Psalms 50

1 The Lord, the God of gods, spoke and called the earth from sunrise to sunset.

2 From Zion comes the splendor of his beauty. God will come openly,

3 and our God will not remain silent. Fire will burn before him, and a fierce storm will surround him.

4 He will summon heaven above and the earth so that he may judge his people.

5 Gather his holy ones to him, those who established his covenant upon sacrifices.

6 The heavens will proclaim his righteousness, because God is judge. Pause.

7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak to you. Israel, I will testify to you: I am God, your God.

8 I will not correct you because of your sacrifices, for your whole burnt offerings are always before me.

9 I will not accept calves from your house or male goats from your flocks.

10 Every wild animal of the thicket is mine, along with the cattle on the mountains and the oxen.

11 I know every bird of the sky, and the field’s beauty is mine.

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, because the inhabited world and everything in it are mine.

13 Will I eat bulls’ flesh or drink goats’ blood?

14 Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

15 Call upon me on a day of affliction. I will rescue you, and you will glorify me.” Pause.

16 But God said to the sinner,

“Why do you recount my rules and take my covenant in your mouth?

17 You hated instruction and threw my words behind you.

18 When you saw a thief, you ran with him, and you cast your lot with adulterers.

19 Your mouth multiplied evil, and your tongue wove deceit.

20 You sat and spoke against your brother; you placed a stumbling block before your mother’s son.

21 You did these things, and I remained silent. You lawlessly assumed that I would be like you, but I will correct you and lay these things before you.

22 Understand these things, you who forget God, or he may seize you, with no one to rescue you.

23 A sacrifice of praise will glorify me, and there is the way by which I will show him God’s rescue.”