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The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
Psalms 50:6 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.
  • BSB And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah
  • NKJV Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge. Selah
  • NASB And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is judge. Selah
  • NLT Then let the heavens proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the judge. Interlude

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The heavens proclaim God's righteousness, for He Himself is Judge. His verdict is perfectly just.

Overview

Heaven declares God's righteousness because God personally presides as Judge—there is no higher court. The 'Selah' invites reflection on the certainty and justice of His judgment. That the Judge of all the earth does right gives believers both warning and comfort, for the same righteous Judge is their Redeemer in Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 13

  • Ps 97:6The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.
  • Ps 89:5The heavens will praise your wonders, Yahweh; your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
  • Ps 75:7But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.
  • Rev 19:2for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”
  • Rom 14:9–12For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
  • Ps 9:16Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.
  • Rev 20:11–12I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
  • Gen 18:25Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
  • Ps 7:3–5Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
  • 2 Cor 5:10For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
  • Rom 2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
  • John 5:22–23For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
  • Rev 16:5–7I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, you Holy One, because you have judged these things.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 50:6YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 50:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.