BOOK 19 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Psalms 50

Psalms book home•Chapter 50 of 150•23 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Psalms 50 Overview

Asaph pictures God as Judge, rejects the idea that He needs Israel's sacrifices, calls for thanksgiving and obedience, and rebukes hypocrites who recite His covenant while practicing evil.

PsalmsBook

50Chapter

23Verses

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Before you read Psalms 50

Coming from

Psalm 49 centered on riches cannot redeem a life from death. Psalms is an anthology rather than a continuous chronological story, so the connection here is canonical and thematic.

In this chapter

Asaph pictures God as Judge, rejects the idea that He needs Israel's sacrifices, calls for thanksgiving and obedience, and rebukes hypocrites who recite His covenant while practicing evil.

Leads into

Psalm 51 turns to a broken sinner seeks cleansing and restoration, continuing the Psalter’s arranged movement without requiring that the two psalms describe consecutive historical events.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Psalm 50 belongs to Book II of the Psalter (Psalms 42–72). The psalm does not abolish Mosaic sacrifices; it condemns sacrificial ritual separated from covenant faithfulness and gratitude.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

God summons His covenant people to true worship.

Judgment truth

In Psalm 50, moral judgment finally belongs to God, who sees what human courts and observers may miss.

Worship truth

In Psalm 50, worship is anchored in God’s holiness, works, and covenant faithfulness rather than empty ritual.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Judgment connection

Deuteronomy 32:35 reserves vengeance to God. This connection helps frame Psalm 50.

Worship connection

John 4:23-24 teaches that true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This connection helps frame Psalm 50.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep judgment in context

Distinguish the temporal, national, and judicial settings in Psalm 50 from final eternal judgment where the text itself does not equate them.

Keep worship in context

Do not assume every old-covenant worship form named in Psalm 50 is automatically a command for New Testament church practice.

Read Psalms 50 watching for…

God shines Zion.

gather saints.

sacrifices not God's food.

offer thanksgiving.

hypocrite recites statutes.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6God summons heaven and earth as he comes to judge his people 7-15God does not need Israel’s sacrifices but calls for thanksgiving and trust 16-23God rebukes the wicked for hypocrisy and calls for ordered conduct and praise

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

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

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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Psalms 50:8

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