18 When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him, And hast been partaker with adulterers.
If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman, And I have laid wait at my neighbor's door; Then let my wife grind unto another, And let others bow down upon her. For that were a heinous crime; Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:
My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit; We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil; Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird: And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words; That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God: For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead; None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
For the man is not at home; He is gone a long journey: He hath taken a bag of money with him; He will come home at the full moon. With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along. He goeth after her straightway, As an ox goeth to the slaughter, Or as `one in' fetters to the correction of the fool; Till an arrow strike through his liver; As a bird hasteth to the snare, And knoweth not that it is for his life.
They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 50
Commentary on Psalms 50 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 50
This psalm, as the former, is a psalm of instruction, not of prayer or praise; it is a psalm of reproof and admonition, in singing which we are to teach and admonish one another. In the foregoing psalm, after a general demand of attention, God by his prophet deals (v. 3) with the children of this world, to convince them of their sin and folly in setting their hearts upon the wealth of this world; in this psalm, after a like preface, he deals with those that were, in profession, the church's children, to convince them of their sin and folly in placing their religion in ritual services, while they neglected practical godliness; and this is as sure a way to ruin as the other. This psalm is intended,
These instructions and admonitions we must take to ourselves, and give to one another, in singing this psalm.
A psalm of Asaph.
Psa 50:1-6
It is probable that Asaph was not only the chief musician, who was to put a tune to this psalm, but that he was himself the penman of it; for we read that in Hezekiah's time they praised God in the words of David and of Asaph the seer, 2 Chr. 29:30. Here is,
Psa 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.
Psa 50:16-23
God, by the psalmist, having instructed his people in the right way of worshipping him and keeping up their communion with him, here directs his speech to the wicked, to hypocrites, whether they were such as professed the Jewish or the Christian religion: hypocrisy is wickedness for which God will judge. Observe here,