Psalm 50

¹From the rising of the sun to where it sets,

God, the LORD God, speaks,

²From Zion, perfect in beauty,

God shines brightly.

³Our God is coming;

he won’t keep quiet.

A devouring fire is before him;

a storm rages all around him.

⁴God calls out to the skies above

and to the earth in order to judge his people:

⁵“Bring my faithful to me,

those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

⁶The skies proclaim his righteousness

because God himself is the judge. Selah

⁷“Listen, my people, I will now speak;

Israel, I will now testify against you.

I am God—your God!

⁸I’m not punishing you for your sacrifices

or for your entirely burned offerings,

which are always before me.

⁹I won’t accept bulls from your house

or goats from your corrals

¹⁰because every forest animal already belongs to me,

as do the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know every mountain bird;

even the insects in the fields are mine.

¹²Even if I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you

because the whole world and everything in it already belong to me.

¹³Do I eat bulls’ meat?

Do I drink goats’ blood?

¹⁴Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving!

Fulfill the promises you made to the Most High!

¹⁵Cry out to me whenever you are in trouble;

I will deliver you, then you will honor me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked God says,

“Why do you talk about my laws?

Why do you even mention my covenant?

¹⁷You hate discipline, and

you toss my words behind your back.

¹⁸You make friends with thieves whenever you see one;

you spend your time with adulterers.

¹⁹You set your mouth free to do evil,

then harness your tongue to tell lies.

²⁰You sit around, talking about your own siblings;

you find fault with the children of your very own mother.

²¹You’ve done these things and I’ve kept quiet.

You thought I was just like you!

²²So consider this carefully, all you who forget God,

or I’ll rip you to pieces with no one to deliver you:

²³The one who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving is the one who honors me.

And it is to the one who charts the correct path that I will show divine salvation.”