Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 50:5
Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
5. Gather &c.] To whom is the command addressed? Perhaps to the angels who are God’s ministers of judgement (Mat 24:31), and by whom He appears attended (Deu 33:2); less probably to heaven and earth, which according to the analogy of the parallel passages, are summoned as witnesses. But perhaps no definite reference at all is intended, and no particular messengers are in the Psalmist’s mind (cp. Isa 13:2).
my saints ] The word chsd denotes those who are the objects of Jehovah’s chesed or lovingkindness. ‘saint,’ like ‘servant,’ as applied to Israel, expresses the relation in which Jehovah has placed the nation towards Himself, without necessarily implying that its character corresponds to its calling (Psa 79:2; Isa 42:19). The indictment against many of the Israelites is that their conduct towards their fellow-men is entirely destitute of that ‘lovingkindness’ which ought to reflect the lovingkindness of Jehovah towards them. On the word chsd see Appendix, Note i.
those that have made &c.] Or, those that make &c. The reference is not merely to the original ratification of the covenant with the nation at Sinai (Exo 24:5 ff.), but to the recognition and maintenance of it by each fresh generation with repeated sacrifices. The previous line refers (in the word ‘saints’) to the divine grace which is the originating cause of the covenant with Israel, this line to the human act which acknowledges that grace and the obligations which it entails. It has been thought strange that the Ps. which depreciates sacrifice should recognise it as the sanction of the covenant, and it has been suggested that these words are merely ‘ironical.’ It is however impossible to regard them as merely ironical. Though the Decalogue contained no command to offer sacrifice, the primitive institution of sacrifice was sanctioned and regulated by the Book of the Covenant (Exo 20:24 ff). Sacrifice had its divinely appointed place in the economy of the old Covenant, though not that which formal and hypocritical worshippers imagined. It could not be a substitute for devotion and morality; but its abuse did not abrogate its use. See Oehler’s O.T. Theology, 201.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gather my saints together unto me – This is an address to the messengers employed for assembling those who are to be judged. Similar language is used by the Saviour Mat 24:31 : And he (the Son of Man) shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. The idea is, that God will bring them, or assemble them together. All this is language derived froth the notion of a universal judgment, as if the scattered people of God were thus gathered together by special messengers sent out for this purpose. The word saints here refers to those who are truly his people. The object – the purpose – of the judgment is to assemble in heaven those who are sincerely his friends; or, as the Saviour expresses it Mat 24:31, his elect. Yet in order to this, or in order to determine who are his true people, there will be a larger gathering – an assembling of all the dwellers on the earth.
Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice – Exo 24:6-7. Compare the notes at Heb 9:19-22. The idea here is, that they are the professed people of God; that they have entered into a solemn covenant-relation to him, or have bound themselves in the most solemn manner to be his; that they have done this in connection with the sacrifices which accompany their worship; that they have brought their sacrifices or bloody offerings as a pledge that they mean to be his, and will be his. Over these solemn sacrifices made to him, they have bound themselves to be the Lords; and the purpose of the judgment now is, to determine whether this was sincere, and whether they have been faithful to their vows. As applied to professed believers under the Christian system, the idea here presented would be, that the vow to be the Lords has been made over the body and blood of the Redeemer once offered as a sacrifice, and that by partaking of the memorials of that sacrifice they have entered into a solemn covenant to be his. Nothing more solemn can be conceived than a covenant or pledge entered into in such a manner; and yet nothing is more painfully certain than that the process of a judgment will be necessary to determine in what cases it is genuine, for the mere outward act, no matter how solemn, does not of necessity decide the question whether he who performs it will enter into heaven.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 50:5
Gather My saints together unto Me.
The doctrine of a general judgment and of a final retribution is a doctrine of pure revelation, and is found both in the Old Testament and in the New. But before this judgment shall be issued the command given in our text.
I. The characters here described–My saints. How we become saints.
1. By Divine choice.
2. By a Divine change which is the necessary consequence of this choice.
3. Their character is evidenced by their Divine conduct, and–
4. By Divine consecration.
II. The command issued. Gather, etc. Now, God does this–
1. In their conversion.
2. In public worship.
3. In times of danger.
4. In the service of His Church, and–
5. In death and at the Resurrection. (J. Sibree.)
Gather My saints together unto Me
1. What an expressive word–My saints! How the Lord appropriates them as His own! (Mal 3:17).
2. Gather My saints. He shall gather the lambs in His arms. He shall gather them as a shepherd his sheep in the hour of weakness and danger. They shall not be weak or nervous then. The frail body shall be dropped for ever.
3. Gather My saints together. It is the family meeting; it is the grand reunion; it is the glad assembly. We shall not rise to meet the Lord individually–in isolation; we shall be gathered together. What heart does not bound at the thought!
4. Unto Me. What would that meeting be without Jesus? What is any meeting without Him? (F. Whitfield, M. A.)
The gathering of Christs saints
It is the Son of God who is the speaker in this psalm, which tells of His first advent at Jerusalem, and then of His second coming to take vengeance on the disobedient. In that second coming we all shall be deeply interested. Let us think how it will fare with us on that day. Our text refers to it. Consider–
I. The characters described.
1. They are Christs saints. We are to be a holy people, without blame before Him in love. How is it with us?
2. They have entered into covenant with God. Abraham (Gen 15:9, etc.; Jer 34:18). See also Noahs sacrifice. And so Gods saints now covenant with God through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The command respecting them.
1. They will be gathered together. They are not so now.
2. They will be gathered unto Christ. Gather . . . unto Me. How blessed this prospect.
III. Inferences.
1. The duty of Christs ministers–to gather together saints, from sin and the world, by the preaching of the Gospel. Nothing compensates if this be left undone.
2. The privileges of Christs people. Eternal life in heaven is yours. (C. Clayton, M. A.)
Christs order for the gathering of His saints
This psalm certainly relates to the coming of Christ for judgment (Psa 50:8). Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. But whether to His first coming, to abolish the ceremonial law, set up the simple Gospel-worship, and to judge, condemn, and take vengeance on the formal, superstitious Jews, destroying their temple, and ruining their kingdom; or to His second coming to judge the world, is a question. I think it is plain it relates to both, the former as an emblem, pledge and type of the other; and thus we find them stated by our Saviour Himself (Mat 24:1-51.).
1. We have the party in whose name the court is called and held. It is in the name of the Holy Trinity, Hebrews God! God! Jehovah; He hath spoken, etc. God will judge the world by the man Christ.
2. The issuing out of the summons to the whole world, called the earth from the rising of the sun, unto the going down thereof; from east to west, from the one end to the other.
3. From whence the Judge sets forth, making His glorious appearance. At the giving of the law He came from Sinai with terrible majesty (Deu 33:2). At this His appearance He will come from Zion, the city of the living God, namely, from heaven, the Church being so called as a heaven on earth.
4. His awful coming to the judgment. He is God, as well as man. Devouring fire shall be his harbinger (2Th 1:8). But will any then bid Him welcome? Yes, His people will.
5. Whither the summons shall be directed. To the heavens, where the souls of the blessed are that are dead; to the earth, where the living are, good and bad, and where the bodies of the dead are (Rev 20:13).
6. A special gracious order in favour of His people. See text. Now comes the time of setting all to rights with them. And they are further characterized as those that have made a covenant, etc.
From all which we gather these doctrines–
1. When Christ comes again to put an end to this world, and complete the state of the other world, He will publicly own the saints as His own, and they shall be honourably gathered to Him by His order.
2. When Christ comes again, this earth will be very throng, and a wonderful mixture will be in it more than ever at any time before; He having called to heaven, and the other receptacle of departed souls, and brought them all back to their bodies which are in the earth.
3. When Christ comes again He will put an end to this world ere He go. His very first appearance will put an end to the business of it. All trades, employments, and diversions in this world will end for ever. And, ere He leave it, He will put an end to itself by setting it on fire; so that it shall no more be capable of affording a habitation to man or beast; while withal the heavens that cover it shall pass away (2Pe 3:10).
4. Saintship will be the only mark of distinction among men then. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The final saintly gathering
I. Here is the character of good men.
1. They are saints. By this expression, My saints, God claims a property in them, and expresseth His care of them and love to them.
2. They have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. They have taken Him to be their God, their ruler and portion; and given up all dependence upon other objects.
II. The command. Let it be thy care, O my soul! I have the honour and happiness to be gathered with His people; and to have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. This is the main thing; the source of my chief joy. I bless God that I am gathered with His saints, and united to His Church; and that I do not live in the total or general neglect of this sacred institution. I am willing and thankful to be laid under the most solemn engagements to be the Lords, and often to recollect and renew them. I know that my treacherous heart needs every tie, to bind it more closely to God and its duty. I would come, deeply humbled for past violations of my engagements, and with the renewed exercises of repentance and faith. Lord, I come, to join myself to Thee in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten; with a believing regard to Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice, here set forth, as crucified before my eyes. Let us remember what is said of this gathering. They shall all be gathered from all places, the most obscure and the most remote; and brought to the presence of their covenant-God and Father, who will applaud and reward their fidelity. (Job Orton, D. D.)
A covenant with God
The psalmists idea of God, as herein expressed, is broad and spiritual, and indicates high spiritual development. It is an ennobling one for man. To have a covenant with God, to be partner with Him in a bond, is to make us, to a certain extent, equal with Him. Covenant-making is one of the earliest instincts in man, and intrinsically one of the noblest. The bargain-making spirit is not necessarily a low one, nor a selfish one, nor a worldly one. We have degraded it by our use of it, by our desire to over-reach, to get the better of our neighbours in our bargains. The first condition of existence is the establishing of relationship between self, and that which is outside self. During the early years of our life we are largely dependent on others for the fulfilling of that condition for us. When we grow older we realize that for a rich and full and strong life we still are dependent on others, but as they in their turn are also dependent on us, we make covenants with them to fix and regulate the mutual help which we are prepared to render and receive. This covenant-making denotes the recognition, conscious or unconscious, of the incapacity of our own resources to satisfy our own needs and desires. But it indicates also that the true nature of man is not that little portion which he has within himself, but is that great nature, of which each one of us has in himself but a little share. And such is the nature of man, that with all his own resources, and all he can draw from others, he is left still unsatisfied. He craves for a yet fuller life, to be filled out of the infinite nature. This leads us to think of the nature of the covenant between God and man, involving the duty of man. Our part of the agreement is that we sacrifice to God. The only true sacrifice is the one which is prompted by love. Love and sacrifice are a twin growth, and each loses its purity when severed from the other. The act of sacrifice is contemplated oftentimes when we are still in the enjoyment of comfort and peace and light, but the sacrifice itself is carried out when all our comfort has declined, when our peace has been turned into maddest strife, and when the light by which we entered the narrow path of self-surrender has been turned into a darkness deep as death. If we love God, we shall delight in every sacrifice which is a manifestation of love, and we shall rejoice to offer our dearest and best gifts to Him. In poverty and weakness we may now make such offering, but it will continue to complete itself. And, at last, as the righteous will of man gains the final victory, as it unites itself in entire acquiescence with the all-righteous will of God, sacrifice will at once be perfected and abolished, immersed in one infinite ocean of joy and love. What we are vitally concerned to know about God is that He is perfectly just, and true, and loving. And this we can never learn from any revelation to our outward senses, but by quick prophetic insight, by the intuition of the Spirit. When we realize that God and man are one in a covenant of eternal life, we shall have incentive sufficient and worthy for all noble effort; for we ourselves shall have then become sons of God. (A. H. Moncur Syme.)
The necessity of sacrifice
The history of sacrifice is as old as the history of sin; the idea of sacrifice much older. It is part of the inmost counsels of God. It finds its corresponding utterance, with differing degrees of clearness and truth, through all that is holiest, noblest, and most personal of all Gods creation. Time, study, thought, enter into every work of art that earns any real fame and perhaps it is not too much to say that no painters creation, no sculptors reproduction of all but life, no burning words of eloquence, no minstrels strain, no poets dream, no work of art, ever really touches the heart, kindles deep feeling, directs motives, or influences conduct, if it does not bear on or below its surface the evidence of labour, of travail, of self-devotion, of self-dedication, self-absorption in the object of beauty or of power. And only in proportion as those who look, or admire, or criticize, or are captivated, know the real principles of what they gaze upon, or estimate the suffering they cost, does the popular opinion approximate the true. And hence it is that Gods judgment, and Gods opinion of people and acts, differ so often and so terribly from ours. He knows on what grounds His professing servants claim to have a covenant with Him: in what manner they act up to their claim. But God is gathering together those with whom He has made a covenant by sacrifice. And why? For judgment. God is judge Himself. He has a heavy charge against them. They are His. They have made a covenant with Him. But herein is their sin. The first awful charge against them is opened thus: I am God, even thy God. The only sacrifice they had made had cost them nothing. And this day again God speaks. Again out of Zion bath God appeared in perfect beauty; but it is not the beauty of the world; it is in the beauty of holiness expressed in sacrifice. He gathers His saints together unto Him; lifted up from the earth upon the Cross, He draws all men unto Him. Standing before the Cross, gathered before God, can we compare our lives with that life of sacrifice? Can we say that we have really rendered to Him that which He knows it is a sacrifice to us to give? (G. C. Harris, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal; which is poetically spoken; not as if they were actually to do so, but only to continue the metaphor and representation of the judgment here mentioned.
My saints; the delinquents, the Israelites, whom he calls saints; partly, because they were all by profession a holy people, as they are called, Deu 14:2; partly, by an irony, intimating how unworthy they were of that name; and partly, as an argument or evidence against them, because God had chosen and separated them from all the nations of the earth, to be a holy and peculiar people to himself, and they also had solemnly and frequently consecrated and devoted themselves to God, and to his faithful service; all which did greatly aggravate their present apostacy.
Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, i.e. which have entered into covenant with me, and have ratified that covenant with me by sacrifice, not only in their parents, Exo 24:4, &c., but also in their own persons from time to time, even as oft as they offer sacrifices to me. This clause seems to be added here, to acquaint them with the proper nature, use, and end of sacrifices, which were principally appointed to be signs and seals of the covenant made between God and his people; and consequently to convince them of their great mistake and wickedness in trusting to their outward sacrifices, when they neglect the very life and soul of them, which was the keeping of their covenant with God; and withal to diminish that overweaning conceit which they had of sacrifices, and to prepare the way for the abolition of them, as being only necessary to confirm the covenant; which being once for all confirmed by the blood of Christ, they might without any inconvenience be laid aside and abrogated.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. my saints (Ps4:3).
madeliterally, “cut”
a covenant, c.alludingto the dividing of a victim of sacrifice, by which covenants wereratified, the parties passing between the divided portions (compareGen 15:10 Gen 15:18).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Gather my saints together unto me,…. These words are spoken by Christ to the heavens and the earth; that is, to the angels, the ministers of the Gospel, to gather in, by the ministry of the word, his elect ones among the Gentiles; see Mt 24:30; called his “saints”, who had an interest in his favour and lovingkindness, and were sanctified or set apart for his service and glory;
those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice; or, “who have made my covenant by, or on sacrifice” s; the covenant of grace, which was made with Christ from everlasting, and which was confirmed by his blood and sacrifice; this his people may be said to make with God in him, he being their head, surety, and representative: now these covenant ones he will have gathered in to himself by the effectual calling, which is usually done by the ministry of the word; for this is not to be understood of the gathering of all nations to him, before him as a Judge; but of his special people to him as a Saviour, the “Shiloh”, to whom the gathering of the people was to be, Ge 49:10.
s So Pagninus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) My saints.This verse is of great importance, as containing a formal definition of the word chasdm, and so a direction as to its interpretation wherever it occurs in the Hebrew hymn book. The saints are those in the covenant, and that covenant was ratified by sacrifices. As often, then, as a sacrifice was offered by an Israelite, it was a witness to the existence of the covenant, and we are not to gather, therefore, from this psalm that outward acts of sacrifice were annulled by the higher spirit taught in it; they were merely subordinated to their proper place, and those who thought more of the rites that bore testimony to the covenant than of the moral duties which the covenant enjoined, are those censured in this part of the psalm.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Gather my saints “My saints” are here defined as those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. This “covenant” is recorded Exo 24:7-8; comp. Heb 9:19-20. It was national, solemn, perpetual, sealed in blood, and comprehended all of God’s revealed will, and now God is to judge whether they have fulfilled it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 50:5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
Ver. 5. Gather my saints together unto me ] This seemeth to be spoken to the angels, those active instrumeuts and executioners of God’s judgments. By saints here understand professors at large, all that live in the bosom of the Church visible, and partake of the external privileges only; such as are in the vine, but bear no fruit, Joh 15:2 ; have a name to live, but are dead, Rev 3:1 ; such as whose sanctity consisteth only in covenanting by sacrifice. Basil saith that such are called saints to aggravate their sins; as a man that hath an honourable title, but hath done wickedly; and is, therefore, the rather to be condemned. When one pleaded once with a judge for his life, that he might not be hanged, because he was a gentleman, he told him that therefore he should have the gallows made higher for him.
Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gather = Gather in.
saints = those who have found favour with God. Compare Mat 24:29-31.
by sacrifice. Compare Exo 24:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gather: Mat 24:31, 1Th 4:16, 1Th 4:17, 2Th 2:1
my saints: Psa 97:10, Deu 33:2, Deu 33:3, Pro 2:8, Isa 13:3, Zec 14:5, 1Co 6:2, 1Co 6:3, 1Th 3:13, Jud 1:14
made: Exo 24:3-8, Mat 26:28, Heb 9:10-23, Heb 12:24, Heb 13:20
Reciprocal: Gen 15:9 – General Deu 7:6 – an holy Job 14:15 – shalt call Psa 20:1 – hear Psa 85:8 – unto his Isa 61:8 – I will make Heb 12:23 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 50:5-6. Gather my saints, &c. O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal. Which is poetically spoken, to continue the metaphor and representation of the judgment here mentioned. My saints The Israelites, whom he calls saints; 1st, Because they were all by profession a holy people, as they are called in Deu 14:2; Deuteronomy , , 2 d, As an argument and evidence against them, because God had chosen and separated them from all the nations of the earth, to be a holy and peculiar people to himself, and they also had solemnly and frequently devoted themselves to God and his service; all which did greatly aggravate the guilt of their present apostacy. Those that have made a covenant with me, &c. Who have entered into covenant with me, and have ratified that covenant with me by sacrifice Not only in their parents, Exo 24:4, &c., but also in their own persons from time to time, even as often as they have offered sacrifices to me. This seems to be added, to acquaint them with the proper nature, use, and end of sacrifices, which were principally appointed to be signs and seals of the covenant made between God and his people; and consequently to convince them of their great mistake in trusting to their outward sacrifices, when they neglected the very life and soul of them, which was the keeping of their covenant with God: and withal to diminish that too high opinion which they had of sacrifices, and to prepare the way for the abolition of them. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness Which they were called to witness, Psa 50:4, as was the earth also; but here he mentions the heavens only, probably, because they were the most impartial and considerable witnesses in the case. For men upon earth might be false witnesses, either through ignorance and mistake, or through prejudice, partiality, and passion; but the angels understand things more thoroughly, and are so exactly pure and sinless, that they neither can nor will bear false witness for God; and therefore their testimony is more valuable. Or, the meaning is, that God would convince the people of his righteousness, and of their own wickedness, by thunders and lightnings, and storms, or other dreadful signs wrought by him in the heavens. For God is judge himself In his own person. God will not now reprove them by his priests or prophets, but in an extraordinary manner from heaven.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
50:5 Gather my {f} saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by {g} sacrifice.
(f) God in respect to his elect calls the whole body holy, saints and his people.
(g) Who should know that sacrifices are sealed by the covenant between God and his people, and not set religion in it.