1 A psalm of Asaph. God (El), Elohim-Jehovah, hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
3 Our God will come and not be silent: a fire before him shall devour, and around him it shall be very tempestuous.
4 He calleth to the heavens from above and to the earth to judge his people.
5 Gather unto me my saints making my covenant by (over) sacrifice.
6 And the heavens declare his righteousness for God [is] judge himself. Selah.
7 Hear, my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto (against) thee: God, thy God [am] I.
8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices and thy burnt offerings continually before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, [nor] he-goats out of thy folds.
10 For mine [is] every beast of the forest, cattle upon a thousand hills;
11I know every bird of the mountains, and the moving creature of the field [is] mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for mine [is] the world and its fulness.
13 Should I eat the flesh of bulls (strong ones), and drink the blood of he-goats?
14 Sacrifice unto God thanksgiving and pay unto the Most High thy vows;
15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
16 And to the wicked God saith, What [is it] to thee, to declare my statutes, and take my covenant into thy mouth?
17 And thou hast hated correction, and hast cast my words behind thee.
18 If thou sawest a thief, thou didst take pleasure in him, and with adulterers [was] thy portion.
19 Thy mouth thou hast sent out (let loose) to evil, and thy tongue framed! deceit.
20 Thou sittest, thou speakest against thy brother; against thy mother’s son thou utterest slander.
21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest I was altogether, like thee. I will reprove thee and set [them] in order before thine eyes.
22 Now consider this, forgetters of God (Eloah), lest I tear [you] in pieces, and there be no deliverer.
23 He that sacrificeth praise glorifieth me, and to him that ordereth [his] way will I show the salvation of God.
Notes on Psalm 50
It is “A psalm of Asaph.” Here it is God’s call to judgment, not yet of the dead but of the earth, and of those that know His law in particular.