The Mighty One, God, Speaks

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks,and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.

The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

The psalm opens by stacking up three names for God: the Mighty One, God, the LORD. He speaks and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset. The whole world is summoned to hear what follows.

Also read 1 Chronicles 25:2, Amos 3:8, 1 Chronicles 15:17, 1 Chronicles 25:6

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,God shines out.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

God shines out of Zion, which the verse calls the perfection of beauty. The judgement begins from Zion rather than from a distant place. The next verse describes him arriving.

Also read Psalm 87:2-3, Psalm 94:1, Habakkuk 2:20, Revelation 1:16

Our God comes, and does not keep silent.A fire devours before him.It is very stormy around him.

Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

God comes and does not keep silent. Fire devours before him and a storm surrounds him. The silence mentioned here returns in verse 21, where God says he had kept silent.

Also read Psalm 18:7-15, Malachi 3:2-3, Psalm 68:20, Numbers 16:35

He calls to the heavens above,to the earth, that he may judge his people:

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Also read Deuteronomy 31:28, John 5:22-23, Isaiah 11:3-4, Deuteronomy 32:1

“Gather my saints together to me,those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

God orders his saints to be gathered to him. They are described as those who made a covenant with him by sacrifice. The people on trial are his own.

Also read Matthew 24:31, Zechariah 14:5, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, Isaiah 13:3

The heavens shall declare his righteousness,for God himself is judge. Selah.

And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

The heavens, already called as witnesses in verse 4, now announce that God is in the right. The reason given is short: God himself is judge, so the trial that follows does not rest on any human court. A Selah marks the pause before God's long speech begins in verse 7.

Also read Revelation 19:2, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Psalm 89:5, Psalm 97:6

“Hear, my people, and I will speak.Israel, I will testify against you.I am God, your God.

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

God speaks directly to Israel and says he will testify against them. He introduces himself as "God, your God". The one bringing the charge is the one they belong to.

Also read Ezekiel 20:5, Ezekiel 20:19-20, Psalm 81:10-12, Zechariah 13:9

I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

Also read Psalm 51:16, Hebrews 10:4-10, Psalm 40:6-8, Jeremiah 7:21-23

I have no need for a bull from your stall,nor male goats from your pens.

I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

Also read Psalm 69:31, Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 43:23-24, Acts 17:25

For every animal of the forest is mine,and the livestock on a thousand hills.

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Also read Psalm 104:24-25, Psalm 104:14, Genesis 2:19, Genesis 31:9

I know all the birds of the mountains.The wild animals of the field are mine.

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

God says he knows all the birds of the mountains and owns the wild animals of the field. With verse 10 and its livestock on a thousand hills, the point is that nothing offered to him was not already his.

Also read Psalm 104:12, Isaiah 56:9, Psalm 147:9, Matthew 6:26

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

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

The argument reaches its conclusion. If God were hungry, he would not tell his people, because the world and everything in it is his. Sacrifice cannot supply God with something he lacks.

Also read Genesis 1:28-30, Genesis 1:11-12, Psalm 104:24, Genesis 8:17

Will I eat the meat of bulls,or drink the blood of goats?

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.Pay your vows to the Most High.

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

After saying he needs no bulls or goats, God names the offering he does want: thanksgiving. Paying vows means keeping the promises that were made to him. Verse 15 adds the invitation to call on God in the day of trouble. The KJV reads offer unto God thanksgiving.

Also read Psalm 69:30-31, Deuteronomy 23:21, Leviticus 27:2-34, Psalm 50:23

Call on me in the day of trouble.I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Here is what God does want. Call on him in the day of trouble, and he will deliver, and the person delivered will honour him. With verse 14, it replaces the idea of feeding God with asking and thanking.

Also read Psalm 66:13-20, Psalm 22:23, Psalm 107:6-13, Psalm 34:3-4

But to the wicked God says,“What right do you have to declare my statutes,that you have taken my covenant on your lips,

But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

The speech turns to the wicked. God asks what right they have to declare his statutes and take his covenant on their lips. The problem is not their knowledge of God's words but how they live.

Also read 1 Corinthians 9:27, John 4:24, 2 Peter 2:15, Isaiah 29:13

since you hate instruction,and throw my words behind you?

Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

Also read 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Proverbs 1:7, 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, Proverbs 1:28-29

When you saw a thief, you consented with him,and have participated with adulterers.

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

Also read Proverbs 1:10-19, Leviticus 20:10, Micah 7:3, Jeremiah 5:8-9

“You give your mouth to evil.Your tongue frames deceit.

Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

Also read Jeremiah 9:5, Psalm 52:2-4, Hosea 4:2, Psalm 10:7

You sit and speak against your brother.You slander your own mother’s son.

Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.

Also read Revelation 12:10, 1 Timothy 3:11, Matthew 5:11, Matthew 10:21

You have done these things, and I kept silent.You thought that I was just like you.I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

God speaks of his earlier silence. The wicked took it to mean he was just like them. Now he will rebuke them and lay out the charge in front of their eyes.

Also read 2 Peter 3:9, Isaiah 26:10, Psalm 94:7-11, Psalm 73:11

“Now consider this, you who forget God,lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

A direct warning follows to those who forget God. They are told to consider this, or he will tear them in pieces with no one to deliver. It is the sharpest line in the psalm.

Also read Ezekiel 18:28, Jeremiah 2:32, Haggai 1:5, Hosea 13:8

Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

The last verse returns to thanksgiving. Whoever offers it glorifies God and prepares a way to see his salvation. The psalm closes on an open way forward rather than on the threat of verse 22.

Also read Psalm 85:13, Romans 15:9, Psalm 25:14, Psalm 91:16