Psalms

A Melody of Asaph.

50 El Elohim Yahweh hath spoken and called the earth, From the rising of the sun unto the going in thereof:

2 Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God hath shone forth.

3 Let our God come and let him not keep silence! A fire—before him shall devour, And around him hath it become exceeding tempestuous:

4 He calleth Unto the heavens above, And unto the earth, That he may judge his people.

5 Gather yourselves unto me—ye my men of lovingkindness, Who have solemnised my covenant over sacrifice.

6 Now have the heavens declared his righteousness, Because God is about to judge. [Selah.

7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will adjure thee, God thine own God I am:—

8 Not for thy sacrifices will I reprove thee, Nor for thine ascending-offerings before me continually:

9 I will not take out of thy house—a bullock, Nor out of thy folds—he-goats;

10 For mine is every wild-beast of the forest, The cattle on the mountains in their thousands;

11 I know every bird of the mountains, And the moving things of the plain are with me:

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

13 Will I eat the flesh of mighty oxen? Or the blood of he-goats will I drink?

14 Sacrifice to God a thankoffering, And pay to the Most High thy vows;

15 Call upon me then in the day of distress, I will deliver thee that thou mayest glorify me.

16 But to the lawless one God saith, What hast thou to do to recount my statutes? Or that thou hast taken up my covenant upon thy mouth?

17 Seeing that thou hast hated correction, And hast cast my words behind thee;

18 If thou sawest a thief then didst thou run with him,—And with adulterers hath been thy chosen life;

19 Thy mouth hast thou thrust into wickedness, And thy tongue kept weaving deceit;

20 Thou wouldst sit down—Against thine own brother wouldst thou speak, Against thine own mother’s son wouldst thou expose a fault:—

21 These things hast thou done and I have kept silence, Thou thoughtest that I should really be like thyself, I will convict thee, yea I will set [thine offences] in order before thine eyes.

22 Understand this, I pray you, ye forgetters of God, Lest I tear in pieces, and there be none to deliver:—

23 He that sacrificeth a thankoffering will glorify me,—And will prepare a way by which I may shew him the salvation of God.