U-God

Library

📚Library🔍Search☀️Daily Verse📅Sacred Calendar⭐Bookmarks

Discover

🌍ExploreNew📊TopicsNew⚖️CompareNew📝BlogNew

More

💡About📜Terms
Start Reading for Free

© 2026 U-God Sacred Library

Christianity

Psalms 50God Summons His People

Summary

Psalm 50, the first psalm of Asaph, pictures God shining forth from Zion and calling heaven and earth to witness a trial of his people. God does not rebuke them for lacking sacrifices, since every beast of the forest is already his and he does not eat flesh. Instead he asks for thanksgiving, kept vows and prayer in trouble. He then rebukes the wicked who recite his covenant yet join thieves and slander. It ends calling for grateful praise.

Key verse

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”

Psalms 50:10

Themes

  • Divine Judgment
  • True Sacrifice
  • Thanksgiving
  • Hypocrisy

Text

1

The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

2

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

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.

4

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

5

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

6

And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

7

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

8

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

9

I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

10

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

11

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

12

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

13

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

14

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

15

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

16

But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17

Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee.

18

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

19

Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

20

Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.

21

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

22

Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

23

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.

Across traditions

  • Islam

    Surah Al-Hajj (22): Their Flesh Reacheth Not Allah

    Quran 22:37 says the flesh and food of sacrificed animals do not reach God, but the devotion of the worshiper does. This closely parallels God's question in Psalm 50:13 and the call for thanksgiving instead.

  • Christianity

    Micah 6: What Doth the LORD Require

    Micah 6 also presents God's case against his people and declares that God wants justice, mercy and humility more than burnt offerings.

  • Judaism

    Tehillim 50 in the JPS 1917 Tanakh

    Asaph was one of the Levite musicians David appointed (1 Chronicles 16:5). Rabbinic teaching on the thanksgiving offering often cites verse 23, Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving honoureth Me, in the JPS wording.

Questions about Psalms 50

Who was Asaph in the Psalms?

Asaph was a chief Levite musician in David's time according to 1 Chronicles. Psalm 50 and Psalms 73 to 83 bear his name, likely referring to him or to a guild of singers descended from him.

What does the cattle upon a thousand hills mean?

Psalm 50:10 says all animals already belong to God, so he does not need sacrifices for his own sake. What he values is a grateful and obedient heart.