Psalm 50
The Lord our God, the Mighty One, has spoken
: and summoned the earth, from the rising of the sun
to its setting in the west.
From Zion, perfect in beauty
: God has shone out in glory.
Our God is coming, he will not keep silent
: before him is devouring fire, and tempest whirls about him.
He calls to the heavens above
: and to the earth, so he may judge his people.
‘Gather to me my faithful ones
: those who by sacrifice made a covenant with me.’
The heavens shall proclaim his righteousness
: for God himself is judge.
‘Listen my people, and I will speak
: O Israel, I am God your God, and I will give my testimony.
‘It is not for your sacrifices that I reprove you
: for your burnt-offerings are always before me.
‘I will take no bull from your farms
: or he-goat from your pens.
‘For all the beasts of the forest belong to me
: and so do the cattle upon the mountains.
‘I know all the birds of the air
: and the grasshoppers of the field are in my sight.
‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you
: for the whole world is mine, and all that is in it.
‘Do I eat the flesh of bulls
: or drink the blood of goats?
‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
: and pay your vows to the Most High.
‘Call upon me in the day of trouble
: I will bring you out, and you shall glorify me.’
But God says to the wicked
: ‘What have you to do with reciting my laws,
or taking my covenant on your lips,
‘Seeing you loathe discipline
: and have tossed my words behind you?
‘When you saw a thief, you went along with him
: and you threw in your lot with adulterers.
‘You have loosed your mouth in evil
: and your tongue strings lies together.
‘You sit and speak against your brother
: and slander your own mother’s son.
‘These things you have done, and I held my tongue
: and you thought I was just such another as yourself.
‘But I will convict you
: and set before your eyes what you have done.
‘O consider this, you who forget God
: lest I tear you in pieces, and there be no one to save you.
‘He honours me who brings sacrifice of thanksgiving
: and to him who keeps to my way
I will show the salvation of God.’