Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 50:3

3. Our God shall come , and shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him .

These Words are used here, as they are also, Heb. 12. 29. emphatically. The Prophet speaks this in the Person of the Israelites and Worshippers of God, whereof he was one, and thereby takes off their [illegible: 1+ letters]ond Pretence, as if because God was their God, in Covenant with them, and nearly related to them, by Abraham his Friend for ever, he would bear with their Miscarriages, and would not deal so severely with them, as some fancied; which also was their Conceit, Ier. 7. 4. &c. Mat. 3. 9, 10. No, saith he, though he be our God, yet he will come to execute Judgment upon us.

Either, 1. From Heaven, his dwelling place, to Zion, to sit in Judgment there. Or, 2. Out of Zion, to some other place, as was said on v. 2.

So the Sence is he will no longer forbear, or Connive at the Hypocrisie and Profaneness, of the Professors of the true Religion, but will now speak to them in his Wrath, and will effectually reprove and Chastite them. But because the Psalmist is not now describing what God did, or would say against them, which he doth below, v. 7. &c. but as yet continues in his Description, of the Preparation or coming of the Judge to his Throne, it seems more Proper to translate the Words, as some do, he will not cease, (for this Verb signifies not onely a Cestation from Speech, but from Motion or Action, as it doth, 2 Sam. 19 11. Psal 83. 1. Isa. 42. 14, 15.) (i. e.) Not neglect or delay to come. So here is the same thing expressed, both Affirmatively and Negatively (as is frequent in Scripture, whereof divers instances have been formerly given) for the greater assurance of the Truth of the thing.

This is a farther Description of that terrible Majesty, wherewith God clothed himself, when he came to his Tribunal in token of that just severity, which he would use in his Proceedings with them. He alludes to the manner of Gods appearance at Sinai, Exod. 19. and intimates to them, that, although Zion was a place of Grace and Blessing to all true Israelites, yet God would be as dreadful there, to the Hypocrites among them, as ever he was at Sinai. See Isa. 33. 14.

Marginal references: Psal. 97. [illegible: 1+ letters].