This psalm purports to be a "psalm of Asaph." This is the first of the psalms ascribed to him. twelve in all are attributed to him, namely, Ps. 50; 73-83. Asaph was a Levite, a son of Berachiah, 1-Chronicles 6:39; 1-Chronicles 15:17. He was eminent as a musician, Nehemiah 12:46; 1-Chronicles 16:7, and was appointed by "the chief of the Levites," at the command of David, with two others, Heman and Ethan, to preside over a part of the sacred choral services of public worship, 1-Chronicles 15:16-19. They had charge particularly of the worship as conducted with "cymbals of brass," 1-Chronicles 15:19. The "sons of Asaph" are afterward mentioned among the choristers of the temple 1-Chronicles 25:1-2; 2-Chronicles 20:14; 2-Chronicles 29:13; Ezra 2:41; Ezra 3:10; Nehemiah 7:44; Nehemiah 11:22; and this office appears to have been hereditary in his family, 1-Chronicles 25:1-2. Asaph was celebrated in after times as a prophet and a poet, 2-Chronicles 29:30; Nehemiah 12:46. The title, rendered in the margin, "for Asaph," "may" mean either that the psalm was composed "by" Asaph himself, or that it was composed especially "for" him, by David or by someone else, and that it was committed to him to be set to music, or to be sung by that band of musicians over which he was appointed to preside. Compare the notes at the title to Psalm 42:1-11. The presumption is, that it was composed "by" Asaph, as this is the most natural explanation of the title, and as there is nothing in the circumstances of the case to render this improbable.
Of the "occasion" on which the psalm was composed we have no information. There is nothing in the title to indicate this, nor is there anything in the psalm itself which would connect it with any known events in the Jewish history. There are no local allusions, there are no names mentioned, there are no circumstances referred to, which enable us to determine the time of its composition.
The "object" of the psalm seems to be to set forth "the value and importance of spiritual religion as compared with a mere religion of forms." It is one among numerous portions of the Old Testament which show that the Jewish religion "contemplated" and "required" spirituality in its worshippers, and that it was not designed to be merely formal. There was, indeed, great tendency among the Jewish people to rely on the forms of religion, and it must be admitted that there was not a little in their modes of worship which went to foster this unless there was constant vigilance on the part of the worshipper, and on the part of the public teachers of religion. At the time when this psalm was composed, it would seem that there was a general reliance on the mere ceremonies of public worship; that much of the spirituality of religion had vanished; and that under the forms of religion, and connected with a decent and even scrupulous attention to them, there was a great, if not general, prevalence, of moral corruption among the people. See Psalm 50:16-21.
In the composition of the psalm, therefore, the author represents a scene of solemn judgment; describes God as coming with pomp, and amidst fire and tempests, to pronounce a sentence on man; and then, as in his presence, and as amidst these solemn scenes, shows what will be found to be true piety; what will meet with theapprobation, and what will incur the disapprobation, of God.
The psalm may be regarded as composed of the following parts.
I. A solemn representation of the scenes of judgment; of God as coming to judge his professed people, assembling together those who had avowed themselves to be his friends, and who had pledged themselves to be his amidst the solemn scenes of sacrifice, Psalm 50:1-6.
In this part of the psalm there are the following things:
(a) A general summons to the world, from the rising to the setting sun, Psalm 50:1.
(b) The statement that the great principles on which all would be determined would proceed out of Zion, or would be such as were inculcated there in the worship of God, Psalm 50:2.
(c) A description of God as coming to judgment amidst fire and tempest, Psalm 50:3.
(d) A general call to the heavens and the earth, that His people might be summoned from all quarters with reference to the final sentence, Psalm 50:4-5.
(e) A statement that perfect justice would be done, which the very heavens would reveal, for that God was himself the judge, Psalm 50:6.
II. A declaration of the great principles on which the judgment would proceed, and by which the issue would be determined. It would not be by an observance of the mere external forms of devotion, but by spiritual religion; by a sincere worship of God; by a holy life, Ps. 50:7-23.
This portion of the psalm is divided into two parts: the "first," showing that it is not by mere outward forms that acceptance can be found with God, but that there must be, under these forms, pure and spiritual religion, Psalm 50:7-15; and the "second," that the wicked cannot hope to meet with the favor of God, though they do observe these forms, Psalm 50:16-23.
First. It is not by mere external forms that acceptance can be found with God, Psalm 50:7-15.
(a) A statement of the fact, and of the grounds of the fact, that God will testify against them, Psalm 50:7-8.
(b) The mere offering of sacrifices cannot be acceptable to Him. He does not "need" their sacrifices, as all the beasts of the world are His, Psalm 50:9-13.
(c) Only praise - spiritual worship - humble trust in him - can be admitted as true righteousness; as that which will be acceptable to him, Psalm 50:14-15.
Second. The wicked cannot be accepted and approved though they do observe the forms of religion, Psalm 50:16-23.
(a) Such men, though in the priestly office, cannot be regarded as appointed by God to declare his will, or to represent him on earth, Psalm 50:16-17,
(b) A description of the actual conduct of many of those who professed to be His friend; who were rigid in their observances of the external forms of religion, and who were even in the priestly office, Psalm 50:18-21.
(c) As before Psalm 50:14-15; only the righteous - the spiritually minded - the upright - can in such a solemn trial meet with the approbation of God, Psalm 50:22-23.
This psalm, therefore, is one of the most instructive portions of the Old Testament, as setting forth the necessity of spiritual religion, and the fact that a mere observance of forms can never constitute that righteousness which will make people acceptable to God.

God, the Sovereign Judge, cites before his throne all his people, and the priests and the judges, Psalm 50:1-6; and reproaches them for their vain confidence in the sacrifices they had offered, Psalm 50:7-13; and shows them the worship he requires, Psalm 50:14, Psalm 50:15; and then enters into a particular detail of their hypocrisy, injustice, and union with scandalous transgressors; all of whom he threatens with heavy judwments, Psalm 50:16-22. The blessedrusss of him who worships God aright, and walks unblamably, Psalm 50:23.
In the title this is said to be A Psalm of Asaph. There are twelve that go under his name; and most probably he was author of each, for he was of high repute in the days of David, and is mentioned second to him as a composer of psalms: Moreover Hezekiah the king, and the princes, commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord, with the WordS of David, and of Asaph the Seer. His band, sons or companions, were also eminent in the days of David, as we learn from 1-Chronicles 25, etc. Asaph himself was one of the musicians who sounded with cymbals of brass, 1-Chronicles 15:19. And he is mentioned with great respect, Nehemiah 12:46 : And in the days of David and Asaph of old there were Chief of the Singers, and Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving unto God. He was certainly a prophetic man: he is called a seer - one on whom the Spirit of God rested; and seems from this, his education, and natural talent to be well qualified to compose hymns or psaims in the honor of God. Persons capable of judging, on a comparison of those Psalm attributed to Asaph with those known to be of David, have found a remarkable difference in the style. The style of David is more polished, flowing, correct, and majestic, than that of Asaph, which is more stiff and obscure. He has been compared to Persius and to Horace; he is keen, full of reprehensions, and his subjects are generally of the doleful kind; which was probably caused by his living in times in which there was great corruption of manners, and much of the displeasure of God either theatened or manifested. It is not known on what particular occasion this Psalm was written; but at most times it was suitable to the state of the Jewish Church.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 50
A Psalm of Asaph. This psalm is called a psalm of Asaph; either because it was composed by him under divine inspiration, since he was a prophet and a seer, 1-Chronicles 25:2; or because it was delivered to him to be sung in public service, he being a chief musician; see 1-Chronicles 16:7; and so it may be rendered, "a psalm for Asaph"; or "unto Asaph" (o); which was directed, sent, and delivered to him, and might be written by David; and, as Junius thinks, after the angel had appeared to him, and he was directed where he should build an altar to the Lord, 1-Chronicles 21:18. The Targum, Kimchi, and R. Obadiah Gaon, interpret this psalm of the day of judgment; and Jarchi takes it to be a prophecy of the future redemption by their expected Messiah; and indeed it does refer to the times of the Gospel dispensation; for it treats of the calling of the Gentiles, of the abrogation of legal sacrifices, and of the controversy the Lord would have with the Jews for retaining them, and rejecting pure, spiritual, and evangelical worship.
(o) "ipsi Asaph", Tigurine version, Vatablus; "Asapho", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.

(Psalm 50:1-6) The glory of God.
(Psalm 50:7-15) Sacrifices to be changed for prayers.
(Psalm 50:16-23) Sincere obedience required.

Divine Discourse concerning the True Sacrifice and Worship
With the preceding Psalm the series of the Korahitic Elohim-Psalm of the primary collection (Psalm 1:1) closes. There are, reckoning Psalm 42:1-11 and Psalm 43:1-5 as one Psalm, seven of them (Psalm 42:1). They form the principal group of the Korahitic Psalm, to which the third book furnishes a supplement, bearing in part an Elohimic (Psalm 84:1-12) and in part a Jehovic impress (Psalm 85:1-13; Ps 87:1-88:18). The Asaphic Psalm, on the contrary, belong exclusively to the Elohimic style of Psalm, but do not, however, all stand together: the principal group of them is to be found in the third book (Psalm 73:1), and the primary collection contains only one of them, viz., Ps 50, which is here placed immediately after Ps 49 on account of several points of mutual relationship, and more especially because the prominent Hear then, My people (Psalm 50:7), is in accord with the beginning of Ps 49, Hear, all ye peoples.
According to 1-Chronicles 23:2-5, the whole of the thirty-eight thousand Levites were divided by David into four divisions (24,000 + 6000 + 4000 + 4000). To the fourth division (4000) was assigned the music belonging to divine worship. Out of this division, however, a select company of two hundred and eighty-eight singers was further singled out, and divided into twenty-four classes. These last were placed under three leaders or precentors (Sangmeister), viz., fourteen classes under Heman the Kehathite and this fourteen sons; four classes under Asaph the Gersonite and his four sons; and six classes under Ethan (Jeduthun) and his six sons (1 Chr. 25, cf. Psalm 15:1-5 :17ff.). The instruments played by these three leaders, which they made use of on account of their clear, penetrating sound, were the cymbals (1-Chronicles 15:19). Also in 1-Chronicles 16:5, where Asaph is described as the chief (הראשׁ) of the sacred music in the tent where the Ark was placed, he strikes the cymbals. That he was the chief, first leader, cannot be affirmed. The usual order of the names if "Heman, Asaph, and Ethan." The same order is also observed in the genealogies of the three in 1 Chron 6:16-32. Heman takes the prominent place, and at his right hand stands Asaph, and on his left Ethan. History bears witness to the fact that Asaph was also a Psalm-writer. For, according to 2-Chronicles 29:30, Hezekiah brought "the words of David and of Asaph the seer" into use again in the service of the house of God. And in the Book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 12:46, David and Asaph are placed side by side as ראשׁי המּשׁררים in the days of old in Israel.
The twelve Psalm bearing the inscription לאסף are all Elohimic. The name of God יהוה does not occur at all in two (Ps 77, Psalm 82:1-8), and in the rest only once, or at the most twice. Side by side with אלהים, אדני and אל are used as favourite names, and especial preference is also given to עליון. Of compounded names of God, אל אלהים והוה (only besides in Joshua 22:22) in the Psalter, and אלהים צבאות in the Old Testament Scriptures generally (vid., Symbolae, pp. 14-16), are exclusively peculiar to them. So far as concerns their contents, they are distinguished from the Korahitic Psalm by their prophetically judicial character. As in the prophets, God is frequently introduced as speaking; and we meet with detailed prophetical pictures of the appearing of God the Judge, together with somewhat long judicial addresses (Ps 50; Psalm 75:1-10; Psalm 82:1-8). The appellation החזה, which Asaph bears in 2-Chronicles 29:30, accords with this; notwithstanding the chronicler also applies the same epithet to both the other precentors. The ground of this, as with נבּא, which is used by the chronicler of the singing and playing of instruments in the service of the house of God, is to be found in the intimate connection between the sacred lyric and prophecy as a whole. The future visionary character of the Asaphic Psalm has its reverse side in the historical past. We frequently meet with descriptive retrospective glances at facts of the primeval history (Psalm 74:13-15; Psalm 77:15., Psalm 80:9-12; Psalm 81:5-8; Psalm 83:10-12), and Ps 78 is entirely taken up with holding up the mirror of the ancient history of the nation to the people of the present. If we read the twelve Psalm of Asaph in order one after the other, we shall, moreover, observe this striking characteristic, that mention is made of Joseph and the tribes descended from him more frequently than anywhere else (Psalm 77:16; Psalm 78:9, Psalm 78:67., Psalm 81:6; Psalm 80:2.). Nor is another feature less remarkable, viz., that the mutual relationship of Jahve to Israel is set forth under the figure of the shepherd and his flock rather than any other (Psalm 74:1; 77:21; Psalm 78:52, Psalm 78:70-72; Psalm 79:13; Psalm 80:2). Moreover these Psalm delight in other respects to vary the designations for the people of God as much as possible.
In Ps 50, Psalm 73:1, we have before us a peculiar type of Psalm. The inscription לאסף has, so to speak, deep-lying internal grounds in its support. But it does not follow from this inscription that all these Psalm were composed by the aged Asaph, who, as Psalm 78:69 shows, lived until the early part of Solomon's reign. The outward marks peculiar to Asaph were continued in his posterity even into the period after the Exile. History mentions Asaphites under Jehoshaphat (2-Chronicles 20:14), under Hezekiah (2-Chronicles 29:13), and among the exiles who returned (Ezra 2:41, cf. Ezra 3:10, one hundred and twenty-eight Asaphites; Nehemiah 7:44, cf. Nehemiah 11:22, a hundred and forty-eight of them). Since down to the period after the Exile even the cymbals (מצלתּים) descended to them from their ancestor, the poetic talent and enthusiasm may also have been hereditary among them. The later "Psalm of Asaph," whether composed by later Asaphites or some other person, are inscribed לאסף because, by whomsoever, they are composed in the style of Asaph and after Asaphic models. Ps 50, however, is an original Psalm of Asaph.
After the manner of the prophets the twofold truth is here advanced, that God has no delight in animal sacrifice without the sacrifice of prayer in which the heart is engaged, and that the confession of His word without a life that accords with His word is an abomination to Him. It is the very same fundamental thought which is expressed in Psalm 40:7-9; Psalm 69:31., Psalm 51:18., and underlies Psalm 24:1-10 (Psalm 1:1) and Psalm 15:1; they are all echoes of the grand utterance of Samuel (1-Samuel 15:22), the father of the poetry of the Psalm. It cannot surprise one that stress is laid on this denunciation of a heartless service of works by so many voices during the Davidic age. The nothingness of the opus operatum is also later on the watchword of the prophets in times when religious observances, well ordered and in accordance with legal prescription, predominate in Judah. Nor should it seem strange that Asaph the Levite, who was appointed to the sanctuary on Zion, expresses himself thus; for Jeremiah was also a Levite and even a priest (cohen), and yet no one has spoken a bolder, and more cutting word against the outward and formal service of sacrifice than he (Jeremiah 7:22.). Both these objections being removed, there is nothing else that stands in the way of our ascribing this Psalm to Asaph himself. This is favoured by echoes of the Psalm in the prophets (cf. Psalm 50:2 with Lamentations 2:15, and the verse-ending Psalm 50:8, Psalm 38:18, with Isaiah 49:16), and there is nothing opposed to it in the form of the language.