Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 50:9

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 50:0 True worship

In a scene that displays his awesome majesty, God commands the whole world to stand before his judgment throne (1-3). He is the righteous judge of all the peoples of the world, and his first call to judgment concerns his own people, Israel (4-6).
God’s complaint against the Israelites is not that they have failed to offer sacrifices and offerings. Indeed, they have offered them continually (7-8). But God will not accept their offerings. Instead of offering their sacrifices in a spirit of humble worship, the people were offering them as if they were doing God a favour for which he should be thankful. They offered their sacrifices as if they were giving God something he needed. But God needs nothing; he already owns everything (9-11). The meat and blood of the sacrifices are of no material use to him. God is not like the mortal beings of earth who have to eat and drink to keep alive (12-13). The offerings that he accepts are those based on thanksgiving, obedience and complete trust (14-15).
Turning to judge those who are not his people, God condemns them for their disobedience, lies, adultery and slander (16-20). Because God does not act in immediate judgment against them, they think he approves of their behaviour. They are about to find out that such thinking is mistaken (21). They are warned of God’s terrible judgment and invited to accept his free salvation (22-23).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JUDGMENT BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt-offerings are 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 birds 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 the sacrifice of 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."

"Hear, O my people" All the world, from one end of the earth to the other, are present; but God's covenant people are the first to be judged. As an apostle said, "Judgment must first begin at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17); and so it is here. What a disappointment awaited Israel. They, no doubt, were primed to hear God's "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," but that is not what they heard.

It is unfair to call this a rebuke of "hypocrites," which is the standard approach to the passage. "The whole nation of Israel is here addressed."H. C. Leupold, p. 392. There has been a departure of "all Israel" from what God truly desired.

"I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices.., thy burnt-offerings are continually before me" This means that God was aware of Israel's careful observance of the sacrifices commanded in the Law of Moses. This verse admits that they were indeed observing all such things. "God does not here condemn Israel for the neglect of the outward sacrifices of religion."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 386. These they certainly had honored by their obedience; and God's approval of that is here stated.

However, something was dreadfully wrong. There was such a deficiency in Israel's sacrificial offerings that God here declared that he would absolutely refuse all of their sacrifices. Why? Only two things are cited in this whole paragraph; and that is in Psalms 50:14, where "thanksgiving" and "paying one's vows" are mentioned, with the implication that it was deficiency in those things that rendered their sacrifices unacceptable to God.

The commentaries are full of allegations about the hypocrisy, the immorality, the violence, and the evil that Israel was perpetrating at the same time they were offering all those sacrifices; but there's not a word in this text about any of that! Men have simply let their imagination run wild on that subject.

What is actually said here? It is simply this, God will abolish animal sacrifices! There is twenty-times as much in these verses regarding the inadequacy of animal sacrifices as there is regarding any deficiency of God's people. All of this points squarely to the New Covenant.

"Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving" This was indeed an animal sacrifice commanded under Moses Law, called a "Thank-offering"; and why were God's people here commanded to bring such a sacrifice? It was because of the "glorious good news" that God would terminate animal sacrifices altogether. When? That was not revealed here; but the faithful would indeed receive it as a fact, despite the fact of the realization of such a promise being reserved for the indefinite future.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

I will take no bullock out of thy house - Bullocks were offered regularly in the Hebrew service and sacrifice Exodus 29:11, Exodus 29:36; Leviticus 4:4; 1Ki 18:23, 1 Kings 18:33; and it is with reference to this that the language is used here. In obedience to the law it was right and proper to offer such sacrifices; and the design here is not to express disapprobation of these offerings in themselves considered. On this subject - on the external compliance with the law in this respect - God says Psalms 50:8 that he had no cause to complain against them. It was only with respect to the design and the spirit with which they did this, that the language in this verse and the following verses is used. The idea which it is the purpose of these verses to suggest is, that God did not “need” such offerings; that they were not to be made “as if” he needed them; and that if he needed such he was not “dependent” on them, for all the beasts of the earth and all the fowls of the mountains were his, and could be taken for that purpose; and that if he took what was claimed to be theirs - the bullocks and the goats - he did not wrong them, for all were his, and he claimed only his own.

Nor he-goats out of thy folds - Goats were also offered in sacrifice. Leviticus 3:12; Leviticus 4:24; Leviticus 10:16 : Numbers 15:27.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

9I will take no calf out thy house Two reasons are given in this and the succeeding verses to prove that he cannot set any value upon sacrifices. The first is, that supposing him to depend upon these, he needs not to be indebted for them to man, having all the fullness of the earth at his command; and the second, that he requires neither food nor drink as we do for the support of our infirm natures. Upon the first of these he insists in the ninth and three following verses, where he adverts to his own boundless possessions, that he may show his absolute independence of human offerings. He then points at the wide distinction betwixt himself and man, the latter being dependent for a frail subsistence upon meat and drink, while he is the self-existent One, and communicates life to all beside. There may be nothing new in the truths here laid down by the Psalmist; but, considering the strong propensity we have by nature to form our estimate of God from ourselves, and to degenerate into a carnal worship, they convey a lesson by no means unnecessary, and which contains profound wisdom, that man can never benefit God by any of his services, as we have seen in Psalms 16:2, “My goodness extendeth not unto thee.” In the second place, God says that he does not require any thing for his own us but that, as he is sufficient in his own perfection, he has consulted the good of man in all that he has enjoined. We have a passage in Isaiah to a similar effect,

“The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made.” — (Isaiah 66:1,)

In these words

God asserts his absolute independence; for while the world had a beginning, he himself was from eternity. From this it follows, that as he subsisted when there was nothing without him which could contribute to his fullness, he must have in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 50:1-23

Psalms 50:1-23 is divided into three categories. The first six verses deal with God who is speaking. In the Hebrew it begins, "El Elohim, Jehovah, hath spoken." God, singular; Gods, plural; and then the name Yahweh or Jehovah, hath spoken. "El Elohim," the El, God singular, is many times translated mighty, because it is that force concentrated, and thus, the thought of God as mighty. So it is translated,

The mighty God, even Jehovah, hath spoken ( Psalms 50:1 ),

God Gods, Elohim; or God Gods, Jehovah, hath spoken,

and he 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, he will not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him ( Psalms 50:1-3 ).

When our Lord comes again, breaking again into history... now there are those who have declared that God has alienated Himself from the earth, from man, and from history. In the last days Peter said, "Scoffers are going to come saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? Since our fathers have fallen asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning'" ( 2 Peter 3:3-4 ). "God has pulled away from His work, from His world, from His universe. He is allowing things now to just progress in an evolutionary order" is the word of scoffers. But Peter points out God has intervened in history before. These men are willingly ignorant of the flood where God intervened in history. Willingly ignorant of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, where God came in the flesh and dwelt among us.

And He is coming again. He is not going to keep silent. God has spoken. He is coming, and around Him and before Him the devouring fire of the Great Tribulation and this tempestuous movements about Him. When Jesus returns, the earth is going to be in the midst of the greatest carnage it has ever known. That battle of Armageddon will be in full swing. Blood will be flowing to the horses' bridles throughout the valley of Megiddo. Horrible carnage as man is unleashing all of his pent up anger and resentment and bitterness and hatred against each other. Culminating in this mad rebellion against God and seeing the climax of man's rebellion against God saying, "We don't want God to rule over us. We will rule over ourselves. We can live without God. We don't need God. We don't need to be confined by prudish laws or by restraining principles by which I am not allowed to follow the full desires of my own passions and flesh." And we will see the culmination of man's rebellion there in the valley of Megiddo. And while that battle is full swing, Jesus will come again. He'll set His foot on the Mount of Olives, and that thing is just going to split right through the middle. There is going to be... it's tempestuous. It's gonna be, the world will be in a tempestuous state at His coming.

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people ( Psalms 50:4 )

Gathering together the people for judgment.

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 ( Psalms 50:5-6 ).

And so God is speaking. He tells of the day that is coming, the day of His judgment. He is not going to keep silent forever. First of all, God addresses Himself now to His people, the second part of the psalm, beginning with verse Psalms 50:7 , and going through verse Psalms 50:15 . And God said,

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 ( Psalms 50:7-8 ).

"I don't have anything to say against the fact that you were faithful in your religious duties. You kept the sacrifices, the offerings there continually. You were very faithful in your religious duties." But God is saying that's not what it is about. "I don't want mechanical worship from you. I don't want your service to Me to be out of a sense of obligation or duty." So,

I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your folds: For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountain: 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 fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? ( Psalms 50:9-13 )

Now God is showing that the people had the wrong concept when they were bringing their sacrifices to Him. When they were giving to God they had just that idea, "Oh, I am giving to God." As though God had a need for me to give to Him. As though God needed me to supply the meat for His dinner tonight. So I will take one of the lambs out of my flock and I'll bring it to God so that He can have dinner tonight, for He is depending on me to feed Him. God said, "Look, I'm not hungry. If I were hungry I wouldn't tell you. Because the world is Mine and the fullness thereof. I wouldn't go to you."

It is manifestly wrong for us to give the assumption to people today that God is broke. I am tired of the letters that I get every week where God is in another financial crisis. "This is the greatest crisis we've ever faced in the history of our ministry, and God is going to have cut back His marvelous work. It is going to cease unless you send in twenty-five dollars this week." And these ministries that are facing one crisis after another. What a poor image they are giving of God to the world as they get on television with their sniffles and tell us how desperate God is. How He needs immediate, emergency action on your part to save Him from financial disaster. So that people are giving with the idea of helping God out. "Oh God, please don't file bankruptcy. Here! I will send You a check for five dollars." As though God is depending on me for support, and if I fail to support Him, His whole program is down the tubes. God doesn't want you to give with the idea of helping Him out. God doesn't want you to think that He is holding out a tin cup.

And God was upset with the people. "I am not hungry. If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I don't need you to supply Me for food. Do you think I am going to eat that dirty old goat out of your flock? You're kidding yourself. The reason why you are bringing a sacrifice isn't to feed Me. The reason why you are brining a sacrifice is that your sins might be covered in order that you might have restored fellowship with Me, and that is what I desire. Is meaningful, heartfelt fellowship with you. That's what I want. I don't need your money. I don't need your goats. I don't need your sheep. I want your fellowship. I want your love. I want your service to Me not to be a duty, not to be an obligation. I want it to be a response in love, your love to Me, so that we can have this close, beautiful fellowship with each other. Now sin has broken your fellowship; sin keeps you away. Therefore, bring a sacrifice so you can cover your sin. The sacrifice is for your benefit, to cover your guilt in order that you can have fellowship with Me." And that's the real thrust behind the sacrifice is restored fellowship with God that you might have this deep, heartfelt, intimate communion with Him.

Now the same with our giving to God today, it isn't to help God out. It isn't to keep God solvent. The giving is an expression of my love. "God, I love You so much. I appreciate so much what You have done for me. I want to do something for You, God." And I am giving with a heart of love. I am giving with a heart that is overflowing. I desire to give. I want to give. The Bible said your giving to God should never be grudgingly or out of constraint. You should never be giving by pressure. And using pressure methods to induce people to give is manifestly wrong. Boy, I would be embarrassed to stand before God when I got to heaven if I were guilty of some of these methods of raising funds for God. Oh man, I am going to enjoy just sitting back and just watch God rake them over the coals for the way they have represented Him. Watch Him as He shakes them until their teeth rattle. Making people think He is broke. Making people think that He is begging and has to beg in order to survive. What a blasphemous concept of God they are promoting.

And God doesn't want that kind of giving anyhow. God wants you to give out of a heart of love. Therefore, "As every man has purposed in his own heart, so let him give. For God loves a hilarious giver" ( 2 Corinthians 9:7 ). Oh, the way we motivate people, "Give and God is going to give back to you, measured out, pressed down, running over. Men are going to give unto your bosom. You give ten, God will give you a hundred." And we motivate them out of their own greed. We're using their own greed as a motivator to get them to give because, "Look what God is going to give to you. You just give to God and you will be driving, you know, limousines." And we're using carnal motivation, when in reality God doesn't want people giving out of that kind of motive. Thinking, "Oh boy, gonna give ten and gonna get a hundred. Man, that's neat. Give a hundred; get a thousand. All right! Give a thousand; get a million. You know, I'll get rich." What poor motivation for giving. "Oh God, I love You. God, I appreciate so much You've done. How can I do less than just give You my best. Give You my all, God. You have done so much for me. I had nothing; I deserve nothing, and yet, You have been so good. So rich unto me. You've blessed me so much, oh God. What can I give You, God?" And my giving to God is just out of a heart that's overflowing with love and appreciation. That's the kind of gift that God desires.

So God says, "Look, I am not hungry. I'm not hurting. I'm not broke. I would just assume that you not offer your sacrifices, except that you need to in order to come to Me. But what I want you to really offer to Me... now the sacrifice is for you; it's to cover your sin. That you can come to Me, but then offer to Me thanksgiving." I think we ought to keep a tally sheet this week. And let's keep a record of how many times we complain to God about things that aren't quite right. Things that we don't like, things that have gone wrong. And then keep another sheet on how many times I've stopped to just thank God for all that I have. I think that if we would really keep a tally on ourselves, we would be rather amazed at how much gripping and complaining we do and how little thanks we give. And yet, God wants our thanksgiving. God said,

Offer unto me thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High ( Psalms 50:14 ):

Now when I make a vow to God it is because I am conscious of the fact that I am not all that I should be, and I am promising God I am going to be better. David said, "I will pay the vows that I made to You in the day in which I was in trouble." And that is usually when you make a vow, when you are really in trouble. "Oh God, help me now. Just get me out of this mess and I promise, Lord, I am going to live a better life. Lord, just help me out of this and I promise this is what I am going to do." And when I am in trouble I make my vows to God.

But then when I get out of trouble, like the little kid sliding down the roof, crying out to God, "Oh God, help me. Help me, God. I am slipping. I am falling." And his pants got caught on a nail and he turned and said, "Never mind, God. The nail stopped me." And we forget God so quickly. We are willing to attribute the work to just circumstances or to coincidences. "Oh, that's all right, God. I don't need You any more." You know. And we forget the promises that we made. We forget the vows. We go on living the same old crummy life. Substandard in our Christian walk. Then we get in trouble, "Oh God, if You just get me out of this, I promise, this time really, Lord. Really and truly. Cross my heart and hope to die, Lord." You see, I am aware of my shortcomings. I am aware that I am not living the kind of life that I should. I am conscious of that. I am guilty. I know I am guilty. Now, I spend most of my life trying to cover my guilt and not let people know how guilty I am. But in my own heart I know that I am not all that I should be. And that's why, when I am in trouble, I make promises to God. But God is saying, "Hey, just keep your vows. Start living a right kind of a life."

And then call upon me in the day of trouble: and I will deliver you ( Psalms 50:15 ),

God so many times has said for us to call on Him in trouble. Jeremiah 33:1-26 , "Call upon Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Imagine God inviting you to call on Him. "Anytime you are in trouble, just call on Me."

I have a friend who gave me his card, and he said, "Anytime you're in trouble, just call this number." Oh man, does that make you feel good. Anytime you are in trouble, you've got a number to call. I have a friend who was in her eighties. She had a beautiful gift of exhortation to the body of Christ. She had a big old Cadillac, and she would drive across the country in this big old Cadillac, ministering in churches, exhorting the body of Christ across the country. Blessed little old saint. She had to sit up on a cushion to see over the dashboard. And she was in a meeting in Texas, and through her gift of exhortation, a wealthy man there in the meeting was really touched. And he came up to her and he said, "I am worried about you driving across the country in that big old car." It was an old Cadillac, and he said, "I own a fleet of trucks." And he said, "We have garages all over the country." And he said, "I want you to take my card and here is my number on it," and he said, "anytime, anywhere, when you need help, just call the number." And he said, "You are not far from one of my garages," and he said, "I will see that your car is towed in and that you are taken care of." And she smiled and handed the card back to him and said, "You know, that is a very generous offer and I want you to know that I appreciate it very much, but," she said, "for over sixty years I have been trusting in the Lord to take care of me, and He hasn't failed me yet. I don't know why I should accept a substitute."

God says, "Call upon Me in trouble. I will deliver you." Now when you can call on God, why should you accept a substitute? How beautiful it is that we can call upon God. "I will deliver you." And as a result of God's deliverance,

I will glorify him ( Psalms 50:15 ).

And that is the kind of praise that God desires. That praise that is a response to what He has done for me. Now God has said that to His people.

Now He is talking to the wicked, in the day of judgment.

But unto the wicked God says, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing that you hate instruction, and that you cast my words behind you ( Psalms 50:16-17 ).

Why should you come into the kingdom? Why should you come under the authority of My reigning and My ruling, seeing that you have hated instruction? You didn't want anything to do with Me.

When you saw a thief, you consented with him ( Psalms 50:18 ),

Now Jesus said that if a person tries to come into the kingdom any other way than by Me, the Door, he is a thief and a robber. And He said, "Now you have seen the way of thieves, people that have been trying to come in by other ways, and you consent with them."

It's amazing the weird things that people will believe when they reject Jesus Christ. The weird antics they will go through. The weird concepts they will take up. Otherwise intelligent, brilliant men. Some of the biggest spiritual dupes I have ever met are college professors who are constantly putting down Jesus Christ in the classroom. But they all have, it seems, their little quest in, you know, spiritism, or into this or that or the other weird thing, you know. Too intelligent for Jesus Christ. But trying to find another way. The Lord in the day of judgment said, "Hey, why should you try to come into My kingdom now? Why should you be a part of it? You have hated instruction. You've put My words behind you. When you saw a thief you consented with them,"

and you have been a partaker with adulterers ( Psalms 50:18 ).

That is, those of spiritual adultery. "You've been following other gods."

You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against thy brother; and you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I've kept silence; but you thought that I was altogether one such as you: but I will reprove thee, and set thee in order before thine eyes ( Psalms 50:19-21 ).

"Now you made the mistake, you've made the sad mistake of thinking that My silence was weakness. That because I was silent, I didn't care. That because I was silent it didn't matter." Because you weren't judged immediately you thought that God was approving. This is a mistake, and let me warn you, a mistake that many people make, even Christians who fall into a path of wickedness and sin. I have heard them say, I have had them say to me, "If what we are doing is so wrong, then why does God still bless our lives?" And they mistake the patience and the longsuffering and the grace of God as approval for their wickedness. Or that God is condoning the evil that they are doing. God will never condone wickedness. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is longsuffering. But make no mistake, He is not weak. And the day of judgment will come. And though it may seem that you are getting by with it because God hasn't already cut you off, because God hasn't already with a swift hand brought His judgment upon you, it doesn't mean that you are going to escape judgment. It doesn't mean that God won't judge, that God is too weak to judge, or that God approves what you are doing. Never. The day will come.

But it is fatal mistake for many people, for they have made a fatal mistake in thinking, "Because God hasn't judged me... " Here is guy that stands out in the field and says, "If there is a God up there in heaven, let Him strike me dead. Now see, that is a proof that there's no God, cause I am still here." God is so patient with us. But He's not weak. And He will come; He will judge.

Now consider this, you that forget God ( Psalms 50:22 ),

Just remember this, consider it.

lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver ( Psalms 50:22 ).

You better take note of this. I am not smiling. I am not approving. You better take careful note of that. For if you don't change, if you go on in your wickedness, there will be none to deliver.

The psalm closes with,

Whoso offereth praise glorifies me: and to him that ordereth his conversation ( Psalms 50:23 )

The word conversation is an old English word. The word literally means, "his manner of living." And if you'll just order your life, your manner of living, in the right way, God said,

I will show you my salvation ( Psalms 50:23 ).

Shall we pray.

Father, we pray that we might give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest we should drift away from them. For we know that if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and that if every trespass received a just recompense of reward, we know that there is no escaping if we neglect this great salvation that You have offered to us through Your Son Jesus Christ. Lord, help us that we might order our lives aright. Help us, Lord, to be giving thanks to You. Help us, Lord, to live up to what we know to be right. To pay our vows and to call upon You at all times, that You might work in our lives Your beautiful work of love and of grace. Lord, may we experience with the psalmist that great thirst after Thee. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness. That we might be filled and that we might overflow with Your love and with Your Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 50

This psalm pictures God seated in His heavenly throne room. He has two indictments against His people Israel. The wicked among them were hypocritical in their worship, a violation of the first part of the Decalogue, and in their interpersonal relationships, a violation of the second part. They needed to return to Him wholeheartedly. This is a didactic psalm written to teach God’s people an important lesson.

"This psalm is the speech of God, who addresses his covenant partner concerning matters of violated covenant. After the narrative introduction of Psalms 50:1-6, it is all one extended speech in the form of a decree with no room for negotiation." [Note: Breuggemann, p. 89.]

The Levitical musician, Asaph, evidently wrote this psalm, as well as Psalms 73-83 (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:4-5).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Charge 1: formalistic worship 50:7-15

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

He was not charging them with failure to offer the sacrifices He had prescribed. They had done that. They erred in thinking that offering sacrifices was all He expected. He reminded them that He did not need their offerings. He already owned everything they presented to Him. The pagans believed they maintained their gods by offering them food, but Yahweh reminded His people that He did not need their sacrifices.

"There is a note of sarcasm in the use of the pronoun ’your’ in ’your stall’ and in ’your pens’ (Psalms 50:9). It is as if God has heard them proudly say, ’This is my bull/goat from my stall/pen!’ To this boastful claim God responds solemnly with an emphatic ’mine’ (Psalms 50:10 . . .) and concludes his claim with a restatement of his ownership that would linger in the hearts of the hearers: ’mine’ (Psalms 50:11). His rule extends to all creation." [Note: Ibid., p. 375.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

I will take no bullock out of thy house,.... That is, will accept of none; such sacrifices being no more agreeable to the will of God, Hebrews 10:5; the "bullock" is mentioned, that being a principal creature used in sacrifice; as also the following,

[nor] he goats out of thy folds; the reasons follow.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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.   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.

      God is here dealing with those that placed all their religion in the observances of the ceremonial law, and thought those sufficient.

      I. He lays down the original contract between him and Israel, in which they had avouched him to be their God, and he them to be his people, and so both parties were agreed (Psalms 50:7; Psalms 50:7): Hear, O my people! and I will speak. Note, It is justly expected that whatever others doe, when he speaks, his people should give ear; who will, if they do not? And then we may comfortably expect that God will speak to us when we are ready to hear what he says; even when he testifies against us in the rebukes and threatenings of his word and providences we must be forward to hear what he says, to hear even the rod and him that has appointed it.

      II. He puts a slight upon the legal sacrifices, Psalms 50:8-13; Psalms 50:8-13, c. Now,

      1. This may be considered as looking back to the use of these under the law. God had a controversy with the Jews but what was the ground of the controversy? Not their neglect of the ceremonial institutions; no, they had not been wanting in the observance of them, their burnt-offerings had been continually before God, they took a pride in them, and hoped by their offerings to procure a dispensation for their lusts, as the adulterous woman, Proverbs 7:14. Their constant sacrifices, they thought, would both expiate and excuse their neglect of the weightier matters of the law. Nay, if they had, in some degree, neglected these institutions, yet that should not have been the cause of God's quarrel with them, for it was but a small offence in comparison with the immoralities of their conversation. They thought God was mightily beholden to them for the many sacrifices they had brought to his altar, and that they had made him very much their debtor by them, as if he could not h have maintained his numerous family of priests without their contributions; but God here shows them the contrary, (1.) That he did not need their sacrifices. What occasion had he for their bullocks and goats who has the command of all the beasts of the forest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills (Psalms 50:9; Psalms 50:10), has an incontestable propriety in them and dominion over them, has them all always under his eye and within his reach, and can make what use he pleases of them; they all wait on him, and are all at his disposal? Psalms 104:27-29. Can we add any thing to his store whose all the wild fowl and wild beasts are, the world itself and the fulness thereof? Psalms 50:11; Psalms 50:12. God's infinite self-sufficiency proves our utter insufficiency to add any thing to him. (2.) That he could not be benefited by their sacrifices. Their goodness, of this kind, could not possibly extend to him, nor, if they were in this matter righteous, was he the better (Psalms 50:13; Psalms 50:13): Will I eat the flesh of bulls? It is as absurd to think that their sacrifices could, of themselves, and by virtue of any innate excellency in them, add any pleasure of praise to God, as it would be to imagine that an infinite Spirit could be supported by meat and drink, as our bodies are. It is said indeed of the demons whom the Gentiles worshipped that they did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drink the wine of their drink-offerings (Deuteronomy 32:38): they regaled themselves in the homage they robbed the true God of; but will the great Jehovah be thus entertained? No; to obey is better than sacrifice, and to love God and our neighbour better than all burnt-offerings, so much better that God by his prophets often told them that their sacrifices were not only not acceptable, but abominable, to him, while they lived in sin; instead of pleasing him, he looked upon them as a mockery, and therefore an affront and provocation to him; see Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:11-23; Isaiah 66:3; Jeremiah 6:20; Amos 5:21. They are therefore here warned not to rest in these performances; but to conduct themselves, in all other instances, towards God as their God.

      2. This may be considered as looking forward to the abolishing of these by the gospel of Christ. Thus Dr. Hammond understands it. When God shall set up the kingdom of the Messiah he shall abolish the old way of worship by sacrifice and offerings; he will no more have those to be continually before him (Psalms 50:8; Psalms 50:8); he will no more require of his worshippers to bring him their bullocks and their goats, to be burnt upon his altar, Psalms 50:9; Psalms 50:9. For indeed he never appointed this as that which he had any need of, or took any pleasure in, for, besides that all we have is his already, he has far more beasts in the forest and upon the mountains, which we know nothing of nor have any property in, than we have in our folds; but he instituted it to prefigure the great sacrifice which his own Son should in the fulness of time offer upon the cross, to make atonement for sin, and all the other spiritual sacrifices of acknowledgment with which God, through Christ, will be well pleased.

      III. He directs to the best sacrifices of prayer and praise as those which, under the law, were preferred before all burn-offerings and sacrifices, and on which then the greatest stress was laid, and which now, under the gospel, come in the room of those carnal ordinances which were imposed until the times of reformation. He shows us here (Psalms 50:14; Psalms 50:15) what is good, and what the Lord our God requires of us, and will accept, when sacrifices are slighted and superseded. 1. We must make a penitent acknowledgment of our sins: Offer to God confession, so some read it, and understand it of the confession of sin, in order to our giving glory to God and taking shame to ourselves, that we may never return to it. A broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice which God will not despise,Psalms 51:17. If the sin was not abandoned the sin-offering was not accepted. 2. We must give God thanks for his mercies to us: Offer to God thanksgiving, every day, often every day (seven times a day will I praise thee), and upon special occasions; and this shall please the Lord, if it come from a humble thankful heart, full of love to him and joy in him, better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs,Psalms 69:30; Psalms 69:31. 3. We must make conscience of performing our covenants with him: Pay thy vows to the Most High, forsake thy sins, and do thy duty better, pursuant to the solemn promises thou has made him to that purport. When we give God thanks for any mercy we have received we must be sure to pay the vows we made to him when we were in the pursuit of the mercy, else our thanksgivings will not be accepted. Dr. Hammond applies this to the great gospel ordinance of the eucharist, in which we are to give thanks to God for his great love in sending his Son to save us, and to pay our vows of love and duty to him, and to give alms. Instead of all the Old Testament types of a Christ to come, we have that blessed memorial of a Christ already come. 4. In the day of distress we must address ourselves to God by faithful and fervent prayer (Psalms 50:15; Psalms 50:15): Call upon me in the day of trouble, and not upon any other god. Our troubles, though we see them coming from God's hand, must drive us to him, and not drive us from him. We must thus acknowledge him in all our ways, depend upon his wisdom, power, and goodness, and refer ourselves entirely to him, and so give him glory. This is a cheaper, easier, readier way of seeking his favour than by a peace-offering, and yet more acceptable. 5. When he, in answer to our prayers, delivers us, as he has promised to do in such way and time as he shall think fit, we must glorify him, not only by a grateful mention of his favour, but by living to his praise. Thus must we keep up our communion with God, meeting him with our prayers when he afflicts us and with our praises when he delivers us.