Psalm 50:1-6 – God is Judge

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 24 Sept 2023

v.1 Introduction

vs. 2-3 The Awesome Judge Enters

vs. 4-5 God’s People Are Assembled For Judgment

v. 6 Heaven’s Affirmation

v.5 Application

Psalm 50:1-7 Side-by side comparison of versionsA

Vulgate (49)B

LXXC (49)

BrentonD

KJVE

NAW

M. T.F

PeshittaG

1 psalmus Asaph
Deus deorum Dominus locutus est et vocavit terram a solis ortu usque [ad] occasum

1 Ψαλμὸς τῷ Ασαφ. Θεὸς θεῶν κύριος ἐλάλησεν καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὴν γῆν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου [καὶ] μέχρι δυσμῶν.

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.

1 A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty X God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

1 A Psalm by Asaph.
Yahweh, the God of gods spoke, and He called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going-down.

א מִזְמוֹרH לְאָסָף אֵלI אֱ‍לֹהִים יְהוָה דִּבֶּר וַיִּקְרָא אָרֶץ מִמִּזְרַח שֶׁמֶשׁ עַדJ מְבֹאוֹ.


1
אלה אלהין מריא מלל וקרה [ל]ארעא מן מדנחוה[י] דשׁמשׁא [ו]עדמא [ל]מערבוה[י]

2 ex Sion species decoris [eius] 3 Deus manifeste

2 ἐκ Σιων ἡ εὐπρέπεια τῆς ὡραιότητος [αὐτοῦ], ὁ θεὸς ἐμφανῶς

2 Out of Sion [comes] the excellence of [hisK] beauty. 3 God... mani­festly,

2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

2 Out of Zion – the perfection of beauty – God became dazzling.

ב מִצִּיּוֹןL מִכְלַל יֹפִיM אֱלֹהִים הוֹפִיעַN.

2 מן צהיון כלילא משׁבחא אלהא חוי

veniet Deus noster et non silebit ignis in conspectu eius exar­descet et in circuitu eius tempestas valida

ἥξει, 3 ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐ παρασιωπήσεται· πῦρ ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ καυθήσεται, καὶ κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ καταιγὶς σφόδρα.

Our God shall come... and shall not keep silence: a fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him there shall be a very great tempest.

3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep sil­ence: a fire shall devour be­fore him, and it shall be very tem­pestuous round about him.

3 Let our God come in and not keep quiet! Fire will consume things in front of His face, and all around Him it will be extremely volatile.

ג יָבֹאO אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְאַל יֶחֱרַשׁ אֵשׁ לְפָנָיו תֹּאכֵל וּסְבִיבָיו נִשְׂעֲרָהP מְאֹד.

3 נאתא אלהאX ולא נשׁתוק [ו]נורא תאכול קדמוהי וחדרוהי תתגוזל טב

4 advocabit caelum desursum et X terram discernere populum suum

4 προσκαλέσεται τὸν οὐρανὸν ἄνω καὶ X τὴν γῆν διακρῖναι τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ·

4 He shall summon the heaven above, and X the earth, that he may judge his people.

4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

4 He will call to the heavens above as well as to the earth, in order to judge His people.

ד יִקְרָא אֶל הַשָּׁמַיִם מֵעָל וְאֶל הָאָרֶץ לָדִין עַמּוֹ.

4 נקרא לשׁמיא מן לעל וארעא למדן עמה

5 congrega­te illi sanc­tos eius qui ordinant testamentum eius super X sacrificia

5 συναγάγετε αὐτῷ τοὺς ὁσίους αὐτοῦ τοὺς διατιθεμένουςQ τὴν διαθήκην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ X θυσίαις,

5 Assemble ye his saints to him, those that have en­gaged in a covenant with him upon X sacrifice[s].

5 Gather my saints to­gether unto me; those that have made a cov­enant with me by sacrifice.

5 “Gather to {Him His} godly ones who ratify {His} covenant on the basis of sacrifice.”

ה אִסְפוּ לִיR חֲסִידָיS כֹּרְתֵיT בְרִיתִי עֲלֵיU זָבַח.

5 אתכנשׁו לותה גבוהי דמקימין קימה עלX דבחתא

6 et adnun­tiabunt caeli iustitiam eius quon­iam Deus X iudex est diapsalma

6 καὶ ἀναγγελοῦσιν οἱ οὐρανοὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς X κριτής ἐστιν. διάψαλμα.

6 And the heavens shall declare his right­eousness: for God X is judge. Pause.

6 And the heavens shall declare his right­eousness: for God is judge him­self. Selah.

6 And the heavens will communicate His righteousness because it is God Himself who is judging! SELAH

ו וַיַּגִּידוּV שָׁמַיִם צִדְקוֹ כִּי אֱלֹהִים שֹׁפֵט הוּא סֶלָה.

6 Xנחוון שׁמיא זדיקותה מטל דאלהא הו דינא X

7 audi populus meus et loquar [tibi] Israhel et testificabor tibi Deus Deus tuus ego sum

7 Ἄκουσον, λαός μου, καὶ λαλήσω [σοιW], Ισραηλ, καὶ διαμαρτύρομαί σοι· ὁ θεὸς ὁ θεός σού εἰμι ἐγώ.

7 Hear, my people, and I will speak [to thee], O Israel: and I will testify to thee: I am God, thy God.

7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

7 Please listen, my people Israel, and let me speak {to you}, and let me testify with you. I am God, your God.

זשִׁמְעָה עַמִּי וַאֲדַבֵּרָהX יִשְׂרָאֵלY וְאָעִידָהZ בָּךְ אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהֶיךָ אָנֹכִיAA.

7 שׁמע עמי ואמר [לך] ואיסריל אסהדך [אנא] אנא אלהא אלהך


1Delitzsch suspected that the later collection was written later, not by Asaph, but in his name or writing style.

2Matthew Henry, Franz Delitzsch and A. Cohen therefore dated the psalm to the time of David (10th Century BC). There are others who ascribed a later date (Kirkpatrick - 8th Century BC; Calvin, Datta and Briggs - 5th? Century BC) but I did not find their arguments convincing.

3cf. Kimchi “the past for the future”

4cf. Augustine’s commentary on v.5 “seeing future things as if present”

5Matthew Henry also interpreted this Psalm in light of Jesus’ first and second comings: “That he shall come, and not keep silence, shall no longer seem to wink at the sins of men... and shall also cause that mystery to be published to the world by his holy apostles which had long lain hid, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs... When his gospel kingdom was to be set up, Christ came to send fire on the earth… And in the last judgment Christ shall come in flaming fire.” Gill disagreed: “not of his... first coming... nor is it to be interpreted of his second coming, or coming to judgment... better to understand it of his coming to set up his kingdom in the world, and to punish his professing people for their disbelief and rejection of him [in] Mat. 16:28.” (The latter was Calvin’s position.)

6“[H]ere God’s silence represents not a withdrawal of support but a delay of judgment (cf. 50:21)…” ~G. Wilson, NIV Application Commentary, 2002 AD

7Psalm 18:8-13 “Smoke went up in his anger and fire from His mouth was consuming; coals were kindled from it! ... Out of the brightness corresponding to Him, His storm-clouds passed hail-stones and coals of fire. And Yahweh caused it to thunder in the heavens, yes the Most High put forth His voice - hailstones and coals of fire!” (NAW)
Psalm 97:3 “A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about." (NKJV)

8Exodus 18:13 “...Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening.”
Deut. 16:18 “...appoint judges and officers in all your gates... and they shall judge the people with just judgment.” (NKJV)

92 Sam. 8:15 “...David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.” (NAW)
1 Kings 3:9 “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people...” (NKJV)

10Augustine claimed that the “angels” were the same as the human “saints” who would come in judgment with Jesus, and that this was the “heaven” referred to in this Psalm, but I am not convinced of either proposition.

11J. Calvin: “[T]heir cause would be decided in the presence of men and angels,” J. Anderson: “...heaven and earth are summoned, as in Isa. 1:2, to behold the righteousness of Jehovah, and bear their testimony to it.” A. Cohen: “witnesses to Divine action;” M. Henry: “[A]s on Mount Sinai he came with ten thousands of his saints, so he shall now call to the heavens from above, to take notice of this solemn process, as Moses often called heaven and earth to witness…J. Gill: “To hear... and to be witnesses of the justice of his proceedings.” A.R. Fausset: “all creatures are witnesses.” C. Spurgeon: “The whole creation shall stand in court to testify to the solemnity and the truth of the divine pleading.” F. Delitzsch: “...suited to be witnes­ses…” G. Wilson: “Yahweh summons both heavens and earth as witnesses in the case against his people.”

12Henry quoted the wrong part of the verse, but kept the sense of it. The Hebrew word translated “declare” in Psalm 19:1 is actually מְֽסַפְּרִ֥ים; the Hiphil verb נגיד used here in Psalm 50:6 is the verb in the second phrase of Psalm 19:1, “...And the firmament shows His handiwork.” (NKJV)

13Augustine constructed a lengthy argument on this in his homily on this Psalm, based on John 1’s assertion that Jesus is the Word of God and the un-created Creator, distinguishing Him from subsequently-created “gods.”

AMy original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright restrictions force me to remove them from the publicly-available edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 50 are 4Q85 Psalmsc (which contains parts of verses 13-23) and 11Q9 Psalmse (containing parts of vs. 3-7), both of which date to the early-to-mid first century. Where the DSS is legible and reads the same as the MT, the Hebrew text is colored purple. Where the DSS or ancient versions support each other against the MT in such a way that I suspect they are the original reading, I have highlighted them with yellow.

BJerome's Latin Vulgate w/ Deuterocanon using Gallican Psalter, 405 AD. As published electronically by E-Sword.

CThis Greek New Testament (GNT) is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era as a break from the traditional Greek Bible by compiling just a few of the oldest-known manuscripts, but even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.

DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.

E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.

FFrom the Wiki Hebrew Bible https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com

GThe Leiden Peshitta, Copyright © 2012 by The Peshitta Foundation c/o Leiden University Institute for Religious Studies, as published electronically in BibleWorks.

HCalvin: “The opinion has been very generally entertained, that the psalm points to the period of the Church’s renovation, and that the design of the prophet is to apprise the Jews of the coming abrogation of their figurative worship under the Law.” Objecting to the interpretation that this Psalm refers to Judgment Day, he wrote, “God is here represented as citing all the nations of the earth to his tribunal, not with the view of prescribing the rule of piety to an assembled world, or collecting a church for his service, but with the design of alarming the hypocrite, and terrifying him out of his self-complacency. It would serve as a spur to conviction, thus to be made aware that the whole world was summoned as a witness to their dissimulation, and that they would be stripped of that pretended piety of which they were disposed to boast.” Gill agreed. On the other hand, Targum, Kimchi, R. Obediah Gaon, Adam Clarke, and Matthew Henry interpreted this psalm as speaking of Judgment Day. Spurgeon, however, seemed to take it as a sort of parable: “What will be the reverent joy and solemn expectation when the poetic scene of this Psalm becomes in the last great day an actual reality.” G. Wilson appeared to take Spurgeon’s approach, not pinning the Psalm to any historical events but explaining it as “a ‘covenant lawsuit’ brought by Yahweh against his ‘consecrated ones….’.” Multiple commentators noted that the prologue to this psalm is reminiscent of Deut. 33:2.

IThere seems to be disagreement as to whether there should be disjunctive punctuation after this first word (Biblia Hebraica, OSHB morphology, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotian – ‘ισχυρος θεος, Delitzsch, AJV, Cohen, G. Wilson, and most English versions = “The Mighty One, God”) or whether this is connected to the next word (Groves-Wheeler Westminster Morphology, Rashi, Kimchi, Geneva, KJV, LXX, Peshitta, Vulgate: “God of Gods”). The only other place in the Hebrew OT that this phrase occurs is Joshua 22:22, when the Trans-Jordanian tribes swore that they were not trying to divide from the worship of Yahweh: “The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, He knows, and let Israel itself know—if it is in rebellion, or if in treachery against the LORD, do not save us this day….” (NKJV)
Delitzsch:אֵל אֱלֹהִים does not mean ‘God of gods,’ which would rather be expressed by אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים or אֵל אֵלִים.
Iאֵל is the name for God as the Almighty; אֱלֹהִים as the Revered One; יַֽהֲוֶה as the Being, absolute in His existence...
Jesus is called “the Mighty God” in Isa. 9:6, but the Hebrew there is different (אל גבור).

JLXX, Peshitta, and Vulgate all add a conjunction which intensifies the meaning of “unto” but doesn’t change the meaning.

KDelitzsch argued against the translation of the Vulgate, the Septuagint, and of Luther (which interpreted “God” to be the “perfection of beauty”) by saying that “nowhere in Scripture is beauty (יֳפִי) thus directly predicated of God” and “the accentuation... marks מכלל־יפי by Mercha as in apposition with צִיֹּון” making “perfection of beauty” a description of “Zion,” thus “Aquila, the Syriac, Jerome, Tremellius, and Montanus [properly translated], ‘out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, Elohim shineth.”

Lcf. all other instances of me’tsion in the O.T.
Psalm 14:7/53:6 “If only Israel's salvation would come into being from Zion!...” (NAW)
Psalm 110:2 “The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!” (NKJV)
Psalm 128:5 “The LORD bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem...” (NKJV)
Psalm 134:3 “The LORD who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion!” (NKJV)
Psalm 135:21 “Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, Who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD!” (NKJV)
Isaiah 2:3/Micah 4:2 “... out of Zion the law will go, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.” (NAW)
Jeremiah 9:19 “For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:`How we are plundered! ...” (NKJV)
Joel 3:16/Amos 1:2 “The LORD also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem...” (NKJV)

MNowhere else in the Hebrew Bible as a phrase, but there are very-similar phrases in Lam. 2:15‎ כְּלִ֣ילַת יֹ֔פִי referring to Jerusalem (cf. Ezekiel 16 where Jerusalem is called “beautiful”) and Ezekiel 27-28, where Tyre is called‎ כְּלִ֥ילַת יֹֽפִי and‎
כָּלְל֥וּ יָפְיֵֽ (and Ezek. 31, where Egypt is called “beautiful”). Commentators were not agreed on its meaning:
Calvin: “He gives Zion the honorable name of ‘the perfection of beauty,’ because God had chosen it for his sanctuary, the place where his name should be invoked, and where his glory should be manifested in the doctrine of the Law.”
Henry: “Zion is here called the perfection of beauty, because it was the holy hill; and holiness is indeed the perfection of beauty.”
Gill: “that is, Christ; he is the perfection of beauty... he was to come out of Zion (Ps. 14:7); that is, not from the fort of Zion... for he was to be born at Bethlehem; only he was to be of the Jews, and spring from them; so he shone out, or his appearance and manifestation in Israel was like the rising sun (Mal. 4:2)... or else the Gospel may be meant…”
Delitzsch: “‘perfect in beauty’... because the place of the presence of God the glorious One, is the bright spot whence the brightness of the divine manifestation spreads forth like the rising sun.”

Ncf. Deut. 33:2, Psalm 80:1-3, and 94:1. The only other instances are in Job 3:4 (“light shines”); 10:3 (“shine on the plans of the wicked”), 22 (“shining is the same as darkness”), and 37:15 (“lightening shines”).

ONASB and the morphologies of Groves-Wheeler and of Beall/Banks/Smith suggest that this is Jussive (“Let God come in…”), and Hupfield and Olshausen supported this in their commentaries, but Delitzsch wrote, “It is not to be rendered: Let our God come…” reasoning that it “comes too late after” the “shining forth.” It is difficult to relate the former Perfect verbs with these imperfect verbs (see Introduction), but the fact that these verbs are the central point in the chiasm of vs. 1-6 lends plausibility to setting them apart from the rest of the Imperfect verbs as Jussives.

PThis root only occurs a few other places: Dt. 32:17; Job 27:21; Ps. 50:3; 58:10; Jer. 2:12; Ezek. 27:35; 32:10; Dan. 11:40. Delitzsch noted that, in Job 38:1, this root described a storm with lightning and thunder.
Calvin: “He adds, that God would come with fire and tempest, in order to awaken a salutary fear in the secure hearts of the Jews, that they might learn to tremble at the judgments of God, which they had hitherto regarded with indifference and despised, and in allusion to the awful manifestation which God made of himself from Sinai…”
Gill pursued a different interpretation: “...the time of Jerusalem's destruction being such a time of trouble as has not been since the world began, Matt. 24:21.”

QAquila translated the MT more literally κοπτοντας (“who cut”) rather than the LXX “set up,but it doesn’t change the effective meaning.

RAquila, Symmachus, and Theodotian all translated this, “gather to me,” which is what the MT reads, but the LXX, Peshitta, and Vulgate all read, “gather to him his holy ones… his covenant.” The DSS is illegible at the beginning of the verse, but it definitely has the first-person pronoun modifying covenant (“my covenant”), matching the MT.

SCairo Geniza (which predates the MT by a century), as well as the Vaticanus and Peshitta (which predate the MT by 5 centuries) all read “his saints” instead of the MT “my saints.”
This designation “godly/pious/holy/saint” is common in the Psalms (cf. 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 18:25; 30:4; 31:23; 32:6; 37:28; 43:1; 50:5; 52:9; 79:2; 85:8; 86:2; 89:19; 97:10; 116:15; 132:9,16; 145:10,17; 148:14; 149:1,5,9.)

T“The participle... here implies the constant continuance of that primary covenant-making.” ~Delitzsch

UAlthough the DSS supports the MT (“they who cut the covenant upon me of a sacrifice”), the LXX, Peshitta, and Vulgate all read, “those who have set up the covenant of him upon a sacrifice.” Targum elaborates that this means keeping the Torah and praying. Luther and some others (incl. G. Wilson) interpreted it as keeping God’s covenant a priority “above” making sacrifices, but Calvin argued against that interpretation: “Some think… that... his true servants... acknowledged something more to be required in his covenant than an observance of outward ceremonies... But in my opinion, the prophet is here to be viewed as pointing out with commendation the true and genuine use of the legal worship...”

VNKJV and NLT interpreted this verb as Jussive; LXX, KJV, and Vulgate interpreted it as Future, and NASB, NIV, ESV, and NET interpreted it as customary action, all of which are valid possibilities with a Hebrew Imperfect verb like this.

WAlthough Fields notes a variant from Symmachus later in this verse, he notes no variant here, which leaves the reader to wonder if Aquila and Symmachus supported the LXX over the MT here by inserting “to you.”

Xcf. v.1 “Yahweh, the God of gods spoke…” All the verbs in this verse have cohortative or paragogic he endings. They give the sense of God urging and begging His people to respond well to Him. (cf. Delitzsch: “The forms strengthened by ah, in v.7, describe God's earnest desire to have Israel for willing hearers as being quite as strong as His desire to speak and to bear witness.”) The end of the verse gives compelling reason why: He is their God, after all!

Y“People” and “Israel” are in parallel to each other as vocatives.

ZThe beth preposition normally means “in/by/with,” so it is an interpretive stretch to translate it “against.” It doesn’t seem that God is testifying against His people; He doesn’t level accusations against them like He does against “the wicked.” Calvin reached a similar conclusion, although he didn’t see as friendly a relationship between God and His people here as I did: “Some read, ‘I will testify against thee.’ But the reference, as we may gather from the common usage of Scripture, seems rather to be to a discussion of mutual claims.” So did Cohen: “I will admonish thee… reformative rather than punitive.” Gill: “or ‘to thee’” (citing Vatablus and Ainsworth in support).

AAcf. Exodus 22:2, the authoritative basis upon which God issued law to His people is the same authoritative basis upon which He has the right to judge them.

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