Psalm 49–51

Psalm 49

¹A psalm for Asaph.

The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken: and he hath called the earth. From the rising of the sun, to the going down thereof:

²Out of Sion the loveliness of his beauty.

³God shall come manifestly: our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before him: and a mighty tempest shall be round about him.

⁴He shall call heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people.

⁵Gather ye together his saints to him: who set his covenant before sacrifices.

⁶And the heavens shall declare his justice: for God is judge.

⁷Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God, thy God.

⁸I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices: and thy burnt offerings are always in my sight.

⁹I will not take calves out of thy house: nor he goats out of thy flocks.

¹⁰For all the beasts of the woods are mine: the cattle on the hills, and the oxen.

¹¹I know all the fowls of the air: and with me is the beauty of the field.

¹²If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

¹³Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks? or shall I drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer to God the sacrifice of praise: and pay thy vows to the most High.

¹⁵And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

¹⁶But to the sinner God hath said: Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth?

¹⁷Seeing thou hast hated discipline: and hast cast my words behind thee.

¹⁸If thou didst see a thief thou didst run with him: and with adulterers thou hast been a partaker.

¹⁹Thy mouth hath abounded with evil, and thy tongue framed deceits.

²⁰Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother’s son:

²¹These things hast thou done, and I was silent. Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face.

²²Understand these things, you that forget God; lest he snatch you away, and there be none to deliver you.

²³The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will shew him the salvation of God.

Psalm 50

¹Unto the end, a psalm of David, ²When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had sinned with Bethsabee.

³Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.

⁴Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

⁵For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.

⁶To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words, and mayst overcome when thou art judged.

⁷For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me.

⁸For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.

⁹Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

¹⁰To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.

¹¹Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹²Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels.

¹³Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

¹⁴Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.

¹⁵I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.

¹⁶Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall extol thy justice.

¹⁷O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: and my mouth shall declare thy praise.

¹⁸For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.

¹⁹A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

²⁰Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

²¹Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.

Psalm 51

¹Unto the end, understanding for David, ²When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul: David went to the house of Achimelech.

³Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity?

⁴All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit.

⁵Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness.

⁶Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue.

⁷Therefore will God destroy thee for ever: he will pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling place: and thy root out of the land of the living.

⁸The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say:

⁹Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches: and prevailed in his vanity.

¹⁰But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever.

¹¹I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name, for it is good in the sight of thy saints.