Psalms 50

A Psalm of Asaph.

This psalm fitly follows Psalms 49:0, both from its didactic style, and its call upon the people for attention. Comp. Psalms 49:1; Psalms 50:7. In the former the Church is warned against fear or complaint at the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous; in this they are reproved for a formal religion to the neglect of a vital one. The former rebukes an envious longing for this world, the latter a disrelish for spiritual things. Its exposition of the true import and spirit of acceptable worship unfolds the true gospel of the Old Testament.

Psalms 50:1-6, introduce God as sitting upon the throne of judgment, and the covenant people arraigned before him; Psalms 50:7-15 are a rebuke of the delusion and emptiness of a merely ritualistic worship; Psalms 50:16-23, contain a warning to such as live in secret immorality while they profess to be God-worshippers.

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Asaph A numerous family bore this name, of whom the father, a Levite of the family of Kohath, 1 Chronicles 6:39, was chosen to be one of three master musicians. 1 Chronicles 15:17; 1Ch 15:19 ; 1 Chronicles 25:1-2. He was a man of distinction as a poet, musician, and “seer.” 2 Chronicles 29:30. The family flourished in the days of Jehoshaphat and of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 20:24; 2 Chronicles 29:30, and after the captivity, Nehemiah 7:44. Twelve psalms are ascribed to Asaph, of which the fiftieth is the first, the others standing in a group in the third book of the Hebrew Psalter, namely, Psalms 73-83. They are distinguished as models of didactic psalms, with a vein of prophecy, and an ample retrospective view of the providential history of the nation.