Psalm 52–55

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.

The Prayer of a Man Betrayed by a Friend^q

55 Hear my prayer, O God;

don’t turn away from my plea!

²Listen to me and answer me;

I am worn out by my worries.

³I am terrified by the threats of my enemies,

crushed by the oppression of the wicked.

They bring trouble on me;

they are angry with me and hate me.

⁴I am terrified,

and the terrors of death crush me.

⁵I am gripped by fear and trembling;

I am overcome with horror.

⁶I wish I had wings, like a dove.

I would fly away and find rest.

⁷I would fly far away

and make my home in the desert.

⁸I would quickly find myself a shelter

from the raging wind and the storm.

⁹Confuse the speech of my enemies, O Lord!

I see violence and riots in the city,

¹⁰surrounding it day and night, filling it with crime and trouble.

¹¹There is destruction everywhere;

the streets are full of oppression and fraud.

¹²If it were an enemy that mocked me,

I could endure it;

if it were an opponent boasting over me,

I could hide myself from him.

¹³But it is you, my companion,

my colleague and close friend.

¹⁴We had intimate talks with each other

and worshipped together in the Temple.

¹⁵May my enemies die before their time;

may they go down alive into the world of the dead!

Evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

¹⁶But I call to the Lord God for help,

and he will save me.

¹⁷Morning, noon, and night

my complaints and groans go up to him,

and he will hear my voice.

¹⁸He will bring me safely back

from the battles that I fight

against so many enemies.

¹⁹God, who has ruled from eternity,

will hear me and defeat them;

for they refuse to change,

and they do not fear him.

²⁰My former companion attacked his friends;

he broke his promises.

²¹His words were smoother than cream,

but there was hatred in his heart;

his words were as soothing as oil,

but they cut like sharp swords.

²²Leave your troubles with the Lord,

and he will defend you;

he never lets honest people be defeated.

²³But you, O God, will bring those murderers and liars to their graves

before half their life is over.

As for me, I will trust in you.