Psalm 50

PSALM L.

THE Psalm contains a rebuke to the hypocrites, who thought to satisfy God by going through the round of outward services, and keeping the law on their lips. As formerly, at the giving of the law on Sinai, so now God appears on Zion for the explanation of it, and for judgment against its transgressors, ver. 1-6. He discovers first, after an introduction in ver. 7, in ver. 8-15, the reigning errors in reference to the first table of the law, and shews wherein the true service of God consists. We have not to do with him about the external sacrifices as such. For were he to be served with these, since he is the Lord of all that lives, they are at his command in infinite fulness, so that he does not need to apply to men for them, ver. 8-12; and how, indeed, could he be served therewith, since he is a spirit? ver. 13. Just because he is this, it is only spiritual sacrifices that could be acceptable to him, a heart full of gratitude and love, ver. 14, 15. From the first table of the law, the discourse turns in ver. 16-21, to the second. It reproves those who have the law of God constantly in their mouth, and, at the same time, wickedly transgresses it in their behaviour towards their neighbour. In an impressive conclusion, ver. 22 and 23, the subject of God’s discourse is briefly resumed. Asaph is named in the superscription as author. The most natural supposition, that this Asaph is identical with him, who in 1 Chron. xv. 17, 19, is named as one of the first aster-musicians of David, and in 2 Chron. xxix. 30, (comp. xxv. 1,) along with David as a composer of Psalms, has nothing against it in the contents. The fundamental thought, that the sacrifice of the heart is alone well pleasing to God, is also declared in the following Psalm composed by David, which, on account of this very agreement, has been placed immediately after it. The times of David presented very peculiar occasion for giving emphatic announcement to this thought—comp. the introd. to Ps. xv. and to Ps. xxiv. It is remarkable, that the voice against the false estimate of the external worship of God, proceeded from the quarter which was expressly charged with its obligation. Asaph, according to 1 Chron. vi. 24, was of the tribe of Levi. We have still some remarks to make on the doctrinal matter of the Psalm. The less that sinful man is able to conceal from himself, that God has demands to make upon him, the more important does he feel it to have God for a friend, and also the more difficult to present what alone is truly well-pleasing to him. Hence, in order to silence the voice of conscience, he makes all sorts of efforts to be quit of him on easier terms through somewhat external. Now, under the Old Covenant, this feeling ran out upon the sacrifices and the other holy services. The opposition between the moral and the ceremonial law is not properly that of the internal and the external; it is rather of the naked, and of the veiled internal. Every ceremonial law is moral; the external action is always commanded simply for the sake of the internal, which it expresses, represents. There is never body without spirit. But the fleshly sense savours not the spirit, and cleaves simply to the body, which thus isolated becomes a corpse. Now, if the revelation under the Old Covenant had been confined to the law of Moses, there had been room for the complaint, that in it this error had not been more decidedly testified against. There are found in it in this respect only some scattered indications, comp. for example, Gen. iv. 3—5, where with an external similarity the sacrifices of Cain and Abel are different in their results with God, and this difference is carried back to the diversities belonging to their personal state, which amounts to an explicit declaration, that the sacrifice derived its significance only as an expression of the internal condition, Lev. xxvi. 31. But Moses himself points to the continuation of the revelation, when he announces the sending of the prophets as divinely called expositors of the law. And these executed their commission in this respect, in so powerful a manner, that only the most settled waywardness could continue in error, comp. for example Isa. lxvi.; Jer. vii. 22; Mic. vi.7. With them the Psalmists also unite, especially the author of this Psalm, who, with the view of again disclosing the misapprehended import of the law, makes God appear in the same majesty on Zion, in which he formerly appeared at the first giving of the law on Mount Sinai.

The Psalm has been in many ways misunderstood. The entire rejection of the Mosaic sacrificial worship has been supposed to lie here. Hence the older expositors refer it to the times of the New Testament, and to the abolition of the Mosaic worship through Christ; while the later would find enlightened, that is, naturalistic manner of thinking, comp. the refutation of the latter view in the Ev. K. Z. A. D. 1835, p. 641,ss. As well might one conclude from the words of H. Müller, in his Epistolical Schlusskette, p. 858: “Also has existing Christianity four dumb church-idols, after which it follows, the baptismal font, the pulpit, the confessional, the altar,” that he wished to abolish baptism, preaching, confession, and the communion.

Ver. 1. God, the almighty, the Lord speaks, and calls the earth, from the rising of the sun even unto its going down.

Ver. 2. From Zion, the perfection of beauty, shines forth God.

Ver. 3. Come will our God, and he does not keep silence, fire devours before him, and round about him it is very tempestuous.

Ver. 4. He calls to the heavens above, and the earth, that he judges his people.

Ver. 5. “Gather to me my saints, who close with my covenant on sacrifice.”

Ver. 6. And then declare the heavens his righteousness, for God judgeth. Selah.

First, in ver. 1, the whole manifestation is brought out in a brief outline, and then it is delineated more in detail. The expression: he speaks, so early as in the outline, points to this, that the discourse of the Lord, as afterwards recorded in ver. 7-23, is that to which all the rest is subservient. The three names of God stand in apposition according to the accents, comp. against the exposition: of the God of gods, my Beitr. P. II. p. 261. The heaping up of names must fill the hypocrites with terror, as these bring before their eyes the majesty of him, whose judgment they underlie. In the relation of these designations there is a gradation. Elohim is more than El., to which its singular Eloah is equivalent. The plural marks the fulness and the richness of the divine nature. Jehovah is the highest name according to its derivation—it marks God as the only real being—and, according to the usage also, which ascribes to Jehovah the most glorious manifestations of God to and in behalf of his people, comp. Beitr, as above. That the earth is called upon not properly to be itself judged, but only to be present at the judgment upon his covenant-people, is expressly declared in ver. 4, and is abundantly apparent from the whole contents of the Psalm. That the earth and the heavens (ver. 4,) come into view not properly as productions and servants of God in judgment, (Stier) but only as witnesses— thatthey are merely called upon to be present in order to make the scene more solemn, in order to shew, that the transaction which is here taking place, and the discourse that sets it forth, is of the greatest moment, justly handled by the highest of all authorities, and belonging to him, appears from the comp. of all the parallel passages of the Old Testament. Particularly decisive is here Deut. iv. 26, “I take to witness against you this day heaven and earth, that ye shall soon utterly perish,” where the calling upon heaven and earth cannot possibly have any other signification, than that of giving solemnity to the scene. Comp. besides, Deut. xxxii. 1, which is properly to be regarded as the original passage, Isa. 2.— fypvh in ver. 2, prop. to make, to glitter, or shine, then to appear shining, to shine, is here, as in Ps. lxxx. 1, borrowed from Deut. xxxiii. 2. That the Lord appears not from heaven, but from Zion, shews that the judgment to be held is a theocratic one. From this already it is evident, that the Psalmist, throughout, proceeds on theocratic ground, and that its design cannot be to abolish the sacrificial worship, which stood in closest connection with the theocracy, and especially with the presence of the Lord on Mount Zion. In what sense Zion is named the perfection of beauty, (which Luther, after the LXX. falsely refers to God,) is clear from what has been remarked on Ps. xlviii. 2.—The expression: our God, in ver. 3, points to the ground of the appearance of the Lord. As Israel’s God, who having given much, also requires much, he could no longer overlook the great misapprehension of his law. Instead of: he does not keep silence, several have: he is not silent. But there is no ground for this ungrammatical rendering, (the lx always denies subjectively.) That he does not keep silence, has for its foundation: he is not silent, and, besides, implies, that what God is going to do, is in accordance with the wishes of the Psalmist. This indication of being well pleased with the doing of the Lord is very common with the prophets and the Psalmists. The discourse in the proper sense, as it follows in ver. 7-23, forms primarily the contrast to the keeping silence. But on that immediately follows, if this first step in the way of chastisement has no effect, the matter-of-fact discourse, comp. ver. 21. On the words: fire eats out of his mouth, for, out of his mouth goes devouring fire, comp. Ps. xviii. 8. hrfwn, it storms, comp. Ew. § 552. Fire and storm, as symbols of the anger of God, his punitive righteousness, as here combined in the often misunderstood passage 1 Kings xix. 11, 12. The fire alone already meets us in this quality in the pillar of fire and cloud, comp. especially Ex. xxiv. 17. In Deut. xxxii. 22, the divine indignation, by which Israel is consumed, appears under the image of a great fire, comp. 2 Thess. i. 8. In Deut. iv. 24, ix. 3, pleb. xii. 29, God himself is described as consuming fire, on account of his punitive righteousness, his indignation against sin. The Psalmist manifestly alludes here to the frightful manifestations at the giving of the law, Ex. xix. 16, xx. 15. The appearances mentioned here have, in common with those there, the object spoken of in Ex. xx. 17, “that his fear may be upon you, that you sin not.” They must fill the heart with holy fear before the heavenly judge, while they place behind the foreground of chastising words, a background of avenging deeds. The judging mentioned in verse 4, is, according to the remarks made on ver. 1, not to be explained of others: that they may judge, but that he may judge, for behoof of the judgment to be held by him upon his people. After the Lord has appeared in the place of judgment, and all the witnesses are already assembled there, he gives in ver. 5 the command to bring the accused before him. The call is addressed to the (ideal) servants of the divine judgment. If the Psalmist had spoken more definitely, he would have named the angels, comp. Matt. xxiv. 31. It is at first sight strange, that those, whom the Lord will judge as transgressors of his covenant, should be described as his saints. But the allusion to the
height of their standing and destiny is particularly fitted to cause shame, on account of their present actual condition. Quite analogous is Deut. xxxii. 15, where Israel, in the very midst of the representation of his shameful revolt, is called Jeshurun—comp. the Jesharim of the whole people, in Num. xxiii. 10; analogous is Isa. xlii. 19, “Who is blind, if not my servant, and deaf as the messenger, whom I send? who is blind as the devotee of God, and blind as the servant of the Lord?” Hbz ylf is commonly expounded: under sacrifices, q. d. under sanction of sacrifices, comp. Ex. xxiv. 4-8. But as the words, when so understood, are almost unnecessary, and as justice is scarcely done thereby to the preposition, it is better to explain: who think of making a covenant upon sacrifice, upon the foundation, or under the condition of the sacrifice presented by them. Comp. lf of the foundation, upon which any thing rests, Gen.xxvii. 40, Deut. 3. The misunderstanding of the stipulated sacrifice, in the presentation of which, when spiritually considered, the whole obligation of the people of God consisted, is set forth and censured in what follows, so that the words, thus understood, very fitly designate the theme of the succeeding context. Now, when beside the witnesses the accused are also gathered, the judgment begins: and then the heavens declare, etc., ver. 6. The heavens declare the righteousness of God in so far as the judicial voice of God, manifesting his righteousness, sounds forth from thence, comp. Ex. xx. 19, to which the expression: for God judges, of course with words, makes express allusion. Through the partic. Fpw “the action is treated as a firm, abiding image before the eyes,” q. d. he is in the judging, comp. Ew. § 350. xvh is the copula, Ew. § 548.

Ver. 7. Hear, my people, and let me speak, Israel, let me conjure thee: God, thy God am I.

Ver. 8. Not on account of thy sacrifices will I chastise thee, and thy burnt-offerings are continually before me.

Ver. 9. I will not take out of thy house bullocks, nor he-goats out of thy flocks.

Ver. 10. For mine are all the beasts of the forest, the cattle upon the hills, where they go by thousands.

Ver. 11. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and what moves upon the field is known to me.

Ver. 12. Were I hungry, I would not tell thee, for mine is the world and what fills it.

Ver. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats.

Ver. 14. Offer to God praise, and so pay to the highest thy vows.

Ver. 15. Then call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou wilt praise me.

With ver. 7 begins the speech of God, as judge introduced in the preceding verse. Upon the imperative with the vau of consequence, comp. Ew. § 618. dyfh with 2 signifies here, as not rarely, to protest, imploringly and with the solemnity of an oath to warn. The commencement: God, thy God am I, serves the same purpose, as the preface at the giving of the law in Ex. xx. 2. It is intended to prepare the way for the following discourse. The same design serve also the descriptions of the persons addressed. On the one side, my people and Israel, the people of God and of the covenant, on the other side God, the God of heaven and of earth, thy God, the God, who had bound Israel to himself by so many benefits, had purchased his obedience so dearly. The sense of ver. 8, not the outward sacrifices, which ye regularly bring, but something much greater is the object of my accusation. In this verse it is clear, that if the outward sacrifices had not been offered, this would also have been a ground of complaint. There follow in ver. 9, ss. the grounds on account of which, God concerned himself so little about the outward sacrifices as such—first in ver. 9-12, if he needed the sacrifices, still he would not require to seek them from men, as his whole creation stood at his command; then in ver. 13 his spirituality, from which the outward sacrifices, as such, could yield him no satisfaction. On the v in vtyH, ver. 10, borrowed from Gen. i. 24, see Ew. § 507. The hills of the thousand, the hills where thousands of beasts are found. As the expression: I know, so also the with me in ver. 11 is to be referred to the knowledge. Knowledge and possession are here inseparable from one another, just as omniscience cannot exist without omnipotence, and universal dominion. In ver. 14 and 15, the true sacrifices are set forth in the place of the false, and a rich blessing promised to their presentation, the obligation in verse 14, the reward in verse 15. Praise (hdvt has only this meaning) is here mentioned merely for the sake of individualizing, as one species of the inward worship, performed by the heart, in opposition to the purely external. But much account is made of thanksgiving. John Arnd: “The giving of thanks comprehends many virtues in itself—acknowledgment of God as the fountain of all good; fear of God, namely the childlike fear, which receives all benefits from God as a child from the father; humility, confessing that we have nothing of ourselves, but obtain all from God,” etc. The expression: And pay, is q. d. so wilt thou pay, comp. on the imperative fut. Ew. § 618. Vows consisted in great part of thank-offerings, comp. Lev. vii. 11, 16, Ps. cxvi. 17, 18. He only who has rendered the substance of this thank-offering, thanks, has truly paid his vow. The common import put upon: and pay, as conveying an admonition, is inadmissible, because it takes the expression, of paying the vows without farther explanation, in a spiritual sense. The whole 15th verse is of a promissory nature. It announces the reward which is appointed for the spiritual worship of God. Whoever thanks God in the right manner for deliverance obtained, he may console himself in the time of distress with the assured hope of a new deliverance. Then call upon me, is q. d. if thou dost then call upon me, comp, Ew. § 618. Thou wilt praise me, thou wilt have occasion to do this. The: call upon me, cannot be taken as a command to trust in God in the time of trouble. Hypocrites also call on God in their way.

Via E.W. Hengstenberg’s Commentary on the Psalms, Volume II.