGE; Psalm 50:1-3

The Psalmist begins with three Hebrew words for God:

El – translated mighty.

Elohim – the first word for the God of creation scripture.

LORD or Jehovah – the unchanging covenant God of Israel.

In these verses He is described in fearful terms denoting His holiness; there is a fire and a tempest about Him.

He is the one with authority over the whole earth; “from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof”.

It is out of Zion though that we see His beauty and the light. Likewise it is only within the Church of Christ that we view the the glory of Christ in the Gospel of grace. As a consequence the great God of eternity becomes “our God” (v3).

2: THE SUMMONS; Psalm 50:4-6

The solemnity with which God calls the heaven and the earth to bear witness as He assembles His people together should not be lost on us. It is God who summons us to to the Lord’s House in order that we might hear His Word. As the minister calls the people to worship He does so as God’s representative.

The people who are summonsed are in a covenant relationship with God. This argues for responsibility and accountability. Purchased with the blood of His Son we are called by God to hear His Word and be judged by it.

3: THE SAINTS; Psalm 50:7-15

The remainder of the Psalm is taken up with the address of God people.

Authority

He begins with a call to hear as He speaks (v7). He stresses His unique authority because He is “God, even thy God”. In speaking, however, He gives notice that He will testify against them. He examines our hearts; He reads our thoughts; He hears every secret word; He sees every covert action. He bears witness to all things. We should pray that God would deal with our hearts and give us honesty as we are exposed to His authority.

Formality

The next section appears a little strange as He refuses to rebuke Israel for not offering sacrifices. Strange – because the entire nature of the Old Testament economy appears to argue for offerings, yet in this place and time God doesn’t require them.

He proceeds to use the often quoted, yet misinterpreted, words that “every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills”. We quote these words as a comfort that nothing is too great for God, BUT this is not what God is saying here, even though it is true.

In today’s language God is NOT looking for our Sabbath keeping, our church attendance, our praying, our Bible studies, our kind actions ect…! We know He wants us to do these things as He wanted Israel to offer sacrifices. Why does He then say “I will take no bullock out of thy house”?

For Israel religion had become a performance, a ritual, a superstition. It had also become an act of pride where the worshipper reckoned himself to be good merely because he presented God his offerings. Gods was in effect saying – don’t bring your sacrifices if your heart is not engaged. God was declaring that He owned the cattle upon a thousand hills, therefore He did not need their offerings. This would indicate that God’s people acted as if God needed them. In the words of John the Baptist to a later Jewish generation who had inflated egos:

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Matthew 3:9

God is not at all interested in our Bible studies, our prayers, our Sabbath keeping, our tithes and offerings, our public worship if our heart is not engaged. Not are we to think that God needs us or that any of us are indispensable in the work of the Church. The God who owns the heaven and the earth doesn’t need our giving but he delights in the sacrifice of faith, in the widow who gave her all out of devotion – that’s what He truly honours. This passage condemns our ritual and formality while at the same time it commends the heart of simple faith.

‘I will not receive thee for thy sacrifices’…for thy neglect of them, but for thy resting in them, sticking in the bark, bringing me the bare shell without the kernel, not referring to the right end and use, but satisfying thyself in the work done.

John Trapp (quoted in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David)

Encouragement

Verses 14-15 are a great encouragement to engage in true heart-felt worship because this denotes an intimate relationship with the great God of Heaven. It brings us into place of confidence, in the troublesome day that comes to us all. The knowledge that God is our faithful friend who never forsakes us and who is with us always, is wonderful beyond all our thoughts and imaginations.

God withholds from them that ask not, lest He should give to them that desire not.

Augustine of Hippo

4: THE WICKED; Psalm 50:16-23

Just as a Gospel minister must divide the congregation between the saved and the unsaved, so God turns His attention to the wicked gathered among the saints. In every gathering of the Church there are wicked hearts, who never had true faith, hearts that must hear the Word.

Pretence

Like Charles 2nd who signed the Scottish Covenant while later becoming the greatest enemy of the Gospel and persecutor of God’s children, the wicked in this Psalm had made fine promises and could speak truth yet their hearts were far from Him. God exposes sham faith where it exists (v.16-17).

Immorality

God exposed a hypocrisy that was deep rooted; they were a religious people who were tolerating theft and adultery by keeping company with such. They seemed to prefer the ungodly to the Lord’s true people, a fact which tells a lot about the heart (v.18-19).

Slander

The wicked delighted in gossip, in the spreading of falsehoods about others. The slander was particularly divisive because it would ferment strife within families, pitting brother against brother. The tongue used wrongly is set on fire of hell according to James while Proverbs talks about the talebearer’s words being like kindling, causing something destructive from what seems to be very small. We need to watch our words (v.20).

Ungodly

Ultimately these wicked people were most ungodly because they acted as if God “was such a one as thyself”. They appeared to suffer nothing for their sins, God was silent out of grace but they abused that grace as pretext for continuing. They did not recognise their accountability, they acted as if God were a man (v21). This negligence of God, this lack of reverence and fear is the very essence of ungodliness.

Reproof

Therefore God promises to reprove through setting forth the sins of these wicked people in order (v21). When God identifies our sin, this is a grace, it requires a response. Better to be shamed and humbled now when repentance is available than in the last great day when the day of grace will have vanished forever.

5: THE CHARGE; Psalm 50:22-23

The final charge, the climax of God’s address is presented to both sections of the congregation.

V22 is a terrible threat and warning that if the wicked do not turn from their ways, then a fearful day of reckoning and judgement is coming.

V23 is an encouragement and promise to the genuine and devoted worshipper, “I will show the salvation of God”.