Psalm 50
"The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken"
A Latin phrase from Psalm 50 in the coat of arms of Spain
Other name
  • Psalm 49
  • "Deus deorum"
LanguageHebrew (original)

Psalm 50, a Psalm of Asaph, is the 50th psalm from the Book of Psalms in the Bible, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 49. The opening words in Latin are Deus deorum, Dominus, locutus est / et vocavit terram a solis ortu usque ad occasum.[1] The psalm is a prophetic imagining of God's judgment on the Israelites.

The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has been set to music completely and in single verses. The phrase A solis ortu usque ad occasum, taken from verse 1,[2] is part of a Spanish coat of arms.

Composition

The psalm has been variously dated to either the 8th century BC, the time of the prophets Hosea and Micah, or to a time after the Babylonian captivity. The latter date is supported by the reference to "gathering" in verse 5, but is problematic because verse 2 describes Zion (another name for Jerusalem) as "the perfection of beauty", even though Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 BC.[3]

Text

King James Version

  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 castest 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.


The psalm can be divided into an introduction (verses 1-6), two separate orations in which God testifies against the Jews (verses 7-15 and 16-21), and a conclusion (verses 22-23).[4] The imagery of the introduction evokes the revelation of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, where God's appearance was accompanied by thunder and lightning.[5] God summons the heavens and the earth to act as witnesses, and the rest of the psalm takes the form of a legal proceeding, with God acting as both plaintiff and judge.[6] The same metaphor of a divine tribunal occurs in chapter 1 of the Book of Isaiah and chapter 6 of the Book of Micah.[5]

Cattle grazing in a high-elevation environment at the Big Pasture Plateau, Slovenia: cf. verse 10: The cattle on a thousand hills are mine.[7]

In God's first oration, he tells the people that he is not satisfied with material sacrifices alone, since he does not require food or drink.[5] Rather, he desires his people to worship him with thanksgiving and sincere prayer.[8] Verse 13, "Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" may be an allusion to the goddess Anat, since in one fragmentary text Anat eats the flesh and drinks the blood of her brother Baal, who sometimes appears as a bull.[9]

God's second oration is warning against hypocrisy.[5] Though the hypocrites often recite God's commandments, they inwardly hate them and make no effort to live by them, and God will surely bring them to judgment.[8]

The psalm closes with a final warning against iniquity and a promise that God will bless the righteous and make them "drink deeply of the salvation of God".[10] This last is an appearance of the common biblical theme of the "Messianic banquet," which also occurs in Psalm 23, Psalm 16, and Luke 14, among other places.[11]

Uses

Judaism

Psalm 50 is recited on the fourth day of Sukkot.[12]

Book of Common Prayer

In the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, this psalm is appointed to be read on the morning of the tenth day of the month.[13]

Musical settings

In a Scottish Psalter of 1650, Psalm 50 was paraphrased rhymed in English as "The mighty God, the Lord, Hath spoken, and did call".[14] The 1863 hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth" by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint issues verse 14.[15]

Heinrich Schütz set Psalm 50 in a rhymed version in the Becker Psalter, as "Gott unser Herr, mächtig durchs Wort", SWV 147. The last verse is used in German in the opening chorus of Bach's cantata Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, BWV 17, composed in 1726.

F. Melius Christiansen created a famous choral arrangement of Psalm 50 in 1922. This setting was dedicated to the St. Olaf Choir for the 10th anniversary of the choir's formation.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ Parallel Latin/English Psalter / Psalmus 49 (50) Archived 7 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine medievalist.net
  2. ^ Psalm 49:1: Vulgate
  3. ^ Kirkpatrick 277
  4. ^ Rhodes 84
  5. ^ a b c d Kirkpatrick 276
  6. ^ Dahood 306; Rhodes 84
  7. ^ Psalm 50:10: Expanded Bible (2011)
  8. ^ a b Rhodes 85
  9. ^ Dahood 308
  10. ^ Dahood 305
  11. ^ Dahood 311
  12. ^ The Artscroll Tehillim, page 329
  13. ^ Church of England, Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter as printed by John Baskerville in 1762, pp. 196ff
  14. ^ Psalm 50(1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter with Notes by John Brown of Haddington) The Westminster Standard
  15. ^ For the Beauty of the Earth hymnary.org
  16. ^ Bergmann, Leola Marjorie Nelson (1942). F. Melius Christiansen: Study of His Life and Work as a Norwegian-American Contribution to American Culture (Thesis). ProQuest 2056863049.

Bibliography

External links

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