to be right (i.e. correct) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
sacrifices
זְ֭בָחֶיךָZe.va.chei.kha
H2077
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
offerings
וְעוֹלֹתֶ֖יךָve.'o.lo.Tei.kha
H5930
a step or (collectively · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
continually
תָמִֽידta.Mid
H8548
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Hebrews 10:4-10 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Isaiah 1:11-31 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed be…
Psalms 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Psalms 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Jeremiah 7:21-23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 50:7-15
God is here dealing with those that placed all their religion in the observances of the ceremonial law, and thought those sufficient.
I. He lays down the original contract between him and Israel, in which they had avouched him to be their God, and he them to be his people, and so both parties were agreed (Psa 50:7): Hear, O my people! and I will speak. Note, It is justly expected that whatever others doe, when he speaks, his people should give ear; who will, if they do not? And then we may comfortably expect that God will speak to us when we are ready to hear what he says; even when he testifies against us in the rebukes and threatenings of his word and providences we must be forward to hear…
However scrupulous in external worship, it was offered as if they conferred an obligation in giving God His own, and with a degrading view of Him as needing it [Psa 50:9-13]. Reproving them for such foolish and blasphemous notions, He teaches them to offer, or literally, "sacrifice," thanksgiving, and pay, or perform, their vows--that is, to bring, with the external symbolical service, the homage of the heart, and faith, penitence, and love. To this is added an invitation to seek, and a promise to afford, all needed help in trouble.
John Gill on Psalms 50:8
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices,.... For the neglect of them; this they were not chargeable with; and had they omitted them, a charge would not have been brought against them on that account, since these were not what God commanded when he brought them out of Egypt, Jeremiah 7:22; and were now abrogated; and when they were in force, acts of mercy, kindness, and beneficence, were preferred unto them, Hosea 6:6;
or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me; or, "for thy burnt offerings are continually before me" (u); so far were they from being reprovable for not bringing their sacrifices, that they were continually offering up before the Lord even multitudes of them,…
I do not accuse you of neglect of sacrifices, he is saying: you offer them continually; rather, I urge you not to confine righteousness to them.
What He requireth of man, let us see; what tribute our God, our Emperor and our King doth enjoin us; since He hath willed to be our King, and hath willed us to be His province? Let us hear His injunctions. Let not a poor man tremble beneath the injunction of God: what God enjoineth to be given to Himself, He doth Himself first give that enjoineth: be ye only devoted. God doth not exact what He hath not given, and to all men hath given what He doth exact. For what doth He exact? Let us hear now: "I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices" [Psalm 50:8]. I will not say to thee, Wherefore hast thou not slain for me a fat bull? why hast thou not selected the best he-goat from thy flock? Wherefore doth that ram amble among thy sheep, and is not laid upon mine altar? I will not say, Examine thy fields and thy pen and thy walls, seeking what thou mayest give Me. "I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices."
On this score the other inspired authors leveled their accusations, remember, that they had bypassed the more important element of virtue and were resting their hope of salvation in these things.… Yet many are the words spoken about sacrifices, whereas the law about them was passed not because his wish was preeminently for such things but because he was showing considerateness for their limitations.… God should be worshiped, after all, not with fumes and smells but with an impeccable lifestyle, not bodily but of the mind. The demons of the foreigners were not inclined this way, however; rather, they even looked for these things. A poet of the Greeks even seems to be suggesting as much in saying, "It is by the will of the gods, you see, we obtain this portion." But our God is not like that: whereas those gods thirsted for human blood and in their desire to lead them into this bloodguiltiness constantly made such demands, our God by contrast wanted to remove them gradually even from the slaughter of brute beasts and so employed this considerateness in allowing sacrifices so as to abolish sacrifices.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Asaph — Convener, or collector. (1.) A Levite; one of the leaders of David’s choir (1 Chr. 6:39). Psalms 50 and 73-83 inclusive are attributed to him. He is mentioned along with David as skilled in music,…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Burnt Offering, The · Incapable of removing sin, and reconciling to God — Incapable of removing sin, and reconciling to God
Offerings · Unacceptable, without gratitude — Unacceptable, without gratitude
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Psalms 50:6-13
Psalm 50:6-13
6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Selah. 7. Hear, O my people! and I will speak; O Israel! and I will announce to thee: I am God, even thy God. 8. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, and thy burnt offerings are continually before me. 9. I will take no calf out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. 10. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. 11. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are at my command. 12. If I am hungry, I will not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, [246] and drink the blood…
Exposition of the sacrificial Tra for the good of those whose holiness consists in outward works. The forms strengthened by ah, in Psa 50:7, describe God's earnest desire to have Israel for willing hearers as being quite as strong as His desire to speak and to bear witness. העיד בּ, obtestari aliquem, to come forward as witness, either solemnly assuring, or, as here and in the Psalm of Asaph, Psa 81:9, earnestly warning and punishing (cf. Arab. šahida with b, to bear witness against any one). On the Dagesh forte conjunctive in בּך, vid., Ges. ֗20, 2, a. He who is speaking has a right thus to stand face to face with Israel, for he is Elohim, the God of Israel - by which designation reference…
The psalmist delivers a message against those who regard the sacrificial rituals as more important than having a proper heart attitude.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 50:8
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been ever before me. Though they had not failed in maintaining his outward worship, or even if they had, he was not about to call them to account for this: a more weighty matter was now under consideration. They thought the daily sacrifices and the abounding burnt offerings to be everything: he counted them nothing if the inner sacrifice of heart devotion had been neglected. What was greatest with them was least with God. It is even so today. Sacraments (so called) and sacred rites are them main concern with unconve…
