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Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.
Psalms 50:7 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your 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 81:8Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
  • Exod 20:2I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  • Jer 2:9Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
  • Exod 19:5–6Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
  • Ps 81:10–12I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
  • Mal 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
  • Zech 13:9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
  • Deut 26:17–18Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:
  • 2 Kgs 17:13Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye 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 49:1Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
  • 2 Chr 28:5Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
  • Jer 2:4–5Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
  • Ezek 20:19–20I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
  • Ezek 20:7Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
  • Deut 31:19–21Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it 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 say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;
  • Neh 9:29–30And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
  • 1 Sam 12:22–25For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
  • Mic 6:1–8Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
  • Isa 1:18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: 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.