Psalms 50:22
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Study Note
Study Note
God's warning to those who forget him — 'lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver' — uses the imagery of a lion's fatal ambush to convey the danger of sustained covenant neglect. Psalm 50 is a covenant lawsuit (rib) in which God summons heaven and earth as witnesses (50:4) to hear his case against a people who offer sacrifices but ignore ethics and relationship. The sharp contrast between God as 'refuge' for those who order their way rightly (50:23) and God as predator against those who forget him illustrates that divine grace cannot be presumed upon indefinitely. Hebrews 10:31 ('it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God') echoes this psalm's theology of divine wrath.
Other Translations
Now consider this, ye that forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver:
Understand this, I pray you, Ye who are forgetting God, Lest I tear, and there is no deliverer.
Now keep this in mind, you who have no memory of God, for fear that you may be crushed under my hand, with no one to give you help:
Cross References
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one …
And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and …
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall …