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The Mighty One Calls
Psalm 50 is a poem where God speaks as judge to his own people. It shows his greatness, corrects empty ideas about sacrifice, and warns that worship and daily conduct belong together.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
The psalm opens with God calling the earth and shining from Zion. He summons heaven and earth as witnesses while he gathers his covenant people. Then he addresses sacrifice, thanksgiving, prayer in trouble, and the hypocrisy of people who speak his covenant while rejecting his words.
Psalms 50:1–23Main takeaway
God calls his people to thankful honour that matches the way they live.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01God appears as judgeThe poem begins with God calling the whole earth, from sunrise to sunset. He shines out from Zion and comes without silence, with fire and storm around him.
Explanation
The poem begins with God calling the whole earth, from sunrise to sunset. He shines out from Zion and comes without silence, with fire and storm around him. He calls heaven and earth as witnesses because he is about to judge his people, and the heavens declare his righteousness.
02God corrects empty ideas about sacrificeGod speaks to Israel as “my people” and says he is not rebuking them for failing to bring sacrifices, because their offerings are already before him.
Explanation
God speaks to Israel as “my people” and says he is not rebuking them for failing to bring sacrifices, because their offerings are already before him. His point is that he does not need food from them. The animals, the birds, the field, and the whole world already belong to him. Instead, he calls for thanksgiving, fulfilled vows, and prayer in trouble.
03God exposes hypocrisy and ends with warning and hopeGod then addresses the wicked who speak his statutes while hating instruction. Their lives include theft, adultery, deceit, and slander against family.
Explanation
God then addresses the wicked who speak his statutes while hating instruction. Their lives include theft, adultery, deceit, and slander against family. God’s silence did not mean he was like them. So the psalm gives a severe warning to those who forget God, yet it ends by saying that thanksgiving glorifies him and prepares the way to see his salvation.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Why does the psalm summon both earth and heaven before God speaks to his people?
Use the witness and judgement language in the opening lines to see the seriousness of God’s address.
02What reason does God give for saying he does not need bulls or goats?
Look for the repeated statements about what already belongs to God.
03How does the end of the psalm connect thanksgiving with the way a person lives?
Compare the rebuke of hateful speech and conduct with the final line about thanksgiving and God’s salvation.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 50:1–23
1The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
4He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
7“Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
10For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
12If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
18When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
20You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
21You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”