Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Psalm 50 (NRSV)

Read Psalm 50 on biblegateway.com

Verse ¹The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Verse ²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Verse ³Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.

Verse ⁴He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

Verse ⁵"Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!"

Verse ⁶The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah

Verse ⁷"Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.

Verse ⁸Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.

Verse ⁹I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.

Verse ¹⁰For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

Verse ¹¹I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.

Verse ¹²"If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.

Verse ¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

Verse ¹⁴Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.

Verse ¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

Verse ¹⁶But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?

Verse ¹⁷For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.

Verse ¹⁸You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers.

Verse ¹⁹"You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.

Verse ²⁰You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother's child.

Verse ²¹These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

Verse ²²"Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.

Verse ²³Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God."