Psalms 50:5

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,

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

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, ; 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, , &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.

Psalms 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, John 15:2; have a name to live, but are dead, Revelation 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] But were never brought by me into the bond of the covenant; for then the rebels would have been purged out from among them, as it is Ezekiel 20:37-38.

(5) My saints.—This verse is of great importance, as containing a formal definition of the word chasîdîm, 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.

5. Gather &c.] To whom is the command addressed? Perhaps to the angels who are God’s ministers of judgement (Matthew 24:31), and by whom He appears attended (Deuteronomy 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. Isaiah 13:2). my saints] The word châsîd 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 (Psalms 79:2; Isaiah 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 châsîd 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 (Exodus 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 (Exodus 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.

Gather my saints together unto me - This is an address to the messengers employed for assembling those who are to be judged.

5. Gather my saints— “My saints” are here defined as those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. This “covenant” is recorded Exodus 24:7-8; comp. Hebrews 9:19-20.