Ps. 50.21 (the cup is now full)

“You / have done these things / but I kept silent! – You thought / that I / was surely like you! – I will / reprove you / and accuse you / to your face.” The previous verse indicated that the wicked perform their acts ‘continuously’. Here, God is seen to engage in a similar behavior—he “keeps silent”. The wicked interpret this silence as God’s consent to their actions (‘You thought that I was surely like you’), or that he was limited in some way to stop them. However, the point of these two ‘continuous’ behaviors is precisely the opposite. Whereas the wicked would perform their deeds in perpetuity, God’s silence is about to come to an end. His ‘silence’ has not been consent but patience. We know this precisely because of the fact that the psalm opened with the line, “Our God comes and will not be silent!” This is followed by God’s emergence surrounded in flame and tempest, traditional images of judgment and destruction. There is another level to this as well. As we have seen the overriding concern of God’s as to the wicked is in how they approach speech. As to God’s speech, they display contempt for it: “what right have you to recite my statutes, and to take my covenant upon your lips.” Indeed, they actively despise God’s words: “you have hated instruction” and “cast my words behind you”. As to wicked speech, they surrender themselves to it and perpetuate it (vs. 20). What we see here is that the wicked’s approach to speech is absolutely tainted, and spans the entire spectrum of deviance from hypocrisy and hatred of God’s words to active speaking words of slander. It is, perhaps, because they have conquered all forms of wickedness that their time for judgment is now full and ripe. God has patiently endured their behavior until they filled the cup entirely. That time of patience is now at an end. And whereas the wicked saw God’s patience as mimicking their ‘continuous’ wickedness, they have come to realize differently and the cup they filled is about to be poured out on their heads; and they will have no one to defend them from the deluge. The reproof God does not level against his devotees (vs. 8) is now about to be unleashed upon the wicked. The righteous are taught; the wicked are patiently endured. At this point the holy terror of the opening section is about to be unleashed on the wicked: the God of flame and tempest who calls upon the created order to witness this covenant ceremony is ready to stand forth and hold the wicked to account. “I will reprove you and accuse you to your face.” The judge (vs. 6) is about to pronounce judgment. It will be as direct as he had previously been silent.