CHAPTER 50

A PSALM OF ASAPH: GOD IS THE JUDGE

¹The mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the Earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. (As far as we know, Asaph wrote twelve Psalms, of which this is the first.

The doctrine of this Verse is: The God of gods, even Jehovah Messiah, summons the Earth to judgment. The certitude of this judgment is so sure that it is spoken of as a present fact. The extent of this judgment from the rising of the sun to its going down is repeated in Matthew 24:27.)

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined (immediately prior to the appearance of the Messiah at the Second Coming, Israel will be reduced to the lowest possible depth of misery and well-nigh extinction as a nation; but, at that moment, her Deliverer will appear on Mount Zion with all the accompaniments of terrific majesty, as at Sinai, and He will summon the whole Earth to judgment).

³Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him (this speaks as well of His Second Coming during the Battle of Armageddon; He came the first time as a Lamb; He will come the second time as the conquering King of kings and Lord and lords [Rev. 19:1121]).

⁴He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the Earth, that He may judge His People (His People refer to the Jewish people, who have rejected Him for all these many centuries; Zechariah spoke of this moment [Zech. 12:1014]).

⁵Gather My Saints together unto Me: those who have made a Covenant with Me by Sacrifice. (The term here, My Saints, does not refer to the Blood-bought Church that has already been raptured some seven years earlier, but rather to the Jewish people, as designated by their Covenant of Sacrifice.

The term Saints does not express the Believers moral attitude toward God, but Gods attitude toward the Believer.

This Covenant made by Sacrifice, as it refers to Israel, was typified in Exodus 24:8, explained in Hebrews 9:20, and fulfilled in I Corinthians 5:7. It pointed toward Calvary and is illustrated in Genesis 15:921.)

⁶And the heavens shall declare His Righteousness: for God is Judge Himself. Selah. (This refers to the judgment of the nations, as to how they opposed Israel or helped Israel [Mat. 25:3146].)

⁷Hear, O My People, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, even your God (this is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, addressing Israel; His testimony against them will concern their rejection of Him at His First Advent; they, at that time, rejected Him as the Messiah; now He is telling them I am God, even your God).

⁸I will not reprove you for your Sacrifices or your Burnt Offerings, to have been continually before Me (the Lord is saying that His reproof that He will give to Israel does not concern the true Sacrifices that they should have offered before Him continually, but will be for the sacrifices that were offered not for their true rightful purpose [Atonement], but those which constituted works alone, as though they were feeding a hungry God, which was the method of the heathen).

⁹I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your folds (in essence, I need no bullocks or goats).

¹⁰For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills (in other words, I do not need your animals; I have plenty of My Own).

¹¹I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof (this refers back to the heathen gods to which the Pagans offered sacrifices in order to appease their hunger; God is saying, in effect, Dont class Me as a heathen god or treat Me thusly).

¹³Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? (Israel lost the true purpose of what the Sacrifices really meant, and conducted themselves as heathen offering up their sacrifices to appease Jehovah.)

¹⁴Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay your vows unto the Most High (now He alludes to the correct manner in which the Sacrifices should have been offered; they should have been offered in thanksgiving for the Way that God had made for His People to have their sins covered; they were to serve as a symbol of the Redeemer Who was to come into the world, Who would give His Life for fallen humanity; sacrifices offered for any other purpose would be rejected out of hand):

¹⁵And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me (offering the Sacrifices in the right way, which symbolized the coming Redeemer and the price that He would pay on Calvarys Cross, guaranteed deliverance).

¹⁶But unto the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare My Statutes, or that you should take My Covenant in your mouth? (Every nation of the world that has rejected the true Sacrifice of Christ has persecuted Israel. They will now answer!)

¹⁷Seeing you hate instruction, and cast My Words behind you (to most nations of the world, the Word of God means little; now they will answer!).

¹⁸When you saw a thief, then you consented with him, and have been partaker with adulterers (the Lord is saying to the nations that opposed Israel [before His Coming] that they joined in with thieves in their treatment of Israel; this means that they sought to take away from Israel that which God had rightly promised her; as well, they consorted with idol-worshippers [adulterers] in their ill-treatment of these ancient people).

¹⁹You gave your mouth to evil, and your tongue framed deceit.

²⁰You sit and speak against your brother: you slander your own mothers son (here, He speaks directly to the Arab world; Ishmael was Isaacs brother; so, in effect, the Arabs have slandered their own mothers son; even though Sarah was Isaacs mother, and Hagar was Ishmaels mother, still, Sarah was looked at as the foster mother of Ishmael; because Hagar was Sarahs servant, she could only bear the son according to Sarahs wishes [Gen. 16:16]).

²¹These things have you done, and I kept silence: you thought that I was altogether such an one as yourself: but I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes (due to the false religion of Islam, the Arabs have thought that they were praying to God, and that He was one with them; they will now know they have been wrong; the Promise was not through Ishmael, but through Isaac [Gen. 17:1819]; they have mistaken Gods silence for approval; at this coming day, prophesied about 3,000 years ago, the world of Islam will then answer).

²²Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver (the Lord is saying here that the Arab world of Islam, which has substituted this false religion in the place of God, is now in danger of being torn to pieces with none being able to deliver them).

²³Whoso offers praise glorifies Me: and to him who orders his conversation (manner of behavior) aright will I show the Salvation of God (the idea seems to be that the nations of the world which have opposed God and His Plan will now be given an opportunity to repent; to those who do, Salvation will be afforded them; otherwise, judgment! This will be at the beginning of the Kingdom Age).