Psalm 50

Psalm 50

The Acceptable Sacrifice

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹The mighty one, God the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to its setting.^*

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God shines forth.^*

³Our God comes and does not keep silent;

before him is a devouring fire

and a mighty tempest all around him.^*

⁴He calls to the heavens above

and to the earth, that he may judge his people:^*

⁵“Gather to me my faithful ones,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”^*

⁶The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge.   Selah^*

⁷“Hear, O my people, and I will speak,

O Israel, I will testify against you.

I am God, your God.^*

⁸Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

your burnt offerings are continually before me.^*

⁹I will not accept a bull from your house

or goats from your folds.^*

¹⁰For every wild animal of the forest is mine,

the cattle on a thousand hills.^*

¹¹I know all the birds of the air,^v

and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹²“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and all that is in it is mine.^*

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^w

and pay your vows to the Most High.^*

¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”^*

¹⁶But to the wicked God says,

“What right have you to recite my statutes

or take my covenant on your lips?^*

¹⁷For you hate discipline,

and you cast my words behind you.^*

¹⁸You make friends with a thief when you see one,

and you keep company with adulterers.^*

¹⁹“You give your mouth free rein for evil,

and your tongue frames deceit.

²⁰You sit and speak against your kin;

you slander your own mother’s child.^*

²¹These things you have done, and I have been silent;

you thought that I was one just like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.^*

²²“Mark this, then, you who forget God,

or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.^*

²³Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me;

to those who go the right way,^x

I will show the salvation of God.”