Psalm 49–50

Psalm 49

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹Hear this, all ye peoples;

Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high,

Rich and poor together.

³My mouth shall speak wisdom;

And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

⁴I will incline mine ear to a parable:

I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

⁵Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,

When iniquity at my heels compasseth me about?

⁶They that trust in their wealth,

And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother,

Nor give to God a ransom for him;

⁸(For the redemption of their life is costly,

And it faileth for ever),

⁹That he should still live alway,

That he should not see corruption.

¹⁰For he shall see it.

Wise men die;

The fool and the brutish alike perish,

And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,

And their dwelling-places to all generations;

They call their lands after their own names.

¹²But man being in honor abideth not:

He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This their way is their folly:

Yet after them men approve their sayings. Selah

¹⁴They are appointed as a flock for Sheol;

Death shall be their shepherd;

And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;

And their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,

That there be no habitation for it.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol;

For he will receive me. Selah

¹⁶Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,

When the glory of his house is increased:

¹⁷For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away;

His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul

(And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself),

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see the light.

²⁰Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,

Is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 50

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹The Mighty One, God, Jehovah, hath spoken,

And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God hath shined forth.

³Our God cometh, and doth not keep silence:

A fire devoureth before him,

And it is very tempestuous round about him.

⁴He calleth to the heavens above,

And to the earth, that he may judge his people:

⁵Gather my saints together unto me,

Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

⁶And the heavens shall declare his righteousness;

For God is judge himself. Selah

⁷Hear, O my people, and I will speak;

O Israel, and I will testify unto thee:

I am God, even thy God.

⁸I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices;

And thy burnt-offerings are continually before me.

⁹I will take no bullock out of thy house,

Nor he-goats out of thy folds.

¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine,

And the cattle upon a thousand hills.

¹¹I know all the birds of the mountains;

And the wild beasts of the field are mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell thee;

For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

¹³Will I eat the flesh of bulls,

Or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving;

And pay thy vows unto the Most High;

¹⁵And call upon me in the day of trouble:

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

¹⁶But unto the wicked God saith,

What hast thou to do to declare my statutes,

And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth,

¹⁷Seeing thou hatest instruction,

And castest my words behind thee?

¹⁸When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him,

And hast been partaker with adulterers.

¹⁹Thou givest thy mouth to evil,

And thy tongue frameth deceit.

²⁰Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother;

Thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.

²¹These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;

Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself:

But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

²²Now consider this, ye that forget God,

Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver:

²³Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me;

And to him that ordereth his way aright

Will I show the salvation of God.