Psalms 50:6

_AND THE HEAVENS SHALL DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS: FOR GOD IS JUDGE HIMSELF. SELAH._ And the heavens shall declare his righteousness. The vindication of "His righteousness" to His own glory is the final end of the "covenant" of redemption, and of the judgment about to be executed in behalf of His elect at the second advent. The saints, His people who are accepted of God on the ground of the covenant by sacrifice, are distinguished from Israel, who is reproved (Psalms 50:7) for formal sacrifices. His expostulation with Israel for formalism in legal services, and His effectual call to thankfulness, obedience, and prayer in trouble, with the promise of deliverance (Psalms 50:7)....

6._And the heavens shall declare his righteousness. _The Jews were vain enough to imagine that their idle and fantastic service was the perfection of righteousness; but they are here warned by the prophet, that God, who had seemed to connive at their folly, was about to reveal his own righteousness from heaven, and expose their miserable devices. “Think you,” as if he had said, “that God can take delight in the mockery of your deluded services? Though you send up the smoke of them to heaven, God will make known his righteousness in due time from above, and vindicate it from the dishonors done to it by your wicked inventions. The heavens themselves will attest your perfidy in despising true holiness, and corrupting the pure worship of God. He will no longer suffer your gratuitous aspersions of his character, as if he took no notice of the enmity which lurks under your pretended friendship...

1-6 This psalm is a psalm of instruction. It tells of the coming of Christ and the day of judgment, in which God will call men to account; and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of judgement. All the children of men are concerned to know the right way of worshipping the Lord, in spirit and in truth. In the great day, our God shall come, and make those hear his judgement who would not hearken to his law. Happy are those who come into the covenant of grace, by faith in the Redeemer's atoning sacrifice, and show the sincerity of their love by fruits of righteousness. When God rejects the services of those who rest in outside performances, he will graciously accept those who seek him aright. It is only by sacrifice, by Christ, the great Sacrifice, from whom the sacrifices of the law derived what value they had, that we can be accepted of God. True and righteous are his judgments; even sinners' own...

AND THE HEAVENS SHALL DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS - Shall make it known, or announce it. That is, the heavens - the heavenly inhabitants - will bear witness to the justness of the sentence, or will approve the sentence. See the notes at Psalms 50:4. Compare Psalms 97:6. FOR GOD IS JUDGE HIMSELF - The judgment is not committed to mortal men, or even to angels. Creatures, even the most exalted and pure, might err in such a work as that of judging the world. That judgment, to be correct, must be founded on a perfect knowledge of the heart, and on a clear and complete understanding of all the thoughts, the motives, the words, the deeds of all people. It cannot be supposed that any created being, however exalted, could possess all this knowledge,

EXPOSITION THE psalmist announces an appearance of God to his people "out of Zion," and a pronouncement of judgment upon them, which all heaven (Psalms 50:4) and earth (Psalms 50:1) are called upon to witness. The judgment takes the shape of a twofold address; first, to the righteous, who are exhorted to the spiritual worship of God (Psalms 50:14, Psalms 50:15), and warned against putting too much trust in sacrifice (Psalms 50:8); secondly, to the wicked, who are sternly reproved for their hypocrisy, their hatred of instruction

AND THE HEAVENS SHALL DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS,.... That is, either the heavens shall bear witness to his justice and equity in judging his people; or the angels, the ministers of the Gospel, shall declare his justifying righteousness, which is revealed in it, to the saints and covenant ones they shall be a means of gathering in: or rather the justice of Christ in the destruction of the Jews shall be attested and applauded by angels and men, just as the righteousness of God in the destruction of the antichristian powers is celebrated by the angel of the waters, Revelation 16:5; FOR GOD [IS] JUDGE HIMSELF. And not another, or by another; and therefore his judgments must be just and righteous, seeing he is just and true, loves righteousness, and is righteous in all his ways and works. SELAH; on this word,...

A Psalm of Asaph. Whether this means that Asaph wrote it, or that it was committed to him to sing, we do not know. Certainly Asaph did write some Psalms. There are twelve ascribed to him in the book of Psalms. He wrote some, and it is equally certain that some ethers were dedicated to him. He had the leadership of the orchestra, who sang the Psalm in the temple. This is a very marvelous Psalm. If we only consider the poetry of it, it is one of the chief of the Psalms, but its matter is very deep august. It should be read with great reverence of spirit. The Psalm begins with a prologue in which the scene is introduced. God is represented as coming forth out of Zion to judge those who profess to be his people to discern between the precious and the vile to separate between mere professors and pretenders. The first six verses represent God as coming. Psalms 50:1. The mighty G

Psalms 50 The Demands of a Righteous God _ 1. His coming and His call (Psalms 50:1)_ 2. The God of Israel speaks (Psalms 50:7) 3. The demands of righteousness (Psalms 50:16) Psalms 50:1; Psalms 51:1 belong together. In the first God is described coming to Israel, proclaiming His righteousness and demanding righteousness from His people and in the second Israel makes confession of sin....

L. GOD LOOKS TO CONDUCT RATHER THAN TO SACRIFICE. For the attitude to sacrifice, _cf._ Psalms 40*. PSALMS 50:1. The expected Theophany. PSALMS 50:1. Read _mg._ with LXX. CALLED THE EARTH: since the calling occurs in Psalms 50:4, which is a more appropriate place, read the earth feared. Psalms 50:5. The LXX reads Gather his saints together unto him, those that have made his covenant with him by sacrifice. The last words refer to Exodus 24:5 ff. For saints-' (_hasî dî m),_ see on Psalms 4....

SELAH. Connecting the "call" to "hear" what _true worship_ is (verses: Psalms 50:7), and to "consider" what _true service_ is (verses: Psalms 50:16) when these things come into judgment (Psalms 50:6). Both are summed up in Psalms 50:23. (App-66.)...