Psalms 50

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset. Wesley: Called—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 summoned, and at last the sentence given.

Hear the Mighty One summon the whole earth as witness. Refuse a private religion that never stands before his tribunal.

Calvin: The God of gods, even Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof—Asaph's psalm; God cites the nations not to prescribe one common system of faith, but to hear him plead his cause with the Jews in their presence; vehement address required for hypocrites; Jehovah as God of gods to possess minds with salutary terror; men measuring God by themselves imagine ceremonies constitute the sum of duty.

Stand under the summons of the God of gods. Refuse ceremonial security that never fears so great a Judge.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out. Wesley: Zion—The place where he was supposed to reside, and where he would now sit in judgment. The perfection—The most amiable place of the whole world, because of the presence and worship, and blessing of God. Shined—Hath manifested himself in a glorious manner.

Look for God's shining from Zion's beauty. Refuse a glory that never comes from his presence and worship.

Calvin: Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined—when God speaks out of Zion he sanctions the authority of the Law; Zion chosen for his sanctuary; such as conceal wickedness under ceremonies are condemned not by a new code but by Moses' Law; Zion named perfection of beauty because God chose it for his glory in the doctrine of the Law.

Receive the shining from Zion as Law-sanctioned judgment. Refuse a beauty that is only architecture without God's word.

Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him a mighty tempest. Wesley: Our God—The prophet speaks this in the persons of the worshippers of God. Though he be our God, yet he will come to execute judgment upon us. Cease—Or delay to sit in judgment. Tempestuous—This is a farther description of that terrible majesty, wherewith God would clothe himself when he came to his tribunal.

Confess that our God comes with fire and will not keep silence. Refuse a calm that mistakes delay for absence.

Calvin: Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence—he would not always keep silence, lest they presume upon his forbearance; our God as the same God all the children of Abraham profess to serve; comes with fire and tempest in allusion to Sinai, that secure hearts may tremble at judgments hitherto despised.

Tremble at the God who comes in Sinai-fire. Refuse forbearance-presumption that treats silence as approval.

He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people: Wesley: Call—To the inhabitants of them, all angels and men, whom he calls in for witnesses of the equity of his proceedings.

Let heaven and earth witness the equity of his judgment of his people. Refuse hiding from a bar that summons angels and men.

Calvin: He shall call to the heavens from above, to the earth to judge his people—to witness the settlement of his controversy with the Jews; hypocrites driven from their hiding-place before men and angels; speaks of the whole Church as his institution even when many have declined.

Prepare to be judged before the assembled witnesses of heaven and earth. Refuse a hiding-place of profession without equity.

Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice! Wesley: Gather—O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal. My saints—The Israelites, whom God had chosen and separated to be an holy and peculiar people; they also had solemnly devoted themselves to God; all which aggravated their apostacy. Those—Who have entered into covenant with me, and have ratified that covenant by sacrifice. Sacrifices were principally appointed to be signs and seals of the covenant; consequently to convince them of their great mistake in trusting to their outward sacrifices, when they neglected the very life and soul of them, which was the keeping of their covenant with God.

Come as covenant people whose sacrifices sealed allegiance, not bribed God. Keep the covenant's life; refuse trusting cattle while the vow is broken.

Calvin: Gather my meek ones together unto me, those who strike a covenant with me over sacrifices—speaks of the whole Church; meek ones remind them what they ought to be; sacrifices of no value except as seals of God's covenant, means for ratifying it; true members characterised by meekness practising righteousness, and by genuine faith closing with the covenant of adoption; rites without foundation in the word are unauthorised.

Gather as meek covenant partners, not as traders in blood. Seal faith by sacrifice's true end; refuse form that never closes with adoption.

The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah. Wesley: Declare—God will convince the people of his righteousness, and of their own wickedness, by thunders and lightnings, and storms, or other dreadful signs wrought by him in the heavens. Himself—In his own person. God will not now reprove them, by his priests or prophets, but in an extraordinary manner from heaven.

Let the heavens declare that God himself is judge. Refuse a reproof you only hear from men while heaven is ignored.

Calvin: And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself—Jews imagined idle service was perfection of righteousness; God about to reveal his righteousness from heaven and expose miserable devices; heavens attest perfidy in despising true holiness; sentence vindicated from vain cavils.

Hear heaven's witness against pretended righteousness. Refuse devices that call empty service perfection.

"Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Wesley: Hear—Having brought in God, as coming to judgment, he now gives an account of the process and sentence of the judge. Testify—I will declare my charge against thee. Thy God—Not only in general, but in a special manner, by that solemn covenant made at Sinai; whereby I avouched thee to be my peculiar people, and thou didst avouch me to be thy God.

Hear as his people under Sinai's mutual avouching. Refuse a charge you never let touch the covenant you claimed.

Calvin: Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel! and I will announce to thee: I am God, even thy God—God himself the speaker; calls them his people to challenge higher authority; expostulation for infraction of his covenant; I am God, and therefore my majesty ought to repress presumption; among you to whom I made myself known as your God, I have still stronger claims to homage.

Submit to the God who is your God by covenant. Refuse inventions that would make him submit to you.

I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. Wesley: I will not—This is not the principal matter of my charge, that thou hast neglected sacrifices which thou shouldst have offered.

Do not hear the rebuke as a call for more cattle. The charge is not missing burnt offerings but missing the heart.

Calvin: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices—attached no value to sacrifices in themselves; they meet God's approbation only when performed in their true spirit; mere outward ceremonies possessed of no value; God repudiates that he insisted on them as the main thing; he looked to something beyond these.

Stop counting continual offerings as the main thing. Seek the beyond; refuse a charge-sheet that only tallies bulls.

I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. Wesley: Bullock—Be not so foolish, as to imagine that thou dost lay any obligations upon me by thy sacrifices.

Drop the folly that bulls obligate God. Refuse paying heaven with goats from your folds.

Calvin: I will take no calf out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds—two reasons prove he cannot set value upon sacrifices: he needs not be indebted to man, having all fullness; and he requires neither food nor drink as we do.

Confess God owes you nothing for a calf. Refuse a ledger that treats sacrifice as divine debt.

For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. Shared with both camps: every beast and the livestock on a thousand hills already belong to the Judge—no gift enriches him.

Own that the forest's beasts are his before you offer. Refuse bribing the Owner with his own cattle.

Calvin: For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills—boundless possessions show absolute independence of human offerings; man can never benefit God by any of his services.

Measure every gift against the Owner of a thousand hills. Refuse a piety that treats God as needy.

I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. Wesley: The fowls—Such as are wild and fly up and down upon mountains.

Remember he already knows and owns every bird. Refuse an offering that pretends to inform or enrich him.

Calvin: I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are at my command—all fullness of the earth at his command; absolute independence of human offerings.

Let his knowledge of every moving thing silence proud gifts. Refuse field-offerings as if he lacked them.

"If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and its fullness are mine. Shared with both camps: even hunger would not send him to you—the world and its fullness are already his.

Believe he would not tell you if hungry. Refuse a god invented as a stomach to feed.

Calvin: If I am hungry, I will not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof—he is the self-existent One; communicates life to all; as he subsisted when nothing without him could contribute to his fullness, he has in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.

Rest in his all-sufficiency. Refuse feeding a self-existent God as if he were infirm.

Do I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Shared with both camps: the rhetorical no—God is not fed by bull-flesh or goat-blood.

Answer no to a dining God. Refuse a worship that treats altar-blood as divine meal.

Calvin: Will I eat the meat of bulls, and drink the blood of goats?—he requires neither food nor drink as we do for the support of our infirm natures; wide distinction between the self-existent One and frail man.

Keep the distinction between Creator and eater. Refuse carnal worship that makes God like us at table.

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High, Wesley: Offer—If thou wouldest know what sacrifices I prize, and indispensably require, in the first place, it is that of thankfulness, proportionable to my great and numberless favours; which doth not consist barely in verbal acknowledgments, but proceeds from an heart deeply affected with God's mercies, and is accompanied with such a course of life, as is well-pleasing to God. Vows—Those substantial vows and promises, which were the very soul of their sacrifices.

Shared with both camps—offer thanksgiving from a heart affected by mercy, and keep the vows that were sacrifice's soul. Refuse bare words and unpaid promises.

Calvin: Sacrifice unto God praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High—spoken only in comparison with true worship; praise and prayer represent the whole worship of God; spiritual worship as opposed to ceremonies; ascription of honor lies at the foundation of all prayer; Jews as well as we enjoined to yield spiritual worship—God is a spirit under the Law as after; ceremonies helps to piety, not the thing itself.

Shared with both camps—glorify him by praise and paid vows, not by empty rite. Seek spiritual thanksgiving; refuse ceremony that never thanks.

“Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Wesley: Call—And make conscience of that great duty of fervent prayer, which is an acknowledgment of thy subjection to me, and of thy trust and dependance upon me. Glorify—Thou shalt have occasion to glorify me for thy deliverance.

Call in trouble as subjection and trust, then glorify the Deliverer. Refuse a quietism that never prays or a pride that never returns thanks.

Calvin: And Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me—injunction to prayer, promise of answer, call to thanksgiving; pray not only in trouble but every day; adversity sent to stir us up to seek him; all true religion gone unless God alone is called upon.

Call on God alone in the day of trouble and glorify him for deliverance. Refuse transferring that honor; let affliction drive you to his name.

But to the wicked God says: "What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips? Wesley: But—With what confidence darest thou make mention of my grace and favour, in giving thee such a covenant and statutes.

Strip the wicked of the right to recite statutes with unclean lips. Refuse covenant-talk that never owns the Giver.

Calvin: But unto the wicked God hath said, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy lips?—censures those whose whole religion lies in ceremonies; form of godliness without faith and repentance is sacrilege; they aggravate guilt by assuming the semblance of piety; checks presumption: what hast thou to do to pretend you are my people?

Hear the veto on statute-reciting mouths still in wickedness. Refuse a covenant on the lips that never reaches the life.

Since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you. Shared with both camps: hatred of discipline and words cast behind the back expose the false worshipper.

Love the discipline you once hated. Refuse casting his words behind you while you quote his statutes.

Calvin: Also thou hatest correction, and castest my words behind thee—hypocrites deny by life what they profess with the lip; contempt of God proved from want of deference to his Word; unwilling to suffer the yoke; cannot listen with docility till brought to be ruled by its precepts.

Submit to correction instead of casting the word behind. Refuse lip-profession that hates the yoke.

When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. Shared with both camps: pleasure in the thief and company with adulterers unmask the statute-reciter.

Break fellowship with theft and adultery. Refuse a mouth full of covenant and a life pleased with thieves.

Calvin: If thou seest a thief, thou wilt run with him, and thou hast been partaker with adulterers—those who despise correction launch into excess; thefts, adulteries, and calumnies specified; hypocrites mix and pollute the holy name with wickedness.

Separate from the thief and the adulterer. Refuse polluting the Name by partnership in their ways.

"You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue weaves deceit. Shared with both camps: a mouth free for evil and a tongue framing deceit belong to the charge against false worshippers.

Rein in the mouth that runs to evil. Refuse framing deceit while you recite statutes.

Calvin: Thou puttest forth thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit—not merely slander but all speaking that injures neighbours; the lying tongue inflicts injury in a variety of ways.

Stop the tongue that frames deceit. Refuse injury dressed as free speech before God.

You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. Shared with both camps: sitting to speak against a brother and slandering a mother's son deepens the charge.

Guard the brother and the mother's son from your tongue. Refuse family-slander as table talk or judgment.

Calvin: Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son—may allude to sitting for formal judgment, or to malicious ease; brethren and mother's children named to express cruelty that violates the ties of nature.

Spare the nearest relations from slander. Refuse a seat that issues false charges against your own blood.

You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. Wesley: Kept silence—I did not express my displeasure against thee in such judgments as thou didst deserve. Thoughtest—Thou didst misconstrue my patience and long-suffering, as if it had proceeded from my approbation of thy evil courses. Set in order—I will bring to thy remembrance, and lay upon thy conscience all thy sins.

Do not read God's silence as his likeness to you or his approval. Receive the charge on the conscience; refuse patience-misread as permission.

Calvin: These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I would be like thyself; I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes—hypocrites abuse goodness, inventing God different from what he is, even as patron of sin; greatest dishonor is impeaching his justice; he will set the whole list of their sins in distinct order and force them upon their observation.

Shatter the fantasy that the silent Judge is one like yourself. Face the ordered charge; refuse a God remade in your image.

"Mark this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver! Shared with both camps: those who forget God are warned of tearing with none to deliver—yet the warning itself still calls them to mark and turn.

Mark this before the tearing comes. Refuse forgetting God while the door of warning stands open.

Calvin: Now consider this, ye that forget God: lest I seize upon you, and there be no one to deliver—severe expostulation for hardened hypocrites; yet holds out hope of pardon upon hastening to avail themselves of it; base ingratitude in forgetting God; grace extending mercy to apostates; door of mercy will not always stand open.

Consider now and hasten while mercy invites. Refuse delay that ends with none to deliver.

Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and whoever orders his way rightly will see God’s salvation!" Wesley: Glorifieth—He and he only gives me the honour that I require, and not he who loads my altar with sacrifices.

Shared closing with both camps—glorify him by thanksgiving and a rightly ordered way, and he will show salvation. Refuse altar-loads that never thank or walk aright.

Calvin: Whoso offereth praise will glorify me: and to him that ordereth his way aright will I show God’s salvation to him—third time praise is the most acceptable sacrifice; true and proper worship when goodness is celebrated with a sincere heart; under praise are comprehended faith and prayer; ordereth his way—walk in the right way as opposed to hypocrites; approach only with sincere heart; God speaks of himself in the third person to satisfy genuine worshippers that he truly sustains the character of their Savior.

Shared closing with both camps—offer praise, order the way, and look for the salvation he shows. Refuse hypocrite paths; let thanksgiving prove the Savior you claim.