God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹The Mighty One, God the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to its setting.

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God shines forth.

³Our God comes; he does not keep silence;1

before him is a devouring fire,

around him a mighty tempest.

⁴He calls to the heavens above

and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

⁵“Gather to me my faithful ones,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

⁶The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge! Selah

⁷“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;

O Israel, I will testify against you.

I am God, your God.

⁸Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

your burnt offerings are continually before me.

⁹I will not accept a bull from your house

or goats from your folds.

¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine,

the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know all the birds of the hills,

and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹²“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and its fullness are mine.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,2

and perform your vows to the Most High,

¹⁵and call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked God says:

“What right have you to recite my statutes

or take my covenant on your lips?

¹⁷For you hate discipline,

and you cast my words behind you.

¹⁸If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,

and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹“You give your mouth free rein for evil,

and your tongue frames deceit.

²⁰You sit and speak against your brother;

you slander your own mother's son.

²¹These things you have done, and I have been silent;

you thought that I3 was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

²²“Mark this, then, you who forget God,

lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

²³The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

to one who orders his way rightly

I will show the salvation of God!”