Psalm 50 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 50 (1928 BCP) is Deus deorum in the Psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer (1928). It is a prophetic summons in which the covenant God judges the worship and conduct of his people. The Psalm does not disparage sacrifice as such. Rather, it refuses the fiction that God can be supplied, managed, or praised by words detached from thanksgiving, trust, and a reformed life. In the 1928 Prayer Book it opens Tenth-Day Morning Prayer.
Text in the 1928 Psalter
The complete text below was compared word for word with the local 1928 Psalter transcription, including its readings “Most Mighty God,” “he-goats,” “thou sattest,” and “ordereth his way aright.”
1 THE Lord, even the Most Mighty God, hath spoken, * and called the world, from the rising up of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2 Out of Sion hath God appeared * in perfect beauty.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; * there shall go before him a consuming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him.
4 He shall call the heaven from above, * and the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Gather my saints together unto me; * those that have made a covenant with me with sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; * for God is Judge himself.
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; * I myself will testify against thee, O Israel; for I am God, even thy God.
8 I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices; * as for thy burnt-offerings, they are alway before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of thine house, * nor he-goats out of thy folds.
10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine, * and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls upon the mountains, * and the wild beasts of the field are in my sight.
12 If I be hungry, I will not tell thee; * for the whole world is mine, and all that is therein.
13 Thinkest thou that I will eat bulls' flesh, * and drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer unto God thanksgiving, * and pay thy vows unto the Most Highest.
15 And call upon me in the time of trouble; * so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.
16 But unto the ungodly saith God, * Why dost thou preach my laws, and takest my covenant in thy mouth;
17 Whereas thou hatest to be reformed, * and hast cast my words behind thee?
18 When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst unto him; * and hast been partaker with the adulterers.
19 Thou hast let thy mouth speak wickedness, * and with thy tongue thou hast set forth deceit.
20 Thou sattest and spakest against thy brother; * yea, and hast slandered thine own mother's son.
21 These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue, and thou thoughtest wickedly, that I am even such a one as thyself; * but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done.
22 O consider this, ye that forget God, * lest I pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you.
23 Whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me; * and to him that ordereth his way aright, will I show the salvation of God.
The Psalm moves in three connected parts: the Judge appears and summons witnesses (verses 1–6); he exposes worship that mistakes sacrifice for a gift to a needy deity (verses 7–15); and he rebukes those whose religious speech contradicts their conduct (verses 16–23). Its final line joins praise and an ordered way of life.
The God who judges his covenant people
The opening does not summon Israel before an unknown power. The Judge says, “I am God, even thy God,” recalling the covenant relation that makes worship meaningful and disobedience grave. Fire, tempest, heaven, and earth are courtroom imagery: creation witnesses the righteousness of the God who judges his own people.
Alexander Maclaren identifies this shape and its twofold indictment—empty ritual and religious hypocrisy—without reducing the Psalm to an attack on public worship.
The structure is clear and simple. There is, first, a magnificent description of God's coming to judgment and summoning heaven and earth to witness while He judges His people (vv. 1-6). The second part (vv. 7-15) proclaims the worthlessness of sacrifice; and the third (vv. 16-21) brands hypocrites who pollute God's statutes by taking them into their lips while their lives are foul.
For Christian readers, this judicial appearing belongs beside the New Testament's confession that God will judge the secrets of humanity through Christ. That canonical connection should not erase Psalm 50's first address to Israel, but it preserves the Psalm's seriousness: covenant speech and covenant life belong together.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Sacrifice, thanksgiving, and prayer
Verses 8–15 do not say that Israel has failed to bring offerings; the burnt offerings are “alway before” God. The point is theological: the maker and possessor of all creatures cannot be enriched by their return to him. Therefore verse 14 turns worship toward thanksgiving, fulfilled vows, and dependent prayer in trouble. These are not alternatives to obedience, but its proper inward and outward form.
Maclaren is particularly useful here because he resists a common overreading. The Psalm exposes sacrificial self-sufficiency, not the worship of God offered in thankful faith.
Surely this declaration at the outset sets aside the notion that the psalmist was launching a polemic against sacrifices per se. It distinctly takes the ground that the habitual offering of these was pleasing to the Judge. Their presentation continually is not reproved, but approved. What then is condemned? Surely it can be nothing but sacrifice without the thanksgiving and prayer required in vv. 14, 15.
The New Testament takes up this vocabulary of praise as a sacrifice while locating Christian approach to God in Jesus Christ. This is neither a dismissal of Psalm 50 nor an excuse for merely verbal devotion; the “fruit of our lips” is offered through Christ and bears his name.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Augustine's exposition is a theological reception of the Psalm's “sacrifice of praise.” He describes thanksgiving as receiving and returning to God what grace has given, not presenting God with something he lacked.
And this is the immolation of the sacrifice of praise, to render thanks to Him from whom you have whatever of good you have, and by whose mercy is forgiven you whatsoever of evil of yours you have.
Praise that is not hypocrisy
The final movement is searching precisely because its target knows the covenant words. The ungodly “preach my laws” yet consent to theft, adultery, deceit, and slander. Psalm 50 therefore refuses both ritualism and moralism: worship is not a purchase of divine favour, and moral speech cannot replace gratitude, prayer, and praise. God’s delayed judgment must not be mistaken for divine likeness or approval.
Augustine applies this warning directly to Christian worship: lips that bless God must not be contradicted by a life that curses him. This is an interpretation of the Psalm, not a warrant for judging another worshipper's hidden heart.
Well you do indeed, if you do this: but take heed, lest now thou be careless, because now you do this: and perchance your tongue bless God, and your life curse God.
The ending offers a positive way: “Whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me.” In the Daily Office this Psalm teaches a congregation to give thanks honestly, call on God in trouble, keep its vows, examine its conduct, and expect salvation from God rather than from religious performance.
Prayer Book use
The 1928 monthly Psalter appoints Psalm 50 at the beginning of Tenth-Day Morning Prayer, followed by Psalms 51 and 52. Its placement lets the Church hear the summons to thankful worship beside Psalm 51's penitential plea for a clean heart.
The Tenth Day. Morning Prayer. Psalm 50. Deus deorum. … Psalm 51. Miserere mei, Deus. … Psalm 52. Quid gloriaris?
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 49 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 51 (1928 BCP)
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
External Links
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 50, Deus deorum, Tenth-Day Morning Prayer. "Psalm 50 in the 1928 BCP Psalter"
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), “Psalm L,” exposition of Psalm 50. "Maclaren, The Psalms, vol. II, Psalm L"
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), 2 Corinthians 5:10. "2 Corinthians 5:10, KJV"
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), “Psalm L,” exposition of verses 7–15. "Maclaren on Psalm 50:7–15"
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Hebrews 13:15–16. "Hebrews 13:15–16, KJV"
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 50, §21 (Psalm 49 in the Hebrew numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. "Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 50, §21"
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 50, §23 (Psalm 49 in the Hebrew numbering), trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. "Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 50, §23"
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Tenth Day, Morning Prayer. "1928 BCP monthly Psalter: Tenth-Day Morning Prayer"