Psalm 51–53

A Prayer for Forgiveness^+l

51 Be merciful to me, O God,

because of your constant love.

Because of your great mercy

wipe away my sins!

²Wash away all my evil

and make me clean from my sin!

³I recognize my faults;

I am always conscious of my sins.

^4*I have sinned against you—only against you—

and done what you consider evil.

So you are right in judging me;

you are justified in condemning me.

⁵I have been evil from the day I was born;

from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

⁶Sincerity and truth are what you require;

fill my mind with your wisdom.

⁷Remove my sin, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;

and though you have crushed me and broken me,

I will be happy once again.

⁹Close your eyes to my sins

and wipe out all my evil.

¹⁰Create a pure heart in me, O God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

¹¹Do not banish me from your presence;

do not take your holy spirit away from me.

¹²Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you.

¹³Then I will teach sinners your commands,

and they will turn back to you.

¹⁴Spare my life, O God, and save me,^m

and I will gladly proclaim your righteousness.

¹⁵Help me to speak, Lord,

and I will praise you.

¹⁶You do not want sacrifices,

or I would offer them;

you are not pleased with burnt offerings.

¹⁷My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;

you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.

¹⁸O God, be kind to Zion and help her;

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifices

and with our burnt offerings;

and bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.

God’s Judgement and Grace⁺ⁿ

52 Why do you boast, great one, of your evil?

God’s faithfulness is eternal.

²You make plans to ruin others;

your tongue is like a sharp razor.

You are always inventing lies.

³You love evil more than good

and falsehood more than truth.

⁴You love to hurt people with your words, you liar!

⁵So God will ruin you for ever;

he will take hold of you and snatch you from your home;

he will remove you from the world of the living.

⁶Righteous people will see this and be afraid;

then they will laugh at you and say,

⁷“Look, here is someone who did not depend on God for safety,

but trusted instead in his great wealth

and looked for security in being wicked.”

⁸But I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God;

I trust in his constant love for ever and ever.

⁹I will always thank you, God, for what you have done;

in the presence of your people

I will proclaim that you are good.

The Wickedness of Men

^o

53^* Fools say to themselves,

“There is no God.”

They are all corrupt,

and they have done terrible things;

there is no one who does what is right.

^2*God looks down from heaven at the human race

to see if there are any who are wise,

any who worship him.

^3*But they have all turned away;

they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right,

not a single one.

⁴“Don’t they know?” God asks.

“Are these evildoers ignorant?

They live by robbing my people,

and they never pray to me.”

⁵But then they will be terrified,

as they have never been before,

for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people.

God has rejected them,

and so Israel will totally defeat them.

⁶How I pray that victory

will come to Israel from Zion.

How happy the people of Israel will be

when God makes them prosperous again!