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“Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
Psalms 50:7 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.
  • BSB “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God.
  • NKJV “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God!
  • NASB ¶“Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God.
  • NLT “O my people, listen as I speak. Here are my charges against you, O Israel: I am God, your God!

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

God speaks directly to His people, testifying against them as 'your God.' His rebuke flows from covenant relationship, not estrangement.

Overview

God formally addresses Israel, asserting His covenant claim—'I am God, your God'—before delivering His charge. The relationship is real, which is precisely why their failures matter. The verses that follow correct a misunderstanding of worship, not the existence of the covenant itself.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 20

  • Ps 81:8“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
  • Exod 20:2“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • Jer 2:9“Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
  • Exod 19:5–6Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
  • Ps 81:10–12I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
  • Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
  • Zech 13:9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
  • Deut 26:17–18You have declared today that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.
  • 2 Kgs 17:13Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
  • Ps 49:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,
  • 2 Chr 28:5Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.
  • Jer 2:4–5Hear Yahweh’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!
  • Ezek 20:19–20I am Yahweh your God. Walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them;
  • Ezek 20:7I said to them, ‘Each of you throw away the abominations of his eyes, and don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’
  • Deut 31:19–21“Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
  • Ezek 20:5and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, ‘I am Yahweh your God;’
  • Neh 9:29–30and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.
  • 1 Sam 12:22–25For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people for himself.
  • Mic 6:1–8Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.
  • Isa 1:18“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

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 50:7YouTube · 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 50:7 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.