Psalm 50

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A Psalm of Asaph

 1-6   El Elohim Adonai speaks and calls to the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. ² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. ³ Our God comes and does not keep silent. Before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest. ⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people: ⁵ “Gather to me My beloved ones, those covenanting with Me by sacrifice!” ⁶ The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge! Selah

7-15   “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. ⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before Me. ⁹ I shall not take a bull from your house or goats from your folds. ¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand mountains. ¹¹ I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is Mine. ¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine. ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, ¹⁵ and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

16-21   But to the wicked God says: “Why do you recite My statutes or take My covenant on your lips? ¹⁷ For you hate musar, and you cast My words behind you.

מוסר (musar) = “instruction + discipline + punishment”

 ¹⁸ If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. ¹⁹ You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. ²¹These things you have done, and I have been silent. You thought that I was like you. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

22-23   Understand this, then, you who forget God, lest you I tear apart, and there be none to deliver! ²³ The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

טרף (taraph) = “tear/tear apart”

REFERENCES:

Approbation

1Chronicles 15:16-17  David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari, their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah.

2Chronicles 29:30  And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to Adonai with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

Verse 1

Joshua 22:22  “El, Elohim, Adonai! El, Elohim, Adonai! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against Adonai, do not spare us today.”

Verse 3

Exo 24:17  Now the appearance of the glory of Adonai was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

Verse 4

Deuteronomy 4:25-26  “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of Adonai your God, so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.”

Deuteronomy 32:1  “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.”

Isaiah 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Adonai has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against Me.”

Verse 16

R’ S.R. Hirsch: “This is the most instructive and significant description of the character of a רשע [evil person], who is condemned here in the sharpest terms by God himself.”

Verse 17-21

Romans 2:17-23  But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the Torah and boast in God and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the Torah; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Torah dishonor God by breaking the Torah.

Verse 22

Hosea 6:1  “Come, let us return to Adonai; for He has torn (טרף, taraph) us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.”