Psalm 52–54

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!

A Prayer for Protection from Enemies^+p

54 Save me by your power, O God;

set me free by your might!

²Hear my prayer, O God;

listen to my words!

³Proud men are coming to attack me;

cruel men are trying to kill me—

men who do not care about God.

⁴But God is my helper.

The Lord is my defender.

⁵May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.

He will destroy them because he is faithful.

⁶I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;

I will give you thanks

because you are good.

⁷You have rescued me from all my troubles,

and I have seen my enemies defeated.