< Psalms 50 >
1 A Psalm for Asaph. The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down [thereof].
2 Out of Sion [comes] the excellence of his beauty.
3 God, our God, shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him there shall be a very great tempest.
4 He shall summon the heaven above, and the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Assemble you his saints to him, those that have engaged in a covenant with him upon sacrifices.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge. (Pause)
7 Hear, my people, and I will speak to you, O Israel: and I will testify to you: I am God, your God.
8 I will not reprove you on account of your sacrifices; for your whole burnt offerings are before me continually.
9 I will take no bullocks out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks.
10 For all the wild beasts of the thicket are mine, the cattle on the mountains, and oxen.
11 I know all the birds of the sky; and the beauty of the field is mine.
12 If I should be hungry, I will not tell you: for the world is mine, and the fullness of it.
13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God the sacrifice of praise; and pay your vows to the Most High.
15 And call upon me in the day of affliction; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. (Pause)
16 But to the sinner God has said, Why do you declare my ordinances, and take up my covenant in your mouth?
17 Whereas you have hated instruction, and have cast my words behind [you].
18 If you saw a thief, you ran along with him, and have cast in your lot with adulterers.
19 Your mouth has multiplied wickedness, and your tongue has framed deceit.
20 You did sit and speak against your brother, and did scandalize your mother's son.
21 These things you did, and I kept silence: you thought wickedly that I should be like you, [but] I will reprove you, and set [your offences] before you.
22 Now consider these things, you that forget God, lest he rend [you], and there is no deliverer.
23 The sacrifice of praise will glorify me: and that is the way wherein I will show to him the salvation of God.
