Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 24 Sept 2023
This is the first of Asaph’s 12 psalms in the Psalter (the others being Psalms 73-831).
Asaph was a Levite and a worship-music leader (He played the cymbals) during King David’s time, who became a friend and collaborator with David2(1 Chron. 16:5, 25:2).
Asaph’s close association with the regular worship in the tabernacle gave him a special heart for the message of this Psalm which challenges people who are just going through the motions of worship but have no love for God in their hearts. (Delitzsch)
Asaph is also called a “seer” (חוזה) in 2 Chron. 29:30, and we definitely see a prophetic message here in his Psalm. It even contains an echo of the message of the Prophet Samuel from back in 1 Samuel 15:22, where he said, “...to give heed is better than sacrifice...!” (NAW)
Psalm 50 starts by identifying the main character: God Himself.
The first few words of the Psalm are names of God.
There is some question as to how to punctuate them, however:
without punctuation it reads, “the God of gods, Yahweh” (and this is how the old versions read),
but with the 10th century Masoretic punctuation it reads, “God, the Mighty one, Yahweh” (which is the way most contemporary versions read).
Yahweh (the LORD – in English all-caps) is both almighty and ultimate over all gods.
Then we get the main verb: “God spoke...”
In contrast to all the speechless idols worshiped as gods, our God has spoken.
Unlike those religions where the ultimate is nothing more than an impersonal force, our God is personal, He created us as persons, and He relates to us interpersonally.
As a person, God has thoughts and desires, and He has communicated many of His thoughts and desires to us in human words.
Furthermore, He knows how to make Himself understood, and He has communicated to us in such as way as to be understood.
He had His prophets write down all that we need to know in the Holy Bible. What God has spoken is in objective form there in Scripture (although the subjective, personal component of our relationship still exists as His Spirit lives in us and guides our mind to understand and apply the Bible).
The verbs in vs.1-2 are Perfect tense in Hebrew: “God spoke… called… shone forth,” but they seem to relate (in reverse order) to the same actions in verses 3-6 described with Imperfect tense verbs: “will consume… will summon… will declare,”
so the NIV and ESV changed all the verbs to present tense so that they would all match. But even if we don’t change the original tenses, we have to relate them together somehow. The main verbs of verses 1-6 do seem to be related in a chiasm:
v.1a God spoke
v.1b God summoned
v.2 God dazzled
v.3a God will come and will not keep silent
v.3b Fire will devour and swirl
v.4 God will summon: “Gather my godly”
v.6 Heavens will declare
Either, verses 1-6 all predict a future event, and the verbs in vs. 1-2 are just prophetic perfects3 – speaking of the future with such certainty that it is referred to in past tense (a convention often used in Hebrew prophecy),
or, the first two verses hearken back to a past event (such as the giving of the Law at Sinai), which sets the pattern for a future event (like Judgment Day), described in verses 3-6 (which is what I think is the case, although Bible scholars debate this).
Many versions translate the verbs in vs. 3-6 in Present tense to increase the vividness of the prophecy as though it is currently in view4, a convention also used in Hebrew prophecy.
This psalm describes an arraignment, where a judge meets with the accused in court and lays out the accusations.
But this is a pretty spectacular court, because the judge is none other than the ultimate God, and those summoned to this arraignment are all mankind, everyone on whom the sun ever shines from East to West, billions upon billions of them, gathered to hear what their Judge is going to say.
“All the earth is called to attend... because... all the children of men are concerned to know the right way of worshipping God... and because, in the day of final judgment all nations shall be gathered together to receive their doom, and every man shall give an account of himself unto God.” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD
Although I agree with Matthew Henry here (and Kimchi, and Adam Clarke), Bible scholars are not all agreed that this Psalm is about the final Judgment Day.
Some commentaries considered it a warning of the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC (Kirkpatrick),
others considered it a warning of the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD (Augustine, Calvin, Gill),
and still others didn’t consider it to be related to any particular historical event at all (Spurgeon, G. Wilson).
But I would point out that God’s ability to judge, and His acts of judgment in the past, do point – at least implicitly – to the ultimate consummation of Judgment Day in the future.
It is also interesting to consider the correlation between the prologue of Psalm 50 and the prologue of the Gospel of John and of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (Augustine) All of them begin with the God who speaks through another person who is also God:
in the case of Psalm 50, this other person is the “Judge,”
in John 1, it is “the Word,”
and in Hebrews 1, it is the “Son.” “God, after speaking to our forefathers in various amounts and in various forms long ago by means of the prophets, has spoken to us at the last of these days by means of a Son, whom He appointed to be the one to inherit all things, through whom also He made the universe. Who being the radiance of His glory and the stamp of His substance and carrying all things by the word of His power, having made purification from our sins with His own self, He took office at the right hand of the Greatest One in the heights.” (Hebrews 1:1-3, NAW)
The NAS interpreted the beginning of v.3 as a jussive (“May our God come”) while other English versions render it in the present or future (“Our God comes/shall come”), and those are all legitimate ways to interpret the Hebrew here.
It is traditional even today in our culture for everyone assembled in a courtroom to stand respectfully when the judge emerges from the side room into the courtroom to preside, so it is easy for us to imagine this psalm describing the entrance of God the judge, but the magnificence and power of God described here are on a whole different level than any human judge.
First is a description of where the Divine Judge came from when He entered the court:
(v.2) It was a “beautiful” place. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, there are only three places on earth labeled with this Hebrew word for “beauty,” and they are: Egypt (Ezekiel 31), the Phoenician city of Tyre (Ezekiel 27-28), and the Israelite city of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16, Psalm 48). So that narrows it down to three.
It was also a place where beauty was “perfected.” Now, there are only two places on earth described with that phrase, and they are the city of Tyre (Ezekiel 27-28) and the city of Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:15). So that narrows it down to two.
And it is also called “Zion.” When you look at all the occurrences of the word “Zion” in the Bible, the first times it was used, it referred to part of the city of Jerusalem, and then, as time went on, it seems to expand in meaning to include all of God’s people and perhaps also to include heaven, the ultimate place of God and His people.
But why is it significant that God is coming from Jerusalem?
In the Old Testament, from the time of David on, the only temple of the one true God was in Jerusalem, so that was supposed to be the epicenter from which the knowledge of God went out to the world.
But, around the year 400 AD, an African pastor named Augustine suggested that this is a prophecy of the first coming of Jesus, who came from the people of Zion, whose atoning death and resurrection occurred in Jerusalem and whose disciples were told to announce the good news of salvation through Him to all the world “beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). I can’t think of a better explanation except to add that I think this prophecy also includes Jesus’ second coming5.
It is from this Jerusalem that God “shone forth.” How did He shine? This is actually not the regular Hebrew verb for “shine.” Outside of the book of Job, there are only three other places where this special word occurs:
Deut. 33:2 “The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came with ten thousands of saints; From His right hand Came a fiery law for them.” (NKJV) Speaking of God giving Israel the 10 Commandments.
Psalm 80:1-2 of Asaph “...You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! ... Stir up Your strength, And come and save us!” (NKJV)
Psalm 94:1 “...O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth; Render punishment to the proud.” (NKJV)
So, this word implies more than just to shine a light; it connotes dazzling and impressing people, and it is connected with God taking legal action to give the law, to judge according to His law, and to save.
In v.3, Him “not keeping quiet/silence” also has legal implications:
When Saul became king in 1 Samuel 10:27, and some of the noblemen insulted him by not giving him tribute, he “kept quiet.” Keeping silence meant not prosecuting the guilty.
And in 2 Samuel 13:20, when Absalom discovered that Amnon had violated his sister, he told her to “keep quiet” – Keeping silence meant not pressing charges against the guilty6.
So now, when the Psalmist says it’s not time for God to be silent, he means, “Hit ‘em with the book!” It’s time for the judge to bring up every infraction of the law he sees and nail the guilty parties.
David said something similar in Psalm 35:22-24 “Yahweh, You saw it; don't be silent! My Master, don't be far from me! Please mobilize justice for me, my God and my Master, and put Yourself on the alert for arguing my case! Execute justice for me, Yahweh, my God, according to Your righteousness…” (NAW)
So God sweeps into the courtroom, ready to “let ‘er rip” and let the accusations fly, but you’ve never seen a judge enter a courtroom quite like God is pictured doing it, fire blazing from His eyes and burning up everything in His way, and storm-wind and debris swirling all around Him. Nobody’s going to miss that entrance; it will inspire the real thing when people speak of a “holy terror,” and every knee will bow!
Daniel 7:10 describes the same scene: “A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.” (NKJV)
In the past, God had employed some pretty impressive pyrotechnics, from
the terrifying lightning-storm on Mt. Sinai when he gave the law to Moses (Deut. 33:2)
to the blasts that devoured Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 for offering strange fire,
and that burned up Korah’s 250 rebel-leaders in Numbers 16:35, and
that turned Ahaziah’s 50 hit-men coming after Elijah into ash in 2 Kings 1.
Fire is a typical tool of God for punishment.
The Psalms mention it in multiples places, including Psalm 18 and 977.
“...for indeed, our God is a consuming fire,” as Heb. 12:29 puts it (NAW, cf. 10:27)
And fire was something that showed up around Jesus’ first coming:
Before He came, John the Baptizer said, “I baptize with water, but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire!”
And when He did come, Jesus said in Luke 12:49 “I have come to cast fire upon the earth...” (NASB)
And then in Acts 2, shortly after Jesus ascended, “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and ... there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:2-4, NKJV)
The Bible also tells us that fire will be God’s tool for the final judgment of earth:
Psalm 96:13 “...For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.” (NKJV, cf. Dan. 7:9)
Matthew 3:11-12 John the Baptizer said of Jesus, “...the winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor, and He will gather together His grain into the storehouse, but the chaff He will burn in an unquenchable fire.” (NAW)
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 the Apostle Paul wrote, “...the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day...” (NKJV)
2 Peter 3:3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (NKJV)
The “tempest” that also accompanies the entrance of the Judge in v. 3 could be another image of judgment, comparing it to the winnowing procedure, where grain that still had hulls and stems and leaves mixed-in with it, was pitched into the air for the wind to blow the chaff away, and then the heavier, edible part of the grain would fall back down into the container, cleansed from most of the chaff.
“In this tempest shall be that winnowing whereby, from the saints shall be put away everything impure, from the faithful every unreality; from godly men and them that fear the Word of God, every scorner and every proud man. For now a sort of mixture lies there… Doubtless this tempest is to make a sort of separation…. Certainly mighty will be the tempest; yet not one grain will it sweep from the side of the corn to the chaff: because it’s not just any rustic with three-pronged fork, but God... who is Judge.” ~Augustine, c.400 AD
In verses 4-15, God directs His attention first to His people.
Remember that, in the Bible, “people” is not the plural of “persons,” a people is a network of persons bound together by family ties.
This is the same “people” spoken of in Deuteronomy 7:6 (and 14:2) “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth... 29:10-13 ...all the men of Israel, your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp... may enter into covenant with the LORD your God... that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you...” (NKJV)
And this is the same “people” described in the New Testament as being broader than just the nation of Israel, for “Simon [Peter] declared how God... visited the Gentiles [namely the family of the Roman centurion Cornelius which became Christians] to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:14, NKJV), and then Peter wrote to Gentile Christians in modern-day Turkey, “Y'all… are a holy ethnicity, a people made to be around Him in such a way that y'all might extol the virtues of Him who called y'all out of darkness into His marvelous light – y'all who back then were not a people but now are the people of God – the ones who had not been shown mercy yet now have been shown mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10, NAW).
Peter also reminds us in that same epistle that “judgment begins at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17, cf. Ezek. 9:6), so here God is, in Psalm 50, beginning His judgment with His people before judging those outside His people.
Now, when we think of “judging,” we usually think of harshly accusing and punishing, but in the Bible, the word has a much broader meaning. And, especially when a King in the Bible was “judging the people,” it didn’t have negative connotations; it just meant He was being a good leader.
In Exodus 18, Moses and the judges “judged the people8,”
And in 2 Sam. 8 and 1 Kings 3, King David and King Solomon “judged the people9,”
There are other opinions on this, but I don’t think that this first act of judgment is the Divine judge punishing enemies; I think it is the Messianic king taking His eternal throne and doing the work of a king with His own people.
That’s why it is a joyous thing in other Psalms for God to “judge” His people!
Ps. 72:2 “He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice.”
Psalm 96:10 “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.’” (Note the Lord “reigning” and “judging” are in parallel there in Psalm 96.)
Now, it makes sense for God’s summons to go out to all the earth, now that His people are being won from every tribe and nation, but why does the summons go out to heaven as well?
We know that Jesus will have heavenly angels to accompany Him when He comes to judge the earth, as we read in: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel…” and 2 Thessalonians 1:7 “...the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with His mighty angels…” (NKJV, cf. Matt. 24:27-31)
We also know that saints who have died throughout history – and gone to be with Jesus in heaven – will also accompany Him from heaven when He returns10:
1 Thessalonians 3:13 mentions “...the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” (NKJV, cf. 4:17)
Jude 14-15 “...The Lord will come with myriads of His holy ones to execute justice...” (NAW)
But “calling heaven and earth” here is actually a legal witness formula, a merism meaning that every spiritual and physical being in heaven and on earth capable of observing and bearing witness is subpoenaed to do so.
This is one of the few points in this Psalm on which all the commentators agree11, and it shows up throughout the Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 4:25-26 “When y’all… do what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God and make Him angry, I call the heavens and the earth to bear witness against you today that y'all will surely perish quickly from the land which y'all are passing over the Jordan there to possess...” (NAW)
Deut. 31:28 “Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them... 32:1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.” (NKJV)
Isaiah 1:2 “Hear, heavens, and give ear, earth, for Yahweh has spoken. ‘I have raised children and brought them up. And they, they have rebelled against me.’” (NAW, cf. Micah 6:2)
Not only are there examples of this phrase as a legal witness formula throughout the Bible, we also see in verses 5 and 6 that the witnesses on earth and in heaven actually bring testimony.
The “godly” on earth signify their confidence in this Judge through covenant ratification “sacrifice” in v.5,
and the heavens signify their confidence in this Judge through an outright “declaration” in v.6 that He is “righteous.”
“Having served as witnesses to the original covenant agreement between Yahweh and Israel (Deut. 4:26), heavens and earth are now called to return as witnesses for the prosecution.” ~ Gerald Wilson, NIV Application Commentary, 2002 AD
It is still traditional in our culture to swear out witnesses before a court proceeding.
The heavens affirm that God will be a good judge because He will always do the right thing!
Ps. 97:6 “The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory." (NKJV)
Rev. 19:1-2 "I heard a great multitude in heaven saying… true and righteous are His judgments” (NKJV, cf. Rev. 16:5)
“The righteousness of God in all the rebukes of his word and providence, in the establishment of his gospel (which brings in an everlasting righteousness, and in which the righteousness of God is revealed), and especially in the judgment of the great day, is what the heavens will declare; that is... It will be universally known, and proclaimed to all the world. As the heavens declare12 the glory, the wisdom and power, of God the Creator (Ps. 19:1), so they shall no less openly declare the glory, the justice and righteousness, of God the Judge; and so loudly do they proclaim both that there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard... It will be incontestably owned and proved; who can deny what the heavens declare?” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD
In v.5, some ancient Bible manuscripts read, “Gather to me my saints who ratify my covenant,” while others read, “Gather to Him His saints who ratify His covenant.”
It’s hard to say which was the original; both have been around in Bibles for over a thousand years.
It’s either a direct quote from God or an indirect quote of something God said, and, either way, it’s saying the same thing.
In other words, if you heard me say, “Gather my devotees to me, those who made a covenant with me,” and then you said to someone else, “He said to gather his devotees to him, those who had made a covenant with him,” you would be reporting exactly what I said accurately, even though you shifted it to third person and changed the ‘me’s’ to ‘him’s’ – and that’s all that’s going on here.
What’s going to be mind-blowing is that, when Jesus returns, the “sacrifice” is going to be the “Judge13.”
Jesus told us in John 5:22 “...the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.” (NKJV)
Acts 17:30-31 the Apostle Paul proclaimed that “...God... commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (NKJV)
“‘Judgment begins at the house of God.’ The trial of the visible people of God will be a most awful ceremonial. He will thoroughly purge his floor. He will discern between his nominal and his real people, and that in open court, the whole universe looking on. My soul, when this actually takes place, how will it fare with thee? Can [you] endure the day of his coming?” ~Charles Spurgeon, 1885 AD
Does Romans 2:5 describe you? “...in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (NKJV)
Or can you say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:8 “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (NKJV)
How can we know whether or not we are part of God’s people who will enjoy the loving and just judgeship of God?
It says in v.5 that God’s “saints/holy/godly ones” are characterized by “making/ratifying His covenant on the basis of sacrifice.”
The Hebrew participle tells us that this is not just something they did once upon a time; it has been their way-of-life.
From the fall of Adam to the crucifixion of Christ, God’s people sacrificed animals to the LORD (trusting God’s covenantal arrangement to provide atonement for their sins) and ate part of those sacrifices (expressing confidence that they had fellowship with God).
And in Exodus 34:12-15, God said to His people, “Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars... lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice.” (NKJV)
For the Israelites to make a sacrifice to any other god and to eat of that sacrifice would be to make a pact with that other god and no longer be one of Yahweh’s people. So, season after season, godly persons would bring spotless lambs to God’s altar to “ratify [God’s] covenant on the basis of a sacrifice.”
But you may say, “I have never sacrificed an animal in my life! Does that rule me out?”
Well, when we take the communion cup, as Jesus’ disciples did at the Lord’s Supper, and we remember Jesus’ “blood, of which is the New Covenant, and which is being poured out for the many for the purpose of forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28, NAW), we are “covenanting [God’s] covenant based upon the sacrifice” Jesus offered of Himself at the cross, and we can say with integrity that we “ratify [God’s] covenant by means of – or, more literally, ‘based upon’ – [His] sacrifice.”
That is why we say that our Sunday morning worship services are a “covenant renewal.”
Godly persons walk in keeping with the renewed covenant sealed in Jesus’ blood, in which God promises to be our Father, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit our Inheritance, and we worship and trust and serve the interests of this God – and this God only – as our God.
Vulgate (49)B |
LXXC (49) |
BrentonD |
KJVE |
NAW |
M. T.F |
PeshittaG |
1
psalmus Asaph |
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. |
א מִזְמוֹרH לְאָסָף אֵלI אֱלֹהִים יְהוָה דִּבֶּר וַיִּקְרָא אָרֶץ מִמִּזְרַח שֶׁמֶשׁ עַדJ מְבֹאוֹ. |
|
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. |
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 |
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 |
5
συναγάγετε |
5
Assemble ye |
5
Gather my saints
together
unto me; those that have made |
5 “Gather to {Him His} godly ones who ratify {His} covenant on the basis of sacrifice.” |
5
אתכנשׁו
ל |
|
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.