My Notes
What Does Psalms 50:17 Mean?
God speaks directly to the wicked person and makes a specific accusation: you hate instruction and you cast my words behind you. The image is physical — taking God's words and literally throwing them over your shoulder, behind your back, where you can't see them and don't have to deal with them.
"Hatest instruction" (musar — discipline, correction, education) means the person isn't just ignoring God's teaching — they actively despise it. They don't want to be corrected. They don't want to learn. The idea of being taught by God is offensive to them.
The combination is devastating: hating correction while disposing of God's words. This isn't a person struggling with obedience. It's a person who has decided they don't want God's input. They've heard the words and deliberately positioned them where they can't be seen.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Is there a word from God you've been 'casting behind you' — deliberately positioning where you don't have to see it?
- 2.What's the difference between struggling with obedience and hating instruction?
- 3.How do you respond to correction — with openness or with resistance?
- 4.What would it look like to pick up the word you've thrown behind you and face it honestly?
Devotional
You took God's words and threw them behind you. You know them. You've heard them. And you positioned them deliberately where you wouldn't have to look at them.
That's not ignorance. That's intention. The person God is addressing has received instruction and rejected it — not out of confusion, but out of hostility. They hate being corrected. They despise being taught. The very idea that God has something to say about how they live is offensive to them.
This is different from struggling with obedience. Struggling means you want to obey and can't always manage it. Hating instruction means you've decided you don't want to be told anything. You've heard God's words and you've cast them behind you — literally put them where you can't see them.
We do this more subtly than we realize. The Bible passage that convicts you — you skim past it. The sermon that hits too close — you dismiss the preacher. The friend who tells you the truth — you distance yourself. Each act is a quiet version of casting God's words behind you.
Is there a word from God you've been pushing behind your back? Something you've heard, understood, and deliberately ignored because following it would cost too much?
The words are still there. Behind you. But they haven't disappeared.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him,.... Or "didst run with him" (a); joined and agreed with him in…
Seeing thou hatest instruction - That is, He is unwilling himself to be taught. He will not learn the true nature of…
God, by the psalmist, having instructed his people in the right way of worshipping him and keeping up their communion…
instruction Or, correction; the whole discipline of moral education; a word occurring here only in the Psalter, but…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture