Psalms 50:1-23 - G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The singer addresses himself in the name of God to the whole earth, that it may hear and learn an important lesson. The call is made in the first verse. The final appeal is in verses Psalms 50:22-23.

The lesson is that forgetfulness of God issues in gravest peril, while the remembrance which worships ensures the blessing of salvation. Between the call to attention and the final appeal the psalmist sings of the relation between God and His own (verses Psa 50:2-15), and then of the attitude of God to the wicked. As for the former, they are to be the medium of His praise. God shone forth out of Zion. To do this the saints are to be gathered to Him, that, through them He may be manifested in power and righteousness. Their gathering is not because of any sacrifice they can bring of things already belonging to God, but wholly on the basis of praise and trust. The wicked can have no part in such manifestation of God, and therein lie their chief sin and failure.

This is a thought of most searching power. Our most heinous sin is not the act of wrong done, but the fact that such wrong incapacitates us from fulfilling our highest function of glorifying God, and showing forth His praise.

Related Commentaries of Psalms 50:1

Psalms 50:1-23

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.a

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 castest my words behind thee.

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

19 Thou givestb 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.