Psalms 50:1 - Meaning and Application

It is likely that Asaph was not only the chief musician, the one who set this psalm to music, but also its writer. In Hezekiah’s day, we read that God was praised with the words of David and Asaph the seer, that is, Asaph the prophet (2 Chronicles 29:30).

Here the court is called in the name of the King of kings. “The mighty God, even the Lord, has spoken” (Psalm 50:2). This is the God of endless power, justice, and mercy, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the Judge, the Son of God came into the world for judgment, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of judgment. All the earth is summoned, not only because God’s case against Israel for their hypocrisy and thanklessness could safely be left to any fair-minded person, but also because all people need to know the true way to worship God in spirit and in truth.

This summons also matters because when the Messiah’s kingdom came, all people were to be taught the gospel way of worship and invited to join it (Malachi 1:11; Acts 10:34). It also points ahead to the final judgment, when all nations will be gathered and every person will answer to God. So the whole world is called to listen.

The judgment is now set, and the Judge takes his seat. As God once came from Sinai when he gave the law to Israel in the wilderness, so here he comes to reprove hypocrisy and to send forth his gospel, which would replace the old ceremonial system. He “shall shine out of Zion” (Psalm 50:2). Zion was the place where his oracle then stood, and from there his judgments were declared against that stubborn people (Joel 2:1). At times God gives special displays of his presence and power through his Word and ordinances, to awaken consciences and refine his church. Then he may be said to shine out of Zion.

He also shines out of Zion because the gospel, which established spiritual worship, was to go out from Mount Zion (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2). The preachers of the gospel were to begin at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47), and Christians are said to come to Mount Zion to receive instruction (Hebrews 12:22, Hebrews 12:28). Zion is called the perfection of beauty because it was the holy hill, and holiness is truly the beauty that makes a people lovely.

God will come and not keep silent. He will no longer seem to ignore human sin, as he had done for a time (Psalm 50:21). Instead, he will show his displeasure, and he will also make known to the world a truth that had long been hidden, that Gentiles would be fellow heirs, and that the wall dividing Jews and Gentiles under the ceremonial law would be taken down (Ephesians 3:5, Ephesians 3:6). That would no longer stay hidden. In the great day, our God will come and will not keep silence, but he will make those hear his judgment who would not listen to his law.

His appearance will be majestic and fearsome. “A fire shall devour before him.” The fire of his judgments will prepare the way for the rebukes of his word, so that the hypocritical nation of the Jews may be awakened. The sinners in Zion, being afraid of that consuming fire (Isaiah 33:14), may be startled out of their sin. When Christ came to establish his gospel kingdom, he said he came to send fire on the earth (Luke 12:49). The Holy Spirit was given in tongues divided like fire, after a rushing mighty wind, which was very stormy (Acts 2:2, Acts 2:3). At the last judgment, Christ will come in flaming fire (2 Thessalonians 1:8). See also Daniel 7:9 and Hebrews 10:27.

As on Mount Sinai he came with ten thousands of his saints, so now he will call to the heavens from above to witness this solemn court (Psalm 50:4). Moses often called heaven and earth to witness against Israel (Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 31:28; Deuteronomy 32:1), and God did the same through his prophets (Isaiah 1:2; Micah 6:2). The justice of the great day will be recognized and praised by heaven and earth, by saints and angels, by all the holy myriads.

The parties are then summoned: “Gather my saints together unto me” (Psalm 50:5). This can mean, first, true saints, that is, God’s genuine people. Let them be gathered to God through Christ. Let the few godly Israelites stand apart, because the warnings that follow do not belong to them. A rebuke meant for hypocrites should not frighten the upright. When God rejects the worship of those who only bring sacrifices in outward form, he graciously accepts those who, in sacrifice, truly make a covenant with him and aim at the purpose of sacrifice.

This was also the purpose of the gospel and of Christ’s kingdom, to gather together the children of God in one (John 11:52). At the second coming of Jesus Christ, all his saints will be gathered to him (2 Thessalonians 2:1) to sit with him in judgment, because the saints will judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2). Here the saints are described as those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. Only those are gathered to God as his saints who have sincerely covenanted with him, taken him as their God, and given themselves to him as his people. And this can only happen through sacrifice, through Christ the great sacrifice, from whom all the old sacrifices received their worth. We sinners must have atonement for breaking the first covenant before we can be brought back into covenant with God.

Or, second, this may mean saints in outward profession, like the people of Israel, who were called a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). As a nation, they were taken into covenant with God, the special covenant that set them apart from other peoples, and this was done with great solemnity by sacrifice (Exodus 24:8). “Let them come and hear what God has to say to them.” Let them receive the rebukes God sends now through his prophets, and the gospel he will later send through his Son, which will replace the ceremonial law. If they ignore these, they should expect God to speak to them another way, and to be judged by the very word they refused to obey.

The result of this solemn trial is foretold: “The heavens shall declare his righteousness” (Psalm 50:6). Those same heavens that were called as witnesses will bear witness again. The people in heaven will say, “Hallelujah.” They will confess that God’s judgments are true and right (Revelation 19:1, Revelation 19:2).

God’s righteousness is shown in every rebuke in his word and every warning in his providence, in setting up his gospel, which brings in an everlasting righteousness and reveals God’s righteousness, and especially in the judgment of the great day. The heavens will declare this.

It will be known everywhere and announced to the whole world. Just as the heavens declare the glory, wisdom, and power of God the Creator (Psalm 19:1), so they will also openly declare the glory, justice, and righteousness of God the Judge. They proclaim both so clearly that there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard, as the psalm says later (Psalm 50:3).

It will also be admitted and proven beyond dispute. Who can deny what the heavens declare? Even sinners’ own consciences will agree, and both hell and heaven will be forced to acknowledge God’s righteousness. The reason is given: God himself is Judge. So he will be perfectly just, because it is impossible for him to do wrong to any of his creatures. He never has, and he never will.

When men judge for him, they may act unfairly. But when he is the Judge himself, there can be no injustice. “Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance?” The apostle is shocked by that thought and says, “God forbid,” for if God were unjust, how could he judge the world? (Romans 3:5-6). His decisions will be perfectly just. There will be no valid complaint against them, and no appeal from them.

He will also be shown to be righteous by the very fact that he judges. God is Judge, so he will not only do justice, but he will make everyone admit it. He will be proved clear when he judges (Psalm 51:4).