Ps. 50 THE ARGUMENT The design of this Psalm is, partly, to reprove and protest against the common miscarriages of many professors of religion, who satisfied their own consciences, and fancied that they pleased God, with their external and ceremonial performances, notwithstanding their gross…

i.e. All the inhabitants of the earth, from one end to the other; whom he here summons to be witnesses of his proceedings in this solemn judgment between him and his people, which is here poetically represented; for here is a tribunal erected, the judge coming to it, the witnesses and delinquents…

The place where he was supposed to reside, and where he would now sit in judgment; or from whence he would come to a more public and conspicuous place, where all the world might see and hear the transactions.

Our God: these words are used here, as they are also Heb. 12:29, emphatically. The prophet speaks this in the person of the Israelites and worshippers of God, whereof he was one, and thereby takes off their fond pretence, as if because God was their God, in covenant with them, and nearly related to…

Either to heaven and earth themselves, and so it is a figure called prosopopoeia; or to the inhabitants of them, all angels and men, whom he calls in for witnesses and judges of the equity of his present proceedings. Compare Deut. 4:26, Deut. 31:28, Deut. 32:1.

O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal; which is poetically spoken; not as if they were actually to do so, but only to continue the metaphor and representation of the judgment here mentioned.

The heavens shall declare his righteousness; which they were called to witness, Ps. 50:4. So was the earth also. But here he mentions the heavens only, as I humbly conceive, because they were the most impartial and considerable witness in the case; for men upon earth might be false witnesses,…

Having brought in God as coming to judgment with them, he now gives an account of the process and of the sentence of the Judge, whose words are contained in this and the following verses. I will testify against thee; I will plead with thee, and declare my charge or indictment against thee.

I do not charge thee, or at least this is not the principal matter of my charge, that thou hast neglected sacrifices which thou shouldst have offered; for although thou hast many times omitted thy duty in that kind, yet I have greater things than these to charge thee with.

But be not so vain and foolish as to imagine that thou dost lay any obligations upon me by thy sacrifices; or that I required them because I had need of them, or took any pleasure in them for themselves, or for my own satisfaction by them.

I would command or dispose them at my pleasure, without thy leave or assistance, even the cattle which feed upon innumerable hills, or in valleys and fields.

I know where they are, and whence I can easily fetch them when I think good. The fowls of the mountains; not only tame and domestic fowls, but even such as are wild and fly up and down upon mountains; which though out of man’s reach, are at God’s command.

If I wanted or desired any thing, as I do not, being the all-sufficient God, I would not tell thee, that thou mightest supply my wants. The fulness thereof, i.e. all those creatures wherewith it is replenished.

If I did want anything, hast thou such carnal and gross conceptions of me, that I need or delight in the blood of brute creature.

If thou wouldst know what sacrifices I most prize, and indispensably require, in the first place, it is that of thankfulness and praise proportionable to my great, and glorious, and numberless favours; which doth not consist barely in verbal acknowledgments, but proceeds from a heart truly and…

And make conscience of that great duty of constant and fervent prayer to me; which is an acknowledgment of thy subjection to me, and of thy trust and dependence upon me, and therefore is pleasing to me.

Unto the wicked, i.e. the same ungodly and hypocritical professors whom he calleth saints, Ps. 50:5, in regard of their profession, and here wicked in respect of their practice, and the truth of the thing. God saith: he told them what he would not reprove them for, Ps. 50:8, and why, Ps. 50:9–10;c.

Seeing thy practice contradicts thy profession, and makes thee a notorious and impudent liar. Though with thy mouth thou showest much love (as is said of them, Ezek.

Sawest; or, didst observe, or consider; when he came into thy presence and company, and thou didst understand and consider his ways, and his success and impunity, and he invited thee to a participation of his profit.

Thou givest, Heb. thou sendest forth, to wit, free; for the word is used of men’s dismissing their wives or their servants, whom they left to their freedom.

Thou dost not only speak evil in a sudden passion, or upon some great provocation, but this is thy constant and deliberate practice and business, which thou dost pursue with great facility and complacency; all which this phrase implies.

I kept silence; I did not express my displeasure against thee in such grievous judgments as thou didst deserve. Or, I was deaf; I carried myself like one that did not hear thy sinful speeches, nor see or take any notice of thy wicked actions.

Ye that forget God; ye hypocritical and ungodly Israelites, who have forgotten (as Moses foretold you would do, Deut. 32:18) the God that formed you, and made you his people, and forgotten his mercies and judgments, by which you should have been instructed, and the covenant which you made with him,…

Praise; or, thanksgiving as this word is rendered, Ps. 50:14. See Poole “Ps. 50:14”. Glorifieth me; he and he only gives me the honour that I require and prize, and not he who loads my altar with a multitude of sacrifices; whereby you vainly and falsely conceit that you please and glorify me,…